How MysteryGuitarMan from YouTube shot Arctic from Mads Mikkelsen

If you give a cookie to a mouse, he will ask for a glbad of milk. If you give an Oreo to a polar bear, she will smile on order.

When in doubt, the polar bear that Mads Mikkelsen faces in his new tragedy Arctic – which seduced the public at the Cannes Film Festival last year and which comes in theaters this weekend – is very real. The film, which follows a failed man named Overgård (Mikkelsen) who braves the Arctic, is a stunning portrait of survival that never overhangs the hand, is beautifully shot and is a perfect showcase for the talent of Mikkelsen, who is face to face with a real polar bear (she's called Agee).

Arctic is also the first feature film by screenwriter-director Joe Penna, who originally planned to attend a medical school to become a cardiothoracic surgeon before embarking on film. After realizing he wanted to work in a more creative field, he created a character on YouTube, MysteryGuitarMan, and dubbed the videos he produced in parallel. One of his most successful videos involved him in solving a Rubik's Cube.

"I was already doing YouTube when YouTube was a strange name, and people were wondering," What is that thing on YouTube? "" Penna told Polygon shortly before ArcticThe Liberation.

From there, Penna began to advertise, video clips, and eventually shorts. "I started making music videos too dramatic," he says with a laugh. "Finally, an artist came to see me after editing this long drama of 20 minutes. He was like, "Yes, that's cool, man. When does the music come on stage? 'And then I realized that I should rather make short films and not clutter my poor musicians with my tendency to tell stories.'

One of the resulting shorts was turning, which Penna describes as a proof of concept for Arctic. It's more of a science fiction bent is a nod to the fact that Arctic was originally originally intended to be placed in the space. "Frankly, I wanted the film to be on Mars, but because of The Martian, which came out shortly after writing the script, we had to tweak things, "recalls Penna. "The Arctic is the most desolate place on the planet and we needed to feel this desolation. For some reason, the Sahara Desert does not really feel alive so long. It does not leave you enough time to become an animal, to lose your humanity […] and that was the most important theme we wanted to explore: can you really be really human if you're alone? ". The film, initially titled On Mars, became Arctic.

Penna – whose YouTube channel now has more than 2 million subscribers – trusted Pixar WALL-E and Robert Bresson A man escaped for inspiration while co-writing the film with Ryan Morrison. The first was an example of telling a story without dialogue; the second, an exercise in trusting the public to bademble the pieces of the puzzle. "We never say where Overgård comes from, we never say how he crashed over there, what he was doing up there, who was with him," Penna points out. Arctic is. "The public creates this story in their head, and the story you create is better than the story I can create for you."

This scarcity, however, has caused problems in trying to finance the film. Among the comments received by Penna: "How are you not going to show the plane crash? You must show him that he is learning to fish, we will like this character. You must show him that he is trying to make fire, you must show him talking by himself. I need to know what's going on in his mind. It will be a boring film. But then the good producers – Chris Lemole, Tim Zajaros and Noah C. Haeussner – came, who, as Penna recalls, said, "You know what, none of that is necessary. You find the right actor and we are there. "

Helen Sloan / Bleecker Street

Mada Mikkelsen was the first person to speak to Penna and, coincidentally, they agreed. What had to be a brief call on Skype turned into a three-hour discussion when Penna and Mikkelsen dissected the entire storyline and Penna's storyboards. This back and forth took place directly in the rehearsal process – and even in filming – with Mikkelsen, Penna and Morrison, who continued to reduce the screenplay. "Sometimes, Mads said," You know what, this piece of dialogue, do you need it? "And I said," We do not need it, "Penna said," And then on the set, I said sometimes: "Mads, let's try the same scene, but do not say anything." And in 90% of the cases, we used the version where he did not say anything. "

The only case in which something has been added is, in fact, the polar bear. "At first, we were not going to do it," says Penna. "Much of the film – the whole movie, really – is taking Mads's point of view, and seeing the polar bear, we're breaking that point of view. Jaws: do not see it. But then, we wanted to add a little more show and I went on YouTube and I saw this guy [Mark Dumas] swimming with a polar bear and I told him, "I have to find this guy." It turns out he is a fan of Mads Mikkelsen, so he was quite willing to work with us. "

There was, however, a hitch. By programming, Mikkelsen was not available at the same time as Agee (ironically because he was gone PolarPenna himself was to act as a substitute for Mikkelsen. "[Mark] says: "You will have to be the one wearing the parka, and you will have to pretend to be scared." And I said, "I'm not going to have to pretend."

Fortunately, and at the risk of spoiling a bit of film magic, the effect of being only three feet from the bear was mitigated by the way Dumas had pushed Agee to roar. "She does not really roar," Penna admits. "[Mark] said, "Smile, smile!" And she opens her mouth wide. And he says, "Good girl, good bear," and she gets an Oreo cookie after that. He says he spends more on dental care than he does with Oreos. "

As for what comes next, Arctic is the first part of a trilogy "survival and altruism in very difficult situations". That is to say that the second film, titled Stowaway, is placed on a spacecraft directed towards Mars. ("I'm going to Mars one way or another!", Says Penna.) After an accident, the crew did not have enough oxygen so everyone could get to the planet red, the question of what to do weighed on the commander's head.

The big move that Toni Collette is supposed to play against the leader of the ship is an act that Penna had launched on Twitter a few days before the official announcement using only GIF reaction with the actress. When asked who else would go on Mars (Anna Kendrick was also announced, but a third mysterious crew member must also be chosen), Penna just said this: "C & # Is still secret, but keep an eye on Twitter. . "

Arctic is in theaters now.