"A Ghost Story" just opened in theaters and is being heralded as a modern, lighter take on supernatural drama films. Now, writer and director David Lowery has shared how he came up with the idea of a white-sheeted ghost returning to his home and trying to reconnect with his wife.
In the aesthetic aspect, the 36-year-old filmmaker was inspired by the photography of Gregory Crewdson. Thematically, the story originated from an intense argument he had with his wife about where they would live — Los Angeles or Texas.
Lowery really wanted to stay in Texas and even felt heartbroken at the idea of leaving their house. From there, he began wondering why he was so attached to things and got so sentimental about the places he has lived in.
"That was sort of the inciting point for this movie," Lowery said in an interview with Screen Crush. "All my movies have to do with home to some degree, so this felt like an opportunity to really dive into why I'm so obsessed with the idea of home."
Aside from his attachment to home, Lowery said the idea of a haunted house movie with a ghost represented by someone wearing a bed sheet was something he had been wanting to do for a while.
"The point of inspiration was bifurcated in that I had this idea about a haunted house movie with a guy in a sheet for a while," Lowery continued. "It was just an amusing idea and I didn't know what I would ever do with it, but it was something that I filed away in the back catalogues of my brain."
He added that "in thinking about homes and physical spaces," the image of a white-sheeted ghost suddenly emerged. From there, he sat down and just started writing the script without dialogues.
"A Ghost Story," starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last Jan. 22.
