By Crystal Harrell
Coachella Valley-raised director Christian Sesma is bringing his touch of Hollywood magic back to the desert with the premiere of his newest full-length feature film, Into the Deep—an exhilarating action thriller sure to keep audiences at the edge of their seats in anticipation. The film centers on divers searching for sunken treasure as they witness the murder of drug dealers by modern-day pirates, but a killer great white is determined not to let any of them escape its waters. Complete with a star-studded cast, exotic scenery, and exciting thrills, Sesma shared with CV Weekly his experience working on Into The Deep ahead of its local premiere.
CV WEEKLY: Thanks for taking the time to talk about your new film! Can you describe the process that went into creating this new project?
SESMA: This concept came from a writer friend of mine, Chad Law, who I made two movies with recently and a producing partner, Jordan Dykstra. They were working on a film in the shark genre. I’ve never done a genre movie like that. I mainly make action thrillers, but I’ve never played in that shark space. So when they sent me the script, it was a very straightforward thriller, which I liked a lot. It wasn’t like a tongue in-cheek cheesy shark movie or anything like that. It was much like Captain Phillips with sharks. The sharks weren’t the villains, the humans were. I’ve done a few movies already with Richard Dreyfuss, so the studio and distributor, Saban Films, said that if I could get Dreyfus on board, then they would green light the movie. It took some good pitching for myself and to pitch the right tone and angle for Dreyfus to sign on. When he did this, the film took on a new life and we were able to go shoot in one of the most amazing locations ever on the planet, which is Krabi, Thailand, and shoot a very cool indie shark movie.
CVW: you mentioned that this is your first entry into the shark genre. What was it like trying to prepare for this kind of feature? Did you look at other shark films for inspiration?
SESMA: I think I just went in more from my action skill set angle. I wanted to make sure it felt more on brand, but I think the big challenge here was this movie was shot like 90% entirely on the water or underwater. So it was a brand new play box for me to be shooting for three weeks on boats and scuba diving in water, with huge water tanks and stages. That was really the process that was challenging and really fun and and felt new. For a filmmaker that’s used to making “bang, bang, shoot ‘em ups”, it was fun utilizing my skill set in not only a different genre, but a different environmental medium, technically.
CVW: What was the most challenging aspect of the filming process in terms of the water and the setting?
SESMA: Into The Deep’s sets were 100% pretty much practical, like with recreating the sunken shipwreck that the scuba divers go see. So we actually did a whole scuba excursion to an actual wreck off the coast of Krabi, Thailand, and then had to recreate the close-ups with our stars in a huge water tank and build a portion of that shipwreck underwater and all these kind of things. So there were a lot of logistical challenges of shooting these scuba scenes and then of course the VFX work with the sharks while making all that try to play within how we were shooting. It was a fun challenge, but I’m really proud of what we did.
CVW: That sounds like a great experience. Can you share more about the local premiere that you’re having here in the desert?
SESMA: Of course! Into The Deep comes out Friday, January 24th. The film will play in select theaters and digital everywhere via Saban films and I always have a local premiere in town with my films. There’s always an LA premiere, but I always make sure that I throw a local premiere and try to bring down as many stars as possible, including Richard this time. There are other great stars in the film like Jon Ceda from the TV show La Brea and The Pacific and Selena, and Stewart Townsend from Queen of the Damned, also Scout Taylor-Compton, who’s our lead from the Halloween series. I always try to bring some star power and a little bit of Hollywood here because this is home, and I like to share with our community what we’re doing.
Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians are sponsoring the valley premiere at The Mary Pickford Theater in Cathedral City on January 23 with our local news host Patrick Evans moderating.
CVW: Coming back from this movie shoot experience, do you see yourself continuing to travel across the globe for projects?
SESMA: Yeah, I’ve shot around the globe many times, so this was the latest film that we shot overseas. I’ve shot in London, Armenia, Scotland… I definitely have another project that’s set for Thailand at the end of the year as well. We’re definitely going back to Thailand.
CVW: Can you reveal a little bit about that project?
SESMA: I can’t see the name yet, but it’s a big action flick that’s set in Bangkok and we’re casting now. It has really fun Kill Bill/Bourne Identity-style tone.
CVW: Thanks again for taking the time to talk about Into The Deep. Is there anything else that you would like to add about the film?
SESMA: I think the fun part of Into The Deep was that this is the only time Richard Dreyfuss has returned to the shark genre since Jaws. This is the only time he ever agreed to do a shark movie, and he is the last remaining cast member from Jaws. So getting him to do one more shark movie was extremely special for me, especially for a legend and Academy Award winner that all of us have grown up seeing in multiple major blockbusters, including the definitive shark movie.
Into The Deep will be released on all streaming platforms and in select theaters on January 24th.
