There have been many films with legendary tales of extreme conditions. Movies that lost their sets to dust storms in the desert or numerous other natural disasters. It’s rare, however, that you can feel that visceral danger the cast and crew were experiencing on screen. Director Alejandro Landes would likely insist no one was actually in “danger” shooting “Monos” in the vast extremes of Columbia, but speaking to the Four Quadrant podcast he admits jumping from the high altitude mountains to the hot and humid jungle wrecked havok on everyone involved, including himself.
“The first day someone had an epileptic fit,” Landes recalls. “Everyone had their day. I was carried out of the jungle on a stretcher.”
The medics thought Landes needed an appendectomy, but it turned out it was just his body reacting to a lack of sustainable meals during the shoot. It didn’t help that a majority of Landes’ cast were first-time actors that he’d spent months widdling down from 800 prospects to 25 candidates to eight speaking parts on screen. To say there was a lot of pressure is an understatement. The result, however, was a critically acclaimed thriller (75 on Metacritic) that was the buzz of Sundance last January and is now in limited release.
During this podcast episode, Landes details the difficulties of the production, pulling off some incredible visual stunts, recruiting Julianne Nicholson for the most harrowing role of her career and more.
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