Where to watch Arrival (2016)

Trivia & production notes

• Eric Heisserer spent years pitching his adaptation of Ted Chiang's novella to production companies before any studio showed interest, with multiple studios rejecting it for being too intellectually demanding.
• Denis Villeneuve changed the film's title from 'Story of Your Life' because he felt the original sounded like a romantic comedy and the screenplay had diverged significantly from the source material.
• The original screenplay ending featured the aliens giving humanity blueprints for an interstellar ship, but after Interstellar's 2014 release, Villeneuve and Heisserer decided to make the gift the aliens' language instead.
• Amy Adams consulted with linguist Jessica Coon to prepare for her role as the protagonist.
• Principal photography lasted 56 days beginning in June 2015, scheduled after Jeremy Renner completed his work on Captain America: Civil War.
• The small Quebec municipality of Saint-Fabien stood in for Montana in the film.
• Cinematographer Bradford Young used color timing to reflect Louise's emotional state throughout the film, deliberately desaturating colors and allowing her to appear pale and melancholic rather than traditionally polished.
• Director Villeneuve intentionally sought a cinematographer skilled in natural lighting to make the science fiction film look grounded and realistic rather than conventionally polished.
• Production designer Patrice Vermette drew inspiration from artist James Turrell's works when designing the alien ship's meeting room, using a large white screen as a unifying visual element throughout the film.
• The design of the heptapod spacecraft was inspired by the asteroid 15 Eunomia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Arrival (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.