In making The Lost Bus, Paul Greengrass joined forces with Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown, Task) on an adaptation of former San Francisco Chronicle reporter Lizzie Johnson’s book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.
The Lost Bus follows the events of the 2018 Camp fire that devastated the town of Paradise in Northern California. School bus driver Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) must somehow get his bus full of children to safety with the help of their teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera).
During a panel conversation at Deadline’s TIFF studio, Greengrass revealed the experience of being in the editing process on The Lost Bus when the LA fires struck earlier this year. “To be absolutely honest. Billy Goldenberg, who cut the film, he had to go home,” Greengrass said. “We were about two or three weeks off from finishing. We were actually mixing at the time. Then it happened, and Billy had to race home because he nearly lost his home. [Producer] Jason Blum nearly lost his home. And [producer] Jamie Lee [Curtis]. It was one of those moments where reality rolled right across a film. And in that moment, the truth is, you feel like what you’ve done is a sort of puny and pale thing. But then afterwards, you know, I felt as I feel now, that the world is burning. These huge, uncontained fires are present all over the globe, and they are getting worse, and there’s more of them, and it’s part of the global terrors of our age. So to make a film with accessible characters that reflects that reality, I think, is a good thing for cinema to be doing.”
‘The Lost Bus’
Apple
For McConaughey, hearing Kevin’s own version of the events of that day was vital. “He told me the story of that day about three times. It’s a long, good story, but there’s certain spots where he each time a memory would come in his mind. You’d see it jar him, and it would affect him in the telling of it. And then we talk about some of those moments – the decision to go pick up the 22 kids after he had just made the decision to get home and take care of his mom and son. Where did that come from? Partially, he would say, it was just doing my job.”
Kevin and Mary are true heroes to McConaughey. “Someone like Kevin and Mary, a teacher and a bus driver, there’s no prep, there’s no plan, they’re just in the middle of it, and have to make a choice.”
Ferrera cites Mary’s incredible ability to focus on the needs of the children in her charge in that terrifying situation. “You think about people who go into education. We put our children, their education and their entire safety in their hands. They’re pretty extraordinary people who choose to do that with their lives. And Mary had been teaching for decades, and she felt an incredible sense of duty, to show up for the children in her charge. Talking to her, she really expressed how, for her, that meant completely suppressing the experience she was having as a mother with two children out in the town that she couldn’t communicate with, and a human who had all her own survival instincts going on at the same time.”
To watch the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at TIFF is hosted at Bisha Hotel and sponsored by Cast & Crew and Final Draft.
THE LOST BUS
Section: Special Presentations
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Brad Ingelsby and Paul Greengrass
Logline: Based on events that transpired during the California Camp Fire, this tale of heroism from Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass (United 93) stars Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera in a desperate struggle to bring a busload of children to safety.
Panelists: Paul Greengrass, Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera.
Distributor: Apple TV+