A BRAND NEW LANGUAGE
Writer Luke Davies Explores the Virtual Universe
Luke Davies:
"Writer, Poet, Award Winning Screenwriter." ///////////////////////////////////////
July 8, 2017
In order to tell compelling immersive stories, we are going to need talented and brave writers willing to explore the medium. It’s the only way a new narrative language will be created. And it’s for this reason we were thrilled to hear that acclaimed writer Luke Davies is venturing into the virtual universe and collaborating on a simulation with our visionary friends Milica Zec and Winslow Porter (Giant, Tree).
"The really good VR experiences, as we move into them, and they get better and better, are going to be poetic but in a non verbal way. So they are going to be sensual, animal, poetic transcendence."
Davies is a renowned poet, novelist and screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film Candy starring Heath Ledger which was based on his autobiographical novel of the same name which documented his youthful struggles with heroin addiction. He has published several acclaimed books of poetry and won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism for his essay The Penalty Is Death documenting the lives of accused Australian drug runners on Bali’s death row. Most recently Davies was nominated for an Academy Award for his poetic and profoundly moving screenplay for the 2017 film Lion.
Our interview with Davies is both fascinating and delightfully provocative. The conversation moves fluidly from philosophical musings on the nature of existence - whether life is merely a simulation, can we live longer if we ask - to the influence of poetry on his acclaimed screenplay for Lion, and what the future of the written word might look like. All of it transpires at the Los Angeles compound Davies shares with some other noted Australian filmmakers and actors with the feint call of wild parrots flying above in the background. Please enjoy.
"There's so many exciting questions. I just want to be a guy there at the beginning putting my hand up and saying can we talk about how emotional stories can begin to fit into this, because otherwise we are still at the sideshow level ."
Images (from top to bottom, left to right): 1. Script for Lion, 2. Lion, 3. Lion, 4. Lion, 5. Candy, 6. Candy, 7. Books by Davies, 8. Davies under water, super 8 film, 9. Davies at home, 10. Davies as a boy, 11. Davies with matches, 12. Page from Candy.