What do you get when you throw sci-fi, romance, action, horror, and a touch of espionage into a blender and hit “puree”? You get “The Gorge,” a high-octane, emotionally charged ode to action B-movies and Italian horror that refuses to be put into a single box. Written by Zach Dean, the film stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, along with Sigourney Weaver and William Houston in a wild, visually stunning story about two elite operatives on opposite sides of a classified conflict who are forced to work together when a terrifying presence emerges from the depths of a mysterious gorge. In this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo sits down with director Scott Derrickson to talk about his latest genre-bending project, working with Teller and Taylor-Joy, and why the film’s audacious mix of tones and styles is precisely what drew him to the project (you can read our review here).
For Derrickson, the appeal of “The Gorge” wasn’t just about the spectacle—it was about the challenge of pulling off something this uniquely chaotic. “I would describe the movie as a romantic sci-fi action horror political thriller,” Derrickson said with a laugh. “At first, I thought, ‘This is too weird. There’s no movie like this.’ But then I realized—that’s the reason to do it.”
While the script by Zach Dean (“The Tomorrow War,” “Fast X”) was already compelling, Derrickson and his longtime writing partner C. Robert Cargill knew there was room to elevate it. “We probably wrote about 30 to 40% of the script, most of it being what’s actually down in the gorge,” Derrickson revealed. “The movie makes a great promise for what’s down there, but I didn’t think the script necessarily delivered that, so we worked hard to make it unique and satisfying.” (Translation: Expect some genuinely wild, nightmare-fuel creatures.)
Regarding casting, Derrickson wasted no time zeroing in on Anya Taylor-Joy for the role of Drasa, a young Russian sniper. “Snipers tend to be young people, and she was my first choice,” he said. “I also believed Miles Teller as a sniper. But the main thing I was looking for was actors with a consistent career of making interesting choices on an intimate, nuanced level.” Of course, shooting their scenes separately due to the film’s elaborate set design made things extra tricky. “It was probably the biggest directorial challenge,” Derrickson admitted. “They were on different stages, 30 feet in the air, reacting to my descriptions of what the other had done the week before. But they nailed it.”
Beyond “The Gorge,” Derrickson is also gearing up for “The Black Phone 2,” which will release later this year – yes, two movies in one year. Usually wary of jumping into sequels since his poor experience on “Sinister 2,” he only agreed to make “The Black Phone 2” once the right idea came along. “Joe Hill had an idea, and even though we didn’t do exactly that, the essence of it stuck,” Derrickson explained. “Then it hit me—if we wait until after I finish a big movie, all these kids will be in high school. That’s a huge jump. ‘The Black Phone’ was a middle school coming-of-age movie. High school horror is something else entirely—more aggressive, more violent, more extreme.”
And what about Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber? Wasn’t he dead at the end of the first movie? “Not gonna say anything other than Ethan’s back,” Derrickson teased.
“The Gorge” lands on Apple TV+ on February 14. Listen to the full interview with Scott Derrickson below:
The Playlist Presents – Scott Derrickson’s Film/TV Recommendation Playlist:
- “When Evil Lurks” (2023)
- “I Saw the Devil” (2010)
- “Anora” (2024)
- “Strange Darling” (2024)
- “Civil War” (2024)
- “Devs” (2020)
- “Seven” (1995)
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