‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
It’s tough to bring something fresh to the alien invasion genre; the story of nasty extraterrestrial types taking a liking to our planet is one that has been tackled so many times before, via a variety of filmmakers and with budgets big and small.
‘Run’s finances may be on the slimmer side, but its creative team makes it work, delivering compelling characters even as the alien effects might not quite be at the same level.
Script and Direction
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
With a script from director Chris Stokes, working alongside Marques Houston (who appears in the movie), ‘Run’ boasts plenty of good character development, giving space early on for the central girl group to be painted as real people as opposed to disposable alien fodder.
The dynamics between the central girl friends in particular crackle with authentic energy, and as a whole this feels like a Will Packer relationship drama that is suddenly invaded by a Roland Emmerich movie.
Stokes and Houston get plenty of mileage out of their characters, and while and the screenplay sets things on a solid footing before the running, hunting, shooting and screaming starts.
As director (and cinematographer/producer), Stokes is one of those filmmakers who keeps as busy as possible, pumping out movies for a relatively low budget.
‘Run’s style is fairly basic and makes good use of its cabin location. The budget can’t always keep up with the demands of the genre, and some of the extraterrestrial action (smartly kept brief early on) moments towards the end do look goofy rather than truly scary. Still, there is tension and energy aplenty.
Cast and Performances
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
Much as with the screenplay and direction, the acting is best in the early going, when we’re being introduced to Melissa (Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh) and her friends as Melissa’s cold feet on the day of her wedding has them planning a girls’ trip to get away from it all.
The group feels real and entertaining as friends who have known each other for a long time –– it helps that Stokes works with a revolving ensemble, so the connections come across as truthful. And though the reactions to the alien that occasionally verge into the histrionic, ask yourself how you’d deal with the same situation?
Final Thoughts
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
‘Run’ is a movie of two halves –– a good friendship/relationship drama that also wants to function an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller but sometimes stumbles, relying on familiar genre tropes.
You may sometimes find yourself wishing Stokes and co. had stuck to the realistic side of things and found some other way to test friendship/relationship dynamics, but ‘Run’ goes the distance.
‘Run’ receives a score of 60 out of 100.
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
What’s the story of ‘Run’?
After leaving her fiancé at the altar, Melissa (Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh) joins friends at a cabin.
When Jenny (Claudia Jordan) is found mutilated in the woods and aliens attack the nation, the girls must fight to survive.
Moviefone recently has the pleasure of speaking with co-writer, producer and actor Marques Houston about his work on ‘Run’, developing the screenplay, his character’s motivations, designing the look of the aliens, collaborating on the set with the cast, and his close working relationship with director Chris Stokes.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Houston, Annie Ilonzeh, Erica Pinkett, Erica Mena, and Claudia Jordan.
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about developing the screenplay with Chris Stokes and the themes you wanted to explore as a writer?
Marques Houston: Well, as you know, my business partner, Chris Stokes, who’s also co-writer and director, he came up with the story idea. He gave me a call and pitched it to me over the phone and I was really thrilled by the idea. I felt like it was a great idea. I felt like it was something that hadn’t been done before, and it was very original. So, in writing the screenplay, his thing was that he wanted to do a sci-fi movie where it had all the energy and running and all that sci-fi stuff, but he wanted to make it a love story. So, I said, “Let’s really home in on the love story,” because he’s a huge fan of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and how their movies always have a great love story, something that you just root for the characters and you want them to win. So, we wanted to go with a great love story. We put in the love story of my character and Annie’s character as a couple in turmoil that we’re getting engaged and I get left at the altar. Then her girls take her on this girls’ trip because she’s so depressed. In the interim of all of that, now here we have this alien invasion. But it’s specified to where they are. So, it’s kind of like it’s happening all over the world, but we really wanted to center it on their story, on the girl’s story with myself included and everything like that. So, we did a great love story first and then we put the action on top of that love story. That’s how we were able to attack the screenplay. That’s what we really were going with, centering in on the camaraderie between the girls, the love story between myself and Annie’s character, and really the ultimate idea of a story of survival and how these friends must work together to survive. The thing is, you don’t see any movies like this with an urban cast, like with a high sci-fi twist. That was a challenge, making a story like that with believable sci-fi, so it’s not corny or like a comedy. We really wanted to make a serious movie, but this situational high concept idea that these aliens are taking over.
MF: Can you talk about how your character Andre, deals with being left at the alter by his fiancé, and does his feelings change after the alien invasion?
MH: Well, being left at the altar is not fun for anybody, of course. I’ve never experienced that before, but I can only imagine the hurt and just the heartfelt crushing that that can deliver, especially to a man’s ego. He’s like, “I got left at the altar. What are you talking about?” So, that was the story point for me, it was like, how do I really get into that feeling of being abandoned? Then going to the hills to try to save the one person that abandoned you, and then you realize that all that stuff that’s downstairs is just not important. It’s like, “What are we even fighting about? Now we’re trying to survive.” Then it becomes a test of loyalty and love, and how do we let all the nonsense go that we were fighting about? How do we really get together and show that true love and that true bond, and how do we survive together?
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
MF: From a producer’s standpoint, can you talk about designing the look of the aliens and using both practical and visual effects?
MH: That was Chris. He had all these concept aliens in his brain, and he went to paper with it. It took him a couple of months to fine tune and really get what he wanted, and how he wanted to see the alien’s attack. These aliens, I mean, we all think about aliens as the little head with the big eyes. So, we wanted to go with aliens that kind of reminded us of the aliens that we get scared of, that we’re used to seeing. A lot of movies nowadays portray aliens more as monsters. They have all these legs, and it’s like this monster, you know? ‘Alien’ was such a huge hit, and it changed the whole dynamic of how people seen aliens as more like monsters. We wanted to see these aliens as more of like higher beings, human kind of things, that move like humans, they do everything like humans, but they’re still, higher than us. So, that was the concept behind it. It took almost a year to get everything done with the CG and producing this. It was very expensive to put it on the screen. It wasn’t AI, we didn’t want to use AI, we really wanted to have it be realistic. We also brought in like a stunt actor to become the alien so that we can get that realistic feel as well as, versus the CGI. We did a lot of creative things in creating and putting this movie together. Just to see it all done was amazing for me. I’m so happy and thrilled that it’s done, and I can’t wait for people to see it.
MF: What was it like working with the rest of the cast and was there room for improvisation on set?
MH: So, we put the cast together with a group of people that we’ve worked with before and we’re familiar with including Annie Ilonzeh, Erica Mena, Erica Pinkett. It was our first time working with Claudia Jordan. We worked with Drew Sidora before, and Obba Babatunde, who’s just a veteran, we worked with him before. So, we really wanted to have a family feel of a cast because we needed the camaraderie of the girls and that bond to really pour through on the screen. We wanted it to be believable. So, we didn’t want to have a whole bunch of strangers just meet each other for the first time. We wanted that charismatic element to this cast so that when you’re in there and you’re watching the movie, you don’t want anybody to die. You’re trying to root for everybody. You’re just so excited about everybody living. We want somebody to be like, “Oh, no, I didn’t want that to happen.” So, that’s what was important with the cast for us and for me as a character, I know that I love to be funny in real life. So, when I was doing Andre, and I was kind of just thinking about what kind of character I was going to be. I really loved Will Smith in ‘Independence Day’. I loved the fact that he was serious, and he saved the world, but he was also funny. He had moments where he could be funny and he could be charismatic, and he could still give you a laugh and then still give you some toughness. So, I really did pull from that experience for myself, as an actor, and I just wanted to come off well and I hope it did.
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
MF: Finally, can you talk about your close friendship with Chris Stokes and what it’s like to work with him on set?
MH: I’ve known Chris since I was eight years old. He was my manager when I was younger. We’re business partners now. We’ve worked together for so long. We kind of mirror each other’s thoughts and we know what each other’s going to do and what each other’s going to think. I know him as a director, he knows me as an actor and as a writer. It’s great to be able to work with somebody that you’ve known for so long and that you can bounce ideas off each other and creatively. It really is a bond that that we have together because we’ve done so many movies together. It’s like working with your best friend, and it’s great.
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
What is the plot of ‘Run’?
When Melissa (Annie Ilonzeh) leaves her fiancé Andre (Marques Houston) at the altar, her best friends convince her to go to a Cabin in the woods on a much needed “Girls Trip” to get her mind off things. But things take a huge turn when their friend Jenny (Claudia Jordan) is found mutilated in the middle of the woods. When the news announces an all-out Alien attack on the Nation, the girls will now have to try their best to survive.
Who is in the cast of ‘Run’?
Annie Ilonzeh as Melissa
Marques Houston as Andre Pierce
Drew Sidora as Britney Sidora
Erica Mena as Donnie Mena
Claudia Jordan as Jennifer Jordan
Erica Pinkett as Brandy Pickett
Jensen Atwood as Avery
Ken Lawson as Ronald
Obba Babatunde as the President of the United States
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
