The Electric State promised big adventures and even bigger action during a panel at New York Comic Con, which showcased Anthony and Joe Russo's latest Netflix film.
The footage and discussion with the creatives and cast – including Chris Pratt and Millie Bobbie Brown – were presented to an electrified crowd at the Empire Stage on Thursday, just hours after a new teaser trailer was released online.
The film will arrive on Netflix on March 16 and is a reimagining of Simon Stålenhag's graphic novel, which explores the battle between man and intelligent machine set in the 1990s.
Electrical state follows Michelle (Brown), a young woman with a sweet but mysterious robot who teams up with eccentric drifter Keats (Pratt) on a cross-country expedition to find her brother in a retro-futuristic United States, where an uneasy peace grows a war is later established between humans and artificial intelligence.
Joe, who jokingly shared that he's “burned out” with his current work schedule (which includes a couple of upcoming Avengers film), noted that he and Anthony began working on the project five years ago, and were pleased to reunite with some of them Avengers: Endgame collaborators, including Pratt, Anthony Mackie and writers Christopher Markus Stephen McFeely.
“It's a true passion project. We're very, very excited to bring it to the public. It is enormous in size. We love telling really big stories,” Joe said.
Pratt shared that before picking up the script, he “100 percent” planned to take a break, but being able to reunite with previous collaborators and the story hooked him.
“It's not the kind of movie that's usually made to become a blockbuster like this. It's so original, it's a huge swing,” Pratt explained. “I thought this kind of film might be my last opportunity to act in a big film like this. I have to consider every opportunity like that. And I did. It's a really great story. I was moved to tears reading it.
As for how the Russos approached this adaptation, Anthony highlighted the “fascinating” art of Stålenhag's graphic novel and compared the experience to adapting Marvel Comics properties for Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War AND End of games.
“We simply looked at the images and the story that unfolds in the graphic novel. It's very opaque. It's a little hard to understand. You understand it at times,” Anthony said. “You understand that behind what he tells you in the graphic novel there is a much larger world that you can only imagine.”
Part of the challenge was telling a story in a two-hour feature film rather than a larger graphic novel. “You have to be much more specific about storytelling, so we had a lot of fun, diving in and using his incredible artwork as inspiration to figure out what kind of story we can tell this world,” Anthony said.
Joe and Anthony emerged in the industry in TV shows such as Arrested development AND Community. Joe noticed that there are a lot of them Community-esque in the film, along with timely conversations and issues.
“Let's imagine the '90s where, in the late '50s, the Disney animatronics became sentient and then started demanding equal rights,” Joe said. “That's what, that's where the war breaks out. It chooses the 90s in a way that supports that narrative and supports the theme of the film.
Pratt added of the period: “It's the '90s that reflect our modern world.” A behind-the-scenes clip saw Pratt and Brown show off the various props and set pieces that speak to the film's '90s nostalgia such as Big Mouth Billy Bass, Cabbage Patch Kids, Barbies, VHS and Beanie Babies. He highlighted how the film will pay homage to the era, mixing technology and modern issues.
In terms of what the directors were trying to evoke, Joe noted that they took inspiration from '80s films by Amblin or Robert Zemeckis, along with Alan Silvestri's soundtracks, indicating Back to the future.
Later, Brown revealed that she had little preparation between filming this and another film, but she took time to think about what she wanted her “angsty teenager” character to evoke, sending photos of Drew Barrymore in the 1990s 90. “I had never done anything like this before,” Brown said. “It was very different. As an actor, it was a challenge for me… The Russos did a wonderful job of directing my trajectory… I kept coming back to the Russos, 'how do you want me to play this and that?' We really found it together.”
New footage showed Brown and Pratt's character being driven around in an old Volkswagen van by Herman, Keats' giant robot friend (voiced by Anthony Mackie). As Keats remembers why he has trust issues and how the two ended up meeting and saving each other in the robot wars, they come across a seemingly abandoned shopping mall. But they soon discover that it is not abandoned when they are attacked and accosted by a new robot after their van overturns.
After the clip, Joe talked about the backstory of the robot Herman and revealed more about the main roles that robots and humans will play in the film. “What's interesting about all the main characters in the movie is that they all have some trauma in their life that they're running away from,” he said. “They are all dropouts in their own way. Technology is really pervasive in the film, but none of them want to participate in it and they've found a way to escape it. Herman is a dropout. He abandoned the robot society. He doesn't participate… they live together off the grid and on the run from the law.
Brown and Pratt also talked about how working with motion capture and other technologies created fun challenges. “I'm very grateful to the Russos, but also to the actors and the mocap team who helped build the world so we didn't have to do most of the work,” Brown said.
In addition to Pratt and Brown, the film also stars Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Giancarlo Esposito and Woody Norman, with Woody Harrelson, Mackie, Brian Co and Jenny Slate lending their voices to the film's main robots. Discussing the film, the directors spoke The Electric Stateof the cast, addressing their love of ensembles.
“We're big fans of ensemble storytelling. You can see it in all of our work: our smaller films, our bigger films, our television work. We think it's because we come from a big Italian American family where there were a lot of people together in little rooms, talking loudly all the time,” Anthony said. “You just develop a sense of community and an appreciation for the variety of voices that contribute to your experience.”
To close the panel, Brown shared a heartfelt message about the importance of families having escapist films to watch, something the Russos touched on at the beginning of the panel. “It really takes you on a journey,” he said. “Escapism is huge, and I think it's so beautiful for families to have that moment where they're able to step out of this world that's so scary and into a world that's so transformative.”