Normally when discussing a movie, you dont get to have a conversation about how science can potentially explain religion and the impact that has on the world. But not every movie discussion is with director Mike Cahill about his new movie, I Origins. The film is now in theaters and if you like intellectual sci-fi, you should check it out. Its an engaging, mysterious love story that evolves over the course of its run time to be about the entire nature of life itself. Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Brit Marling (The East), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) and Astrid Bergs-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) star in the film.

This is Cahills second feature. Much as in his first one, Another Earth, Cahill takes a mind-blowing sci-fi conceit and filters it through a human story. This time its about a scientist who, while doing research about iris recognition,falls in love with a girl because of her eyes. But its about much more than that.

In person, Cahill is engaging, eloquent and easy to talk to. He has big ideas about his films, not just their content but their presentation and marketing too. In our interview with him (which weve highlighted twice already) we talk a little about the spoiler-filled marketing for the film before getting deep into a conversation about the implications of the films scientific and religious philosophy, how the magnificent end credits scene leads into a potential sequel, the real science that went into writing. and finally the new Hollywood model of taking filmmakers like Cahill, and giving them massive blockbusters.

/Film: I have been avoiding all spoilers and trailer since Sundance and Im so glad I did.

Mike Cahill: It was weird cause we Searchlight was, I was very involved in the process. Theyre very inclusive with all the marketing material. Theyre very, very cool like that. And my wife designed the poster basically, which is kind of badass. I mean, we have a really bold poster. But when we first put together the trailer and I was like, You know, this gives away so much of the film. Maybe we shouldnt give so much of the film away. And we had these long debates. And then we started testing it in different ways. And we sort of did our due diligence. We made a trailer that didnt give anything away. And it didnt really inspire one to wanna go see the movie. So I was like Gosh, I dont know how you guys do this job. Its so hard.

Yeah, I know, totally. I was talking to Nicholas Stoller about Neighbors and he said you dont wanna spoil the jokes, but research says people laugh harder the second time.

Oh thats brilliant.

But I guess if it gets them in the theater, thats really what matters. Okay, theres some super spoiler stuff I wanna talk about, but to start it off

Thats cool. On the topic of spoilers.Its fine. Im totally down with it. I actually I find that viewing it on a second time is better anyway, you know.

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/Film Interview: I Origins Director Mike Cahill Talks Post Credit Ramifications, Follow Ups and Religious Philosophy