Tribeca Film Festival Exclusive: Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte Talks ‘Dreamland’

The Knockturnal: How did the script come to you?

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: I got sent the script from my agents and then I read it and then met with Margot about it. Margot and her company owned the rights to the film already. So I was kind of pitching to them and telling them what my take on the project would be and luckily they were into it.

The Knockturnal: What did you say in the pitch meeting?

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: Well, you know the first meeting we didn’t actually get into the pitch. We just kind of felt each other out and got to know each other… vibing, which was great. And then we had a phone call where I just sort of expressed some of the things that I would wanna tweak or bring out a little bit more in the script if it was my film and they really encouraged me to do that and to make it feel really personal and that was really a testament to them and the writer who trusted that, you know?

The Knockturnal: This is a period piece of sorts, can you tell me about location scouting and how you built the world?

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: Yeah, we shot in New Mexico, in sort of super rural parts of New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We got so lucky it was just stunningly beautiful everywhere and we shot with a Arri Alexa 65, so that’s large format so it was like anywhere we put the camera was just, looked stunning.

The Knockturnal: How was collaborating with Margot?

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: Collaborating with her was amazingly easy and fun. Yeah, she’s really good at knowing where she needs to be helpful and where she doesn’t and where she has a really good sense of that.

The Knockturnal: What do I admire about her as an actress?

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: Everything. Her work ethic, her natural talent, her ability to pivot on the spot, to make changes, the fact that there’s is no ego in her performance or in her attitude on screen or on set. Yeah, I think that she’s a model for anybody in this industry to aspire to be like, you know?

The Knockturnal: Speak about working with Finn as well and watching that dynamic on screen between her and Finn.

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte: Finn is the man. When we cast him when we met him it was sort of immediate. I didn’t want to cast an English kid at first, to play a Texan, but then he came into the room and I was like, oh man, this is it, this is him. He sort of straddled the age range in a really important way and he was able to say a lot by looking at things, which to me is really crucial. ‘Cause he doesn’t have to open his mouth to tell a story.

We also spoke with Romulus CEO Brad Feinstein who produced Dreamland: “It’s been a long road. I started in the finance business as an investment banker and was financing a variety of things in the entertainment space, sports teams, music, a lot of film and started working with a film studio that ended up, you know, really kind of growing called BRON studios. That kind of, you know, took on its own life and then after we did Fences with Denzel, I met my partner who brought some finance into that film, he offered to set up Romulus and finance us – set us up with a lot of cash and we’ve been on our way. We’ve made 12 movies in the last 24 months, we’ll make another six this year, so we’re very, very busy. Margot brought this project. She had found the script and she had found the filmmaker. She had seen his movie at Sundance and found him and he was 23 years old, which was a big bet, but he was just so smart and he had such great movie intelligence that I knew that was a filmmaker that I wanted to bet on early.”

We also spoke with up and coming actress Darby Camp who was amazing in the film. Check out what she had to say below:

Actress Darby Camp talks “Dreamland” @Tribeca pic.twitter.com/A761yyGCda

— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) May 4, 2019

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