Spiderhead’s writers explain the film’s Deadpool connection

Nothing about Netflix’s dark science fiction drama Spiderhead immediately, obviously advertises it as “from the writers of Deadpool And Deadpool 2.” The film, based on George Saunders’ grim 2010 short story Spiderhead: Escape, stars Chris Hemsworth (the MCU’s ThorSteve Abnesti (left) is a semi-willing prisoner who was being tested with exotic drugs in high-tech Spiderhead prison. Jeff (Miles Teller), and Lizzy, (Jurnee Slolett) both have regrets but stay with the program. Spiderhead feels more like an island resort than a traditional jail. They are also guinea-pigs for a variety of bizarre experiments. There isn’t a lot of Deadpool-style banter, laughs, or violence.

Paul Wernick (screenwriter) and Rhettreese (screenwriter), have longtime partners in writing on projects such as the Zombieland. movies, 6 Underground, Your Life, G.I. Joe: RetaliationThe movie, as well as the two Deadpool movies (with one more on its way), SpiderheadThis was my passion project. “The New Yorker and Condé Nast were looking to exploit the material in their magazine so that they don’t go the way of the dinosaurs,” Wernick tells Polygon. “We immediately fell in love with it.” Maverick is the Top GunJoe Kosinski, director, was ultimately hired as the project’s director. The film is now available on Netflix.

Talk to the writers team about what Spiderhead And Deadpool meet, why writing a sci-fi drama was only slightly different from writing a comic action movie, and what Chris Hemsworth does every night in Wernick’s dreams.

This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.

Image by Netflix

Polygon: One of the two little details that really stood out to me in this movie was Chris Hemsworth’s little solo dance in his room. Is that scripted or not?

Paul Wernick It was out of our wildest fantasies that we began to dance. We see Chris Hemsworth, a seductive and charming man when we close our eyes at nights.

Rhett Reese: [laughs]You can do so. I don’t necessarily dream about that every night. Chris did bring it in. The yacht-rock soundtrack we selected was the best, and Steve’s insane taste in music. This scene was perfect. [written] like, Oh yeah, he unwinds while he’s on his drug, listening to his music. Chris really ad-libbed that whole thing, and we think it’s going to be a total meme-slash-gif, him dancing, because it’s a great little dance. It’s so funny. He’s really good. And yet he’s just not good enough. You could buy it in the character — it’s not too good.

Wernick: You must stop. He’s plenty good.

Another standout feature was Jeff’s Etch A Sketch, which he uses to create or destroy art. How did this idea get started?

Reese: From way back, Etch A Sketch was part of the script. As a child, I loved my Etch A sketch. It was thematic and you could choose from many options. We loved it. [whisking noises] just redeem it, start over with a blank slate, which you can’t do in life. That was a nice idea. Jeff would very much like to shake up his life and start with a blank slate, and yet he can’t, so he does it through this Etch A Sketch. It was just what we thought was cool.

Is it different to write scripts for Zombieland and Deadpool?

Reese: To use a bad metaphor, it kind of feels like we’re doing a different exercise at the gym, but on the same muscles, to hit them from a different way. So it’s not that different, it’s sort of a half-step different. It’s just shades, right? It’s just shades. Oftentimes we’ll have violence and comedy mixed together, and yet heart and love. It seems like this fits into that category. It’s got a love story, it’s got real emotions. At times, it is funny, it’s just a little darker. So I guess it’s really up to the audience to decide whether we captured a new and interesting tone. We’re not interested in just making the same movie over and over.

What was your approach to adapting?

Reese: The most important thing was that we captured George’s short story. To get the story on screen, we tried our best to keep it as intact as possible. This is the story that makes up the first part to the second-third of the movie.

Wernick: We used every bit of that turkey, because it’s George, and he’s so brilliant.

Reese: Thus, the problem became an invention. It was time to move beyond that challenge and create a plan. Is there anything Steve is really interested in more than any other? That’s what we thought. Perhaps it is obedience. And if it’s obedience, how does he get there? Maybe you can convince someone to hurt someone you care about. The next step is to find a partner.

These things begin to stack on top of one another, which is how you see the structure of your story. You start to see a protagonist who’s trying to redeem himself, you start to see an antagonist who has a real goal that’s now being forwarded. His actions were a result. We wanted him to meet his fate. We saw a lot invention at the back, but also a lot loyalty and faithfulness in the front.

Image by Netflix

You had to cut the verbosity drug, which allows people to express their poetic ideas. Did you find that didn’t work as well in dialogue?

Reese: In fact, it came out slightly in the editing. The short story had some ridiculous stuff in it where Miles waxes poetic about Victorian society. It had a slightly absurd quality that I believe cost it. Then we started trimming time, sometimes making darlings disappear. If you go back and look at our original screenplay, we definitely had a little bit more of him suddenly talking like a humanities professor who’s locked in the ivory tower.

Wernick: Miles was also interested in that. [That dialogue was]Hard to get out. We also wanted Miles as the Everyman. We wanted Jeff to be the audience’s way into the movie, and when he was waxing philosophical, he felt he was making himself a little bit inaccessible.

Reese: A little logic was added, as well. If my character doesn’t know about Victorian society, doesn’t know these vocabulary words, why would he be saying them? In general, if it wasn’t in the [movie], that’s because it came out after our first draft, because we just vomited everything from that short story into the first draft, to be honest.

Was this project your idea or was it brought to you by someone else? It was whose baby?

Wernick: Condé Nast came to us. The short story was in The New Yorker about 10 years ago, right before it was in George’s compilation Tenth December.

Reese: It was written on spec. Screenplays are not usually written by paid actors. To direct the film for a time, we put ourselves on it. That didn’t come together for various reasons — we had to go do Deadpool. Joe Kosinski was then hired. This package was created by us and we sold it to Netflix. They purchased it because they trusted it. We finally received our paychecks many years later. I mean, it’s been a 10-year process, but there have been a few times in our career where we love something so much that we’re like, Look, we don’t care if we get paid, we’re just gonna write it. If we get paid on the back end, that’s gravy, we just have to write this script.

Given that timeline, I’m assuming you weren’t thinking of these actors when you wrote it. Did you rework any other parts of the story specifically to accommodate them?

Wernick: After they had been cast, we spoke with them about their character, backstory, motivation, as well as what kind of acting they do. It’s a brilliant group of actors who have come together to bring this to life. [Steve’s]Chris was interested in his background and what made him who he is. We talked about this for quite some time. Every actor is unique and brings a new perspective to each role. This allows us to get a bit more in depth. These actors are able to ask hard questions, such as “Why?” and “How?” This makes every script more interesting.

The place where this seems most like it’s coming specifically from the writers of Deadpool and Zombieland is in the darker, more flippantly callous things Chris Hemsworth’s character says, his little barbs at people. Have you discussed whether humor should be more or less emphasized?

Wernick: One particular one was interesting: “She’s not that good,” or what was it?

Reese: This was the result of the brief story. “She’s not the best.”

Wernick: It was the subject of much debate, as to whether that line was too flippant or too stupid in this dark time. Chris was a staunch advocate for the line. Chris felt that it revealed a side to Abnesti he didn’t like and he wanted more. You’re not dealing with a normal person who experiences normal emotions. We debated that for quite a while, regardless of whether or not it was appropriate. Because it keeps people on edge, we bring a touch of dark humor and humor. Or at least that’s our intention.

Reese: Yeah, and I think his inappropriateness, we thought it came from a place where this is a guy who’s not used to facing a lot of consequences for the things that come out of his mouth. You can pretty much say whatever you want, but he also has an incredibly twisted outlook. It’s the funniest characters. Deadpool has a lot of inappropriate characters, which is why people enjoy his transgressions. He’s someone who’s pushing the boundaries of saying things where you think, I wouldn’t have said that in that moment.Sometimes it’s funny. That’s why we love writing characters like these.

Wernick: I think people think a lot of what our characters say, but they’re afraid to say it. It makes the story a lot more interesting for people to consider by us saying it. Oh man, yeah, I would be thinking that, but I wouldn’t have the stones to say it.

SpiderheadNetflix streaming available now