From filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov and inspired by the non-fiction best-seller In the Skin of a Jihadist, the Screenlife thriller Profile follows a British journalist (Valene Kane) who goes undercover to reel in and expose a terrorist recruiter (Shazad Latif) through social media, only to quickly find herself in over her head. As she experiences the recruitment process first-hand under an assumed social media persona, she gets sucked into the often very personal conversations that start to blur her real life with her online profile.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, director Bekmambetov talked about the Screenlife filmmaking style of having the story play out entirely on a computer screen, what he hopes to do with the format in the future, why the movie is so scary, and his desire to apply this format to films in different countries around the world. He also talked about the alien invasion movie he’s got with Ice Cubeand the sequel for Searching.
Collider: I was on the edge of my seat with this film and absolutely fascinated by how you approached it.
TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Was it your first Screenlife movie?
It wasn’t, but I feel like each one is different, in its approach.
BEKMAMBETOV: Every time, I think, “Okay, this is Screenlife.” And then, the next movie one hundred percent totally changes the style and aesthetic and the tools we’re using. Because it’s a new form, nobody has made movies like this before, so we are lucky that we can try things without being scared that somebody will tell us, “No, that’s not how you should do it.”
How does working in the format change all of the other departments, from editing to production design to set decoration to even the wardrobe and hair and make-up? Do you have to think about everything else that you’re doing, in a different way?
BEKMAMBETOV: It’s an organic process. I tell the story and the story takes place on a screen. The person is just the face. What now, you see me, but I’m just a part of the screen. The rest is your folders and your personal your world. To tell the story, like with any movie, there is a set of questions that you need to answer? How will this character fly in the space? What will he eat? How will he sleep? There is no gravity, so he needs to attach himself to the rope. There are very practical questions that you need to answer. And then, your story and your movie will be relatable and real and believable. I could imagine the journalist working in today’s world. It’s all about Skyping, searching, Googling, YouTube-ing, and trying to find content and trying to find people online, and multi-tasking. I can be in the middle of a conversation with you and somebody can send me a message, and I keep talking to you, but I’m reading what they want from me. There’s a specificity of today’s life, which we call Screenlife.
What do you hope to continue to be able to do, in the future, with this format? Have you thought about the kinds of stories you’re hoping to tell or that you could tell, or is it more just about reading a script that you think could be adapted to the format?
BEKMAMBETOV: First of all, I want more and more people to be attracted by this language. What I’m trying to do is share what we’ve already learned with other people, and this movie is also part of this process. The only way to connect to people is to show them. It doesn’t matter what you say, you have to show them. For myself, I have so many different ideas. I dream to make a fantasy in Screenlife and create screens with fantasy and magic and power, and the characters will have a power in the internet. I don’t know if they can go inside, but fantasy would be really interesting. I also want to develop the technology of this language. It’s only just beginning. In 500 years, there were only two cameras in Los Angeles, and they’re the same type. I’m trying to develop very necessary tools, like recorders and an editing system, specifically for the Screenlife format.
I don’t need a camera, but I need a screencast recorder, allowing me to record the screen, not as a bunch of pixels, but as a programming code, generating these images. I, for example, wanna do something to help me record in Screenlife, without me thinking about it. I push the button to record and it starts recording, but I know that it’s recording and I’m not myself. I know that there’s a camera capturing me. I want to record everything that I’m doing, because then I can pick what I need for Screenlife. There are a lot of technological tools that I need. We produce different movies. In the last few years, we produced Romeo & Juliet, which premiered at Sundance. It’s Shakespeare in a digital world. We’re producing a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic disaster movie with Ice Cube and Eva Longoria. We’re producing in Russia, in the United States, in South Korea, and in India now, which means I’m trying to apply this format to different languages. Screenlife in India is very different from Screenlife in Syria, which is very different from Screenlife in Japan, and Screenlife is totally different in China. It’ll be cool to travel, to see the exotic aspects of Screenlife. We are traveling to India to see the elephants and it’s interesting for me to make Screenlife movies with cultural and colorful elements.
What can you say about the sci-fi movie that you did with Ice Cube? How are you using the format for that?
BEKMAMBETOV: It’s an alien invasion movie with Ice Cube. When aliens invade us, they will probably try not to steal oil or our blood or our brain. They will try to steal something else, something more relevant.
Did you know how terrifying Profile would be, or did that evolve out of the type of story you were telling?
BEKMAMBETOV: It’s scary because it’s relatable. In the good scary movies, usually the story takes place in a very ordinary environment and it’s scary because you’ve been through this situation. I’m not talking about with terrorists. That’s just the trigger to set it up. The fear is because you know what it means when you cannot get the message and you’re getting messaged by a person you don’t know, or when you cannot remember your password. That’s what makes it scary. People who watch on a laptop try to push the button to stop it or to cancel the call to say, “No, don’t do it!”
It’s amazing how interactive it starts to feel, as you keep watching.
BEKMAMBETOV: I made this movie for people spending time in the digital space. It’s part of our lives. I don’t know how much time you spend on it, but today, I spent maybe 10 or 12 hours in front of the screen. All of the biggest events of my life are happening in the digital space. I’m contacting my wife and I’m talking to my friends and doing business, and it’s all on screen.
Searching was a real hit, and you’re set to do a sequel for that. The format was more experimental when that film came out, and now, the success of Searching has made it a bigger deal. How do you approach doing a sequel? Do you think about pushing things further?
BEKMAMBETOV: It’s an organic process. Our editors are the people who really made the movie, and they had an idea for the next take on it. It will not be exactly the same story, just the same language. I’m curious what it will be. It’s very important for Screenlife that, because the budgets are not a hundred million dollars, we have more freedom. We can try things because there are not so many cooks in the kitchen and because it’s not so expensive.
When are you hoping to release that film?
BEKMAMBETOV: We finished the shooting and now are in post-production. So hopefully soon.
I’m so curious to see what other things you’ll do with this Screenlife format because it feels so different with every genre.
BEKMAMBETOV: Yes, because Screenlife is a language. It’s a format, not a genre. You can do comedy, you can do sci-fi, you can do political thriller, you can do romance, and you can even do a musical. We’re producing a musical in Screenlife. It’s easy to tell a story in musical form in Screenlife. And by the way, we premiered at SXSW and are gonna release a Screenlife version of the Bible. It’s the Old Testament told in the Screenlife format.
Profile is now playing in theaters.