Prime Video\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nGenre<\/strong> : Action, Adventure, Drama<\/p>\nOriginal Language<\/strong> : English<\/p>\nRelease Date<\/strong> : April 12, 2024.<\/p>\n![\"fallout](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Fallout-poster.png\")
<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Amazon Prime<\/p>\n
Press Conference with executive producer\/director Jonathan Nolan, creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner, Actors Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, Moderated by Kara Warner.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Q : I would love to introduce this incredible panel that you’re more excited to see and hear from than me. Please welcome\u00a0<\/span>executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan, series creators and showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham\u00a0<\/span>Wagner, and our series stars Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten. Plus, one of the main reasons we’re all here, executive producer, Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard.<\/strong><\/p>\nQ : Awesome. Thank you all for being here. This is so\u00a0 <\/span>exciting, to finally talk about this. I would love to talk\u00a0 <\/span>about the origin story. How did we all get here? What made you take on this incredible challenge of adapting this\u00a0 <\/span>game to series?<\/strong><\/p>\nJONATHAN: I think it started, for me, with Fallout 3, which devoured about a year of my life. You know, I was an\u00a0 <\/span>aspiring young writer at that point. It almost derailed my\u00a0 <\/span>entire career. It’s so ludicrously playable and fun. No,\u00a0 <\/span>I mean, seriously, the games were just incredible.<\/p>\nI mean, it’s such a rare thing and such an\u00a0 <\/span>unbelievable thing, and I’ve gotten to do it twice in my\u00a0 <\/span>career, to take something that you love and get a chance to\u00a0 <\/span>play in that universe, to create, you know, your own\u00a0 <\/span>version, I guess, of that universe. The first go-round for\u00a0 <\/span>me was Batman<\/strong>, and this time with Fallout<\/strong>, a game that I\u00a0 <\/span>absolutely love, a series of games that I absolutely loved. About five years ago, Todd and I went and had lunch\u00a0 <\/span>together, it was a bit of a fanning-out moment for me, and\u00a0 <\/span>just started talking about the possibilities of how you\u00a0 <\/span>could take this incredible universe.<\/p>\nI mean, I think one of the things that’s so\u00a0 <\/span>powerful about the Fallout<\/strong> series is that every game is a\u00a0 <\/span>little different. Different characters, a different\u00a0 <\/span>setting, and a different look into this extraordinary\u00a0 <\/span>universe. And so, we came out of that lunch with a handshake deal that we were gonna try to make this work.<\/p>\nQ : Yes. Geneva and Graham, can you talk a little bit\u00a0 <\/span>about your approach? ‘Cause it’s not like this series is based on a game. We’re living in the world of Fallout, yes?<\/strong><\/p>\nGraham Wagner : Yeah. It’s set in the world of Fallout, but it’s\u00a0 <\/span>a new story that comes, sort of, after the events we’ve\u00a0 <\/span>seen. So it really is, the show is built on like 25 years\u00a0 <\/span>of creativity and thinking and building. And we sort of thought the best thing to do is to\u00a0 <\/span>continue that, versus retread it. Because that’s sort of what has worked with Fallout over the years. It’s traded\u00a0hands, it’s changed, it’s been altered, and it’s a living\u00a0<\/span>thing. And yeah, we kind of felt like we ought to take a\u00a0 <\/span>swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that.<\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Yeah, and I think, you know, the themes of Fallout\u00a0 <\/span>are also what really drove us to want to adapt this with\u00a0 <\/span>Jonah, and we were really especially drawn to the\u00a0 <\/span>social commentary inherent to the idea of these vaults.\u00a0 <\/span>Graham is a citizen of Canada.<\/p>\nI’m a dual citizen of the US and New Zealand, and\u00a0 <\/span>we often talk about how those care countries that are sort\u00a0 <\/span>of celebrated as these wonderful, peaceful utopias, and\u00a0 <\/span>“What if everyone was like there,” and the reality is not\u00a0 <\/span>everywhere is like those countries. But what would it mean if those countries were to open their borders and let\u00a0 <\/span>everyone in, and everyone could have a better life? Well,\u00a0 <\/span>they would change, right?<\/p>\nThey would be the same. So,\u00a0 <\/span>like, we saw the vaults as basically a mirror to that,\u00a0 <\/span>right? This idea that, like, “What if we create a vault\u00a0 <\/span>that is very peaceful and wonderful?” But what does it\u00a0 <\/span>mean that not everyone gets to live there, and people\u00a0<\/span>suffer on the surface?<\/p>\nQ : Right. I think I’ve heard you say it’s a story of have and have-nots.<\/strong><\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Yes.<\/p>\n
Q : And then the lengths that we may or may not have to go to to survive, depending on where we are.<\/strong><\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Exactly.<\/p>\n
Q : Todd, I would love to bring you in here. What made you say yes to this adaptation? I just feel like, you\u00a0 <\/span>know, it’s a challenge from the outset, and you’re so close to this world, obviously, being a big part of it. Yeah, what do you love about their approach, and yeah, what made you say yes?<\/strong><\/p>\nTodd Howard : Well first, you know, people would approach us over, you know, I would say a 10-year period after Fallout 3 came out, you know, from 2009 on, to adapt Fallout to film or\u00a0 <\/span>television.<\/p>\nAnd we took a very cautious approach, and Jonah was somebody I was such a fan of the movies he did and the TV he was doing, and I actually, you know, had someone reach\u00a0 <\/span>out. And when I first talked to Jonah, I mean, honestly, it\u00a0 <\/span>was like someone I had known for a long time, you know, obviously played the games a ton, and his approach, right\u00a0 <\/span>from the get-go, was in sync with what I was thinking.\u00a0 <\/span>Look, this is a creative endeavor, and having, you know, partners that you trust and can really bring something new\u00a0<\/span>to it, make it authentic, the world of Fallout.<\/p>\nPresent that to the screen in a new way, but in an\u00a0 <\/span>authentic way, you know, you know it when you see it, and\u00a0 <\/span>it’s been a great, great collaboration, and everybody on\u00a0 <\/span>this stage and what they’ve done. You know, for someone\u00a0 <\/span>like me and the team here at Bethesda, it’s just a real\u00a0 <\/span>blessing to see what they’ve done with it.<\/p>\n![\"Fallout](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/fallout2.png\")
<\/p>\n
Photo by Courtesy of Prime Video – \u00a9\u00a0AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC<\/p>\n
Q : Nice. Before we get to the trailer, we’re getting\u00a0<\/span>close, everyone, Ella and Aaron, I would love to hear just a little bit about your characters. What intrigued you most before you jumped in the world, and, kind of, who are\u00a0<\/span>Lucy, and who is Maximus?<\/strong><\/p>\nElla Purnell: So, Lucy is a Vault Dweller, and what excited me\u00a0 <\/span>about playing her was that she is so innocent and so naive\u00a0 <\/span>and obviously very privileged as well, like you’ve touched\u00a0 <\/span>on. It was exciting for me to start in that place. You\u00a0 <\/span>know, she’s essentially a newborn baby. She hasn’t had any\u00a0 <\/span>real life experiences. All she knows is what she was\u00a0 <\/span>taught and what she’s read in books that she has in the\u00a0 <\/span>vault. It’s limited. And then you put her on the\u00a0 <\/span>Wasteland, and, you know, what happens? What happens with that? That’s a really exciting\u00a0 <\/span>for me to start in. What do you think?<\/p>\nAaron Moten: Yeah, well, I play Maximus. He’s part of the Brotherhood of Steel. I guess, yeah, what excited me was a little bit of what Ella’s talking about. It’s like, you\u00a0<\/span>know, that starting place, and where you go from there, you\u00a0 <\/span>know. A person who’s lived in the Wasteland for his entire\u00a0life, and he has to, you know, have a certain type of moral\u00a0 <\/span>ambiguity that is forced upon him, I think, living in the world that he lives in, and where you go from there. How you hold onto what is your unique, pure self, and how that changes, and how you discover what it is that\u00a0<\/span>you want.<\/p>\nQ : Yeah. Moral ambiguity, so fun to explore. There is a third very important cast member who can’t be with us\u00a0 <\/span>today. However, we have a wonderful message from him. I would love to introduce Walton Goggins, who plays The\u00a0 <\/span>Ghoul, and here is a few words from him.<\/strong><\/p>\nWalton Goggins: Hello, everyone. I am so very sorry that I\u00a0 <\/span>couldn’t be there today. My name is Walton Goggins, and I play The Ghoul in Fallout<\/strong>. The Ghoul is, in some ways, the poet Virgil in Dante’s Inferno. He’s the guide, if you will, through this\u00a0 <\/span>irradiated hellscape that we find ourselves in in this post-apocalyptic world.<\/p>\nHe is a bounty hunter, an iconic\u00a0 <\/span>bounty hunter. He is pragmatic, he is ruthless, he has his\u00a0 <\/span>own set of moral codes, and he has a wicked sense of humor.\u00a0 <\/span>Much like me. [laugh] No, he’s a very, very, very\u00a0 <\/span>complicated guy, and to understand him, you have to\u00a0 <\/span>understand the person that he was before the war. He had a name. His name was Cooper Howard, and he was a vastly\u00a0 <\/span>different person than the ghoul that you’ve seen so far.<\/p>\nOver the course of the show, through his\u00a0 <\/span>experience back in the world before the nuclear fallout, you will understand how the world was. And he is the\u00a0 <\/span>bridge between both these worlds. And I hope you enjoy it.\u00a0 <\/span>So with that said, we hope you enjoy the trailer. Thank\u00a0 <\/span>you very much for watching.<\/p>\n[trailer plays]<\/p>\n
Q : Woohoo. That was my first time seeing that. I hope\u00a0 <\/span>you guys are as dazzled as I am. Like I said, there’s a\u00a0 <\/span>lot going on [laugh] in this series. One thing to point\u00a0 <\/span>out really quickly, hopefully you saw, the series debuts April 11th. All episodes are gonna be available April\u00a0 <\/span>11th. So that’s pretty exciting. And it’s coming soon. Todd, I would love to kind of start with you just after watching this.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd I guess a loaded question, seeing that\u00a0and then kind of just thinking about your experience\u00a0 <\/span>working on this, is there something that stands out for you\u00a0 <\/span>as something that they got completely right in their\u00a0 <\/span>adaptation of the games?\u00a0 <\/span>Is there something that kind of when you visited\u00a0 <\/span>set, dazzled you in particular? Anything like that you want to celebrate or touch on?<\/p>\nTodd Howard : I mean, the authenticity they brought to it, the\u00a0 <\/span>obsessive. We like to say we make the games that we obsess\u00a0 <\/span>over every pixel. And Jonah and crew, they obsessed over\u00a0 <\/span>every pixel [laugh] of every frame, just to make it\u00a0 <\/span>authentic. And the other thing, watching that trailer and\u00a0 <\/span>the trick with Fallout<\/strong> is it has so many different tones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt goes between the serious, the dramatic, and action, and\u00a0 <\/span>some humor and nostalgic music and dramatic music. And I think the trailer does what the show does\u00a0 <\/span>really well, which is it weaves those different things\u00a0 <\/span>together in a very unique blend that only Fallout can\u00a0 <\/span>bring. And they’ve done just an awesome job.<\/p>\n![\"Fallout](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Fallout3.png\")
<\/p>\n
Photo by Courtesy of Prime Video – \u00a9\u00a0AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC<\/p>\n
Q : Yeah, for Jonah, Geneva, and Graham, was there any\u00a0 <\/span>one specific thing that like you had to nail?<\/strong><\/p>\nJonathan Nolan : We talked a lot about the power armor. The tone was a big thing. I think the tone was maybe the most\u00a0 <\/span>challenging and the most intimidating thing for me. But\u00a0 <\/span>working with, you know, with Geneva and Graham, you knew\u00a0 <\/span>that we were going to be in a really good place with that\u00a0 <\/span>incredibly ambitious story. On a technical level, the scope of the world and\u00a0 <\/span>the power armor in particular was one of those things you go, oh, how on earth are we going to do that? But we got\u00a0 <\/span>there.<\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : This is a small thing. But if you saw in the\u00a0 <\/span>trailer Chet, who gets splattered in blood, they got the Brylcreem just right. I know that’s not as ambitious as\u00a0 <\/span>the — but when they got the Brylcreem in his hair just\u00a0 <\/span>right, I was like, nailed it. And, you know, I guess we\u00a0 <\/span>could have done that on a smaller show. [laugh]<\/p>\nQ : That’s an important detail.<\/strong><\/p>\nGraham Wagner : That’s the kind of thing I’m keeping my eye out\u00a0 <\/span>for. [laugh]<\/p>\nQ : Yeah. How about for you, Geneva?<\/strong><\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Oh, God, it was everything. And we couldn’t be\u00a0 <\/span>more grateful to our incredible production designer, Howard\u00a0 <\/span>Cummings, who just poured his whole soul into this. Truly, arriving on set every day was like Christmas morning. And,\u00a0 <\/span>you know, that I think is something that Jonah has brought\u00a0 <\/span>to all of his projects is just this incredible eye for\u00a0 <\/span>meticulous detail. Every detail has to be perfect, and so\u00a0 <\/span>much of it, we made physically. It’s not the effects. So\u00a0 <\/span>I was really just grateful for that. Thank you, Jonah.\u00a0 <\/span>[laugh]<\/p>\nQ : Yeah, I feel like you have said Christmas morning\u00a0 <\/span>face was sort of your barometer. If people were walking\u00a0 <\/span>around sort of feeling that, then you had done your job.<\/strong><\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : And me. I must have looked like an idiot for\u00a0 <\/span>almost all of production ’cause I was just thrilled.<\/p>\nQ : Amazing. Again, thank you guys all for hanging out with us. I’m gonna get to some of your questions here. Like we said, there’s a lot going on in this show. What is Fallout about? How do you kind of describe what it is for\u00a0<\/span>the audience? Because there’s a lot out there in the world right now when it comes to series and streaming. What sets this apart?<\/strong><\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Well, I think it’s not just the incredible tone,\u00a0 <\/span>which is, as people have talked about, this unbelievable blend of action and comedy and just weirdness. But I think\u00a0 <\/span>it’s, you know, these incredibly prescient themes,\u00a0 <\/span>factionalism, being maybe the most obvious. When you play the game Fallout, you go from settlement to settlement or\u00a0 <\/span>from faction to faction.<\/p>\nAnd that was something that we\u00a0 <\/span>were really excited to manifest with our heroes. You know, Ella being the Vault Dweller, Aaron being the Brotherhood of Steel member, and Walton being sort of the character that, you know, nobody really cares about, the ghouls in\u00a0 <\/span>the wasteland. But in a way that makes them, of course, the most empathetic.<\/p>\nQ : Right.<\/strong><\/p>\nGraham Wagner : And for me, it was the Brylcreem.<\/p>\n
Q : [laugh] That’s a marketing opportunity now.<\/strong><\/p>\nJonathan Nolan : I think you also have a moment that we’re in right\u00a0 <\/span>now in which the world, you know, it seems to be evermore\u00a0 <\/span>frightening and dour. And so an opportunity for us to work\u00a0 <\/span>on a show that gets to look that in the eye, right, and we\u00a0 <\/span>get to talk about the end of the world, but to do it with a\u00a0 <\/span>sense of humor. You know, I think, honestly, there’s a\u00a0 <\/span>thread of optimism woven into the show as well, that I\u00a0 <\/span>think for us, you know, is a bit of expiation to be able to\u00a0 <\/span>work on this every day.<\/p>\nGeneva Robertson-Dworet : Yes. And we’ve, I think, talked about so many\u00a0 <\/span>different postapocalyptic projects that we could do\u00a0 <\/span>together over the years, but this is the first one that was\u00a0 <\/span>also fun.<\/p>\nJonathan Nolan : Yeah.<\/p>\n
![\"Fallout](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Fallout4.png\")
<\/p>\n
Photo by Courtesy of Prime Video – \u00a9\u00a0AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC<\/p>\n
Q : Yes, yeah. It’s amazing when you watch it, the tone\u00a0 <\/span>shifts from very dramatic, emotional, absurd, goofy. It’s a pretty incredibly layered experience. For Ella and Aaron, there’s a lot, you know, without going into too much detail, I think as actors you get to do a lot in this. Can you talk to us a little bit about the fun of the challenge\u00a0<\/span>of this world in both Lucy and Maximus?<\/strong><\/p>\nAaron Moten : Well every day, right? Every day on set was a new, fun challenge. And, you know, it’s super exciting as an\u00a0 <\/span>actor, I think to get the opportunity to show up to work to\u00a0 <\/span>do outrageous things. You know, I think we spend a lot of\u00a0 <\/span>time doing things that are normal, or there’s a\u00a0 <\/span>mundaneality to them. You know what I mean? And we spend\u00a0 <\/span>a lot of time doing that at work. So to get to, you know,\u00a0 <\/span>trudge around the wasteland with the power armor by my side\u00a0 <\/span>is an experience in itself.\u00a0 <\/span>And getting to see our stunt performer, Adam, you\u00a0 <\/span>know, in the full garb, and seeing the seas of people and\u00a0 <\/span>crew on sets part for him. You know that practical\u00a0 <\/span>realness to it is really exciting.<\/p>\nQ: Yeah. How about for you, Ella?<\/strong><\/p>\nElla Purnell : Honestly, exactly what Aaron said. It was so much\u00a0 <\/span>fun working on this show. Every shoot is hard. Not every\u00a0 <\/span>shoot is fun. And this one was just so fun for an actor.\u00a0 <\/span>No two days were the same. Every prop, every costume,\u00a0 <\/span>every location, every set was just bonkers. And, you know,\u00a0 <\/span>one of the joys of working with Jonah is he loves to do\u00a0 <\/span>everything as much as he can for real.<\/p>\nSo you’re not working with that much greenscreen or,\u00a0 <\/span>you know, dudes in green leotards. You get to really work