This interview with “Good Night Oppy” director Ryan White first appeared in the Guild & Critics Awards/Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Ryan White’s documentary “Good Night Oppy” is the real-life story of NASA’s two Mars rovers, which touched down on the red planet in 2004 and were expected to peter out not long after, only to “live” much longer. It’s also a tribute to the ingenuity and curiosity of mankind — the ability of different people from varied walks of life to come together to create something revolutionary. We spoke with White about his film, which was produced by Amazon Studios and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.
Why did you want to make this movie?
I think a lot of my career is trying to balance heavy subject matter with something a little more hopeful. I don’t see this film as light by any means. I think it’s emotional. And I think it has really important themes, but I do see it as very hopeful.
How did you find the human side of this story?
I like to tell human stories, and the log line is really heartwarming: A robot that was supposed to live for 90 days survived for 15 years. But that doesn’t really mean anything, especially in a documentary film, if there aren’t incredible humans and storytellers to shepherd you through that. I thought that was going to be a huge challenge. But there were so many people with such great backstories and such interesting, anecdotal ways of relating to the rovers or infusing the rovers’ journeys with adventure or emotion.
Industrial Light & Magic was responsible for a large chunk of the movie, rendering what the rovers were going through on the landscape of Mars. What did you ask of them?
I said, “Is there a world where we could take the audience to Mars in a photoreal, authentic way based on this photography and this data? Has that ever happened before?” They said, “We don’t know, but we’ll connect you with people that have those answers.”
Since you made the movie for Amblin, did you get any feedback from the man himself, Steven Spielberg?
I did. It was one of the best, singular days of my filmmaking career. Making a film like this, that’s very Spielberg in its branding, I felt intimidated to take on the project. I felt a lot of pressure that I don’t always feel on my documentaries. But the producers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank told me that Spielberg had watched it and he loved it. I feel weird even saying that, but they’ve said I’m allowed to say that out loud. He loved it. And he said it made him cry. I felt very proud in that moment, because he’s part of the reason that I’m a filmmaker, and I was making this as part of his company, as part of his brand. And I wanted to make him proud.
Read more from the Guild & Critics Awards / Documentaries issue here.
