Ridley Scott has taken audiences to distant planets, ancient battlefields and dystopian futures. Now, with The Dog Stars, the legendary filmmaker is exploring the end of the world through a much more intimate story about survival and human connection.

Ahead of the film's theatrical release, Scott joined stars Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce for a global virtual press conference to discuss adapting Peter Heller's novel, finding humor amid devastation and Scott's famously unpredictable filmmaking process.

For Scott, deciding to direct the film came down to the screenplay. In fact, he revealed that only three scripts in roughly four decades have landed on his desk and immediately grabbed him: Alien, The Martian and The Dog Stars. "All the components in there, the characters, the story, the time, the place, it's all in there," Scott said of the screenplay.

Survival With a Sense of Humor

Set after a devastating pandemic, The Dog Stars follows Hig (Elordi), who lives an isolated existence alongside his dog Jasper and fellow survivor Bangley (Brolin). When Hig receives a mysterious radio transmission, he begins searching for what might remain beyond the world he knows.

Despite the bleak premise, Scott was determined to find humor within the story. "Unless you're doing Macbeth, you have to always try and find a corner, an element of humour," Scott explained, stressing that it has to feel authentic rather than simply being comedy for comedy's sake.

When asked to identify the movie's central theme, however, Scott didn't hesitate: "Survival." That survival is embodied differently by Hig and Bangley, whose relationship Scott compared to The Odd Couple.

Brolin said he and Elordi quickly developed their own rhythm while working within Scott's constantly evolving environment. "We started to really rely on each other," Brolin said. "I think that really comes across in the movie."

Working in Ridley Scott's "Chaos"

Much of the conversation inevitably turned to Scott's famously fast approach behind the camera.

Elordi, working with the director for the first time, described watching him operate as unlike anything he'd experienced. "It's like Ridley mainlines the shooting process," Elordi joked.

For Brolin, who previously worked with Scott on American Gangster, the constant experimentation initially felt chaotic. "You never knew how a scene was going to go no matter how much prep you did," he explained. But that uncertainty eventually became one of the most rewarding parts of the experience, with Brolin describing Scott's process as "the most nutritious feeling creatively."

Pearce, meanwhile, returns to Scott's world after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. He plays Pops, the fiercely protective father of Cima (Margaret Qualley). Pearce described Pops as a man who knows how to protect his daughter but struggles to connect with her emotionally. Hig's arrival forces him to reconsider what Cima's future might look like. Once Pops begins trusting Hig and recognizing their connection, Pearce said, "some of who he used to be comes back."

"The Photography Is the Poetry"

Although The Dog Stars takes place in Colorado, the production filmed extensively in Italy, using the Dolomites and other locations to create its post-apocalyptic landscape.

The practical environments made a significant difference for the cast. Pearce said the locations did "half the work" in establishing the mood, while Brolin emphasized that the actors were actually immersed in those environments rather than performing against digital backdrops.

For Elordi, filming at Rome's legendary Cinecittà Studios also provided a constant reminder of cinema history. "It's impossible to forget the importance of cinema when you're shooting in Italy," he said.

That history also connects directly to Scott, who said Italian and French cinema served as his film school even more than Hollywood.

And when asked how he translated the poetic descriptions of nature from Heller's novel to the screen, Scott offered perhaps the simplest explanation of his filmmaking philosophy. "The photography is the poetry of any film," he said.

For The Dog Stars, that visual poetry surrounds a story that may take place after the world has fallen apart, but remains ultimately interested in what keeps people human when survival is all that's left.

The Dog Stars releases exclusively in theaters August 28, 2026.