Ridley Scott has set films in the depths of outer space, in rain-lashed dystopian futures and in the dust of ancient Rome. At 88, he has found yet another world to inhabit, one hollowed out by pandemic and loss rather than shaped by alien threats or gladiatorial combat. His new film The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic survival drama built around a quietly devastating question: when a brutal flu virus has wiped out great swathes of the population and nearly everything familiar is gone, what does a person still live for? Jacob Elordi plays Hig, a lone pilot navigating the ruins of civilisation with his dog and a battered old Cessna plane, guarding what little remains while searching for signs that human connection is still possible somewhere out there.
Why Scott Was Ready to Walk Away
The Dog Stars is adapted from Peter Heller's 2012 novel, and while the premise might look like natural territory for Scott's brand of epic, character-driven storytelling, the director was sceptical from the start. He felt the genre had grown overcrowded. "We're doing too many end-of-the-world stories," he said. "This is not The Road. I did not want to do World War Z again; no zombies, please. I thought, 'What the fuck am I gonna do here?'"
What shifted his thinking was the screenplay, written by The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith. Smith found something in Peter Heller's novel that many apocalyptic stories forgo: genuine warmth buried inside the wreckage. "There's a lot of optimism within the context of the story," Scott explained, "and the bottom line is, people do need people." That fundamental human need, more than the mechanics of survival itself, became the anchor Scott was looking for.
Action Sequences Are the Easy Part
For a filmmaker who has staged chariot races, deep-space emergencies and medieval sieges, the film's survival set pieces presented no particular anxiety. Asked whether the action sequences in The Dog Stars were difficult to pull off, Scott was characteristically blunt. "No action scene is challenging for me, dude," he said. "Are you fucking kidding? It's easy." The director of Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator was not about to lose sleep over a post-apocalyptic drama.
A Casting Path From Mescal to Elordi
The road to casting the lead role was less straightforward. Scott had recently directed Paul Mescal in Gladiator II and had been counting on him to play Hig. "I had a good time doing Glad II with Paul, and from that I thought it was going to be him," Scott recalled. But Mescal's availability changed when he committed to playing Paul McCartney in a separate biographical project. Scott was good-natured about losing his first choice. "He got hooked into playing Paul McCartney and I'm his friend, so I'm not going to complain," he said.
Scott turned instead to Jacob Elordi, an actor he had already been closely watching. His appreciation for Elordi's work in The Narrow Road To The Deep North had stayed with him. "Did you ever see The Narrow Road To The Deep North?" Scott said. "He's great in that." Elordi, who has also appeared in Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, brought far more than screen presence to the role. His real-world upbringing made him a surprisingly natural fit for a character who lives by practical skills in a broken world. "His background is a farm lad," Scott explained. "He can drive tractors, he's great with dogs, and he's a very outdoors, practical kind of guy. I met with him, and that was it."
The Dog Stars also features Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley. The film opens in UK cinemas on August 26.
