Daily Buzz Host John Wildman speaks with Norwegian director Roar Uthaug inside the LUMA restaurant on the second floor of the Lightbox Theater opening weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. Uthaug’s film The Wave is the first-ever Scandinavian disaster movie and is described as a catastrophic rock slide-tsunami thriller.
Uthaug talks with the Daily Buzz about creating a balance between making a disaster movie with special effects and the importance of maintaining character development too. He discusses why it's important to him as a filmmaker for the audience to believe the circumstances in the film, and he believes they need to be invested in what happens to the characters — otherwise there is no connection.
Growing up in the ‘90s, Uthaug was influenced by Hollywood movies and was a big fan of the disaster and action genres — movies like Twister, Dante’s Peak, Armageddon, and Independence Day. He aims to give the disaster genre something new and fresh, and maybe even take his characters a little more seriously. The Wave has been building momentum here at TIFF and has been taking Canadian audiences on a thrilling ride all week.
