Fans of A Murder at the End of the World rejoice! Brit Marling, who created the show with her longtime collaborator Zal Batmanglij, is game to take the limited series further. Possibly as far as Tokyo…
Marling is my guest this week on 20 Questions on Deadline.
She also starred in and co-created Netflix hit series The OA and the films Sound of My Voice, Another Earth and The East with Batmanglij, and in this episode of the podcast, we discuss if there’s a next chapter for the End of the World protagonist Darby Hart—an amateur sleuth played by Emma Corrin.
At the end of the limited series on Hulu, Darby solved the murder of her ex-boyfriend Bill (Harris Dickinson) at an Iceland retreat run by tech billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen). Marling, who, apart from writing and producing, also directs and stars as Ronson’s wife Lee Andersen, said she does see the limited series potentially expanding into new worlds for future seasons.
“You could really take Darby anywhere afterwards,” she said. “You could take her to Tokyo.”
Marling said the Japanese city was “a specific place that was mentioned” during early writing with Batmanglij. “I think I’m just dying to get to Tokyo, I’m just looking for ways to get there” she continued. “So many of my favorite storytellers come out of Japan. Miyazaki is, I think, the storyteller that has moved me the most. His imagination is just so wild and free, and it’s incredible to watch him articulate things that it seems nobody else is able to articulate on screen. Murakami too. There’s so many great storytellers from Japan. But I haven’t gotten there yet, so maybe we’ll have to write our way into it.”
Marling also discusses how studying economics in college with photography set her up to understand the process of directing on the show, providing a kind of framework to blend creativity and practicality.
That economics degree initially had Marling taking a job out of college as an analyst at investment bank Goldman Sachs, but she soon felt the call to act and create. In this episode, she reminisces about the physical endurance required to work at the bank and how the competitive drinking of RedBull there may have inspired Darby Hart’s love of combining Coca Cola with coffee…
We also get into childhood memories, her dream dinner companion and favorite movies—and the latter choice may surprise you!
To hear the full interview with Brit Marling, click above, or listen and subscribe on Spotify, iHeart or Apple podcasts.
