Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1526889
T H E D E L I V E R A N C E | P E R S P E C T I V E 3 5 Which leads to the question: How honest should these PERSPECTIVE articles really be? Some shows you look back on with complete pride in the picture you and your team made. Some shows you try to never look back on at all. The Deliverance might fall somewhere between the two. It sure was filled with such promise at the start. Here was a chance to go on another crazy ride with writer/director/producer Lee Daniels, for whom I'd already designed two TV shows (including the smash hit Empire) and our first feature film together way back in 2004. This time we were jumping into the deep end of the horror genre, where Lee would shape his own take on The Exorcist story, now with a Black family, the Jacksons, facing demonic possession in a house they've just moved into in a blue-collar Pittsburgh neighborhood in 2013. In fact, Demon House was the project name for much of our prep. And what a cast Lee was assembling: Andra Day as Ebony, the family's heroic mom, Glenn Close as Alberta, their white grandma, Mo'Nique as a social worker, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the formidable Apostle equipped to do battle with the demon. Catholic traditions would be replaced with Black Pentecostal rituals, and the privileges of well- off white folks would be swapped for the challenges of a single Black mom raising her three kids despite the hurdles of a blind social welfare state. A rich starting point for any movie. Even before contracts were signed, I began assembling mood boards in Keynote to have some of my juiciest images ready to share with Lee. We met at his home in Los Angeles in mid-March of 2022 to find the visual spine of our film, sharing Zoom calls with Eli Arenson, our brilliant DP who was calling in from his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. Eli gained the complete trust of Lee very early on, and would B B C A. JACKSON HOUSE EXTERIOR. CONCEPT SKETCH BY STEVE SAKLAD. INK AND MARKER ON ONIONSKIN. B. MOOD BOARD 4: PITTSBURGH NEIGHBORHOODS. C. JACKSON HOUSE EXTERIOR. SET PHOTO AT DUSK WITH HAUNTED TREES INSTALLED.