Dave Bautista Wants In the Lost Lands to Start a Franchise, Talks Milla Jovovich

In the Lost Lands star Dave Bautista spoke about his new fantasy action movie. The Guardians of the Galaxy standout spoke about getting George R.R. Martin’s approval, his bond with Milla Jovovich, and wanting the film to kick off a new universe. The Paul W.S. Anderson movie releases in theaters on March 7.

“Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and based on George R.R. Martin’s short story, a queen sends the powerful and feared sorceress Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where the sorceress and her guide, the drifter Boyce (Dave Bautista), must outwit and outfight man and demon,” says the synopsis for In the Lost Lands.

Tyler Treese: I read the short story this morning, and the film has a lot of surprises and some interesting tweaks. But I really like that the emotional climax of the film actually has lines of dialogue directly from that short story. What did you like most about the transition from short story to a film? You see Boyce really get fleshed out a lot more.

Dave Bautista: I think it’s [that] we had high hopes for this, like turning into like a whole world, a whole universe, and kind of building off this first film and extending it into a possible trilogy. So I think that’s it with the additions to the character, additions to the storyline, just leaving us a lot of ways to go in the future, leaving it very open-ended. I think that was it.

But you’re right. I think at the end of the day we wanted to just stay true to the short story and really keep it all kind of about the relationships and stay in this kind of fantasy world and be true to who that was and who George R.R. Martin wanted this to be.

And I’ve just been told that George R.R. Martin was extremely happy with the film, so that’s really great to hear because, you know, it’s like the pressure’s on ’cause he’s been so successful and there’s such a high standard to live up to.

But yeah, we wanna stay true to the roots of the story, but also start world building and make it bigger and have places to go. So hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to do that in the future. But I guess we’ll find out after like opening weekend hour after the film’s been seen by a lot of people, hopefully we can win a fan base and build on this world.

You can’t get a better co-sign than George R.R. Martin, and if he doesn’t like something, he’ll tell you too.

Bautista: Yeah. I’ve heard [laughs].

It’s really interesting seeing you work with Milla Jovovich because I feel like both you and her early on in your careers, you were kind of seen as an outsider. People are like, “oh, it’s a model trying to act.” And you – a wrestler. But you’ve both really moved past that and it’s so clear that you both have such a clear care for your craft. So how is it working with her, and someone that’s also overcome that stigma that she had?

Bautista: It’s weird ’cause you’re giving me a whole new perspective ’cause I actually never thought about that.

But so I didn’t meet Milla, I met Paul well before we started filming, I think even before I got the script. And so I had many conversations with Paul before we ever gotta sit. I didn’t meet Milla until we actually started working together.

And once I told her – I wanted to get it outta the way – that I was a fan, you kind of get past that. So then we’re peers and we’re coworkers. But she was so just receptive of that. She didn’t make me feel like a fanboy, she made me feel like her peer and her co-star. And she made me comfortable. I didn’t have to feel self-conscious.

Maybe it was because of that, she kind of – and maybe it’s a subconscious thing – she gets it. She knew what I had been through and what I was kind of what I was trying to achieve for myself. But I’d never actually thought about it until you put it in that perspective and it kind of makes sense.

Or maybe she’s just a wonderful human being and she really just found that I was also a good human being and just someone she could work with. But there was just like a natural chemistry there. And maybe again, maybe I believe in the subconscious and maybe it’s that because we had come from that place. Of people having the wrong perception of us, and who we wanted to be, and who we were aspiring to be.

Thanks to In the Lost Lands’ star Dave Bautista for taking the time to talk about the movie.