The Creator is one of the most anticipated movies of 2023. Most movies and television series these days, whether it’s on the fantasy, science fiction, or romance genre, are based on books or an existing IP. So, what about Gareth Edwards’ new science fiction film? Is The Creator based on a book? Here’s what we know.
What Is The Creator About?
The Creator is a science fiction action thriller movie set in a post-apocalyptic future where humans are at war with artificial intelligence. It follows Joshua (played by John David Washington), an ex-special forces agent who is tasked to hunt down and kill the “Creator”.
The official synopsis for The Creator reads:
“Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory only to discover the world-ending weapon he's been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child.”
What Is The Creator Based On? Source Explained
The Creator is not based on a book or any pre-existing source material. It is an original story by Gareth Edwards. He wrote the screenplay along with Chris Weitz, with whom he previously worked with on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Edwards explained how The Creator came to be, citing films such as Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner as inspirations for his movie:
“I go over there, and we end up touring all of Vietnam and seeing everything. You can't help but see all that imagery from the Vietnam War and think of films like Apocalypse Now and all that. We were in these paddy fields in the absolute middle of nowhere, and I still had this science fiction thing in my head. I just kept watching everybody and turning them into a robot and going, "Oh my God, this is really cool." There'd be like Buddhist monks in temples, and you'd just picture them as robots. I'd go, "What is going on here?" The fastest way to explain it to anyone [is that it] was as if someone made Apocalypse Now in the Blade Runner universe. I felt like that's a DVD missing on my shelf.”
The Creator is also inspired by the onset of artificial intelligence. Edwards said (via The Hollywood Reporter):
“When we first pitched the movie to the studio, this idea of a war with AI, everyone wants to know the backstory like, ‘Hang on, why would we be at war with AI?’ ‘Well, they’ve been banned because it kind of went wrong.’ ‘But why would you ban AI? It’s going to be great,’ and blah, blah blah. It was all these sort of ideas that you have to set up that maybe humanity would reject this thing and not be that cool about it. And the way it’s played out, the setup of our movie is pretty much the last few months, it’s kind of strange. Go see it before November, because that’s when we’re going to be enslaved.”
You can watch the final trailer for The Creator below:
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