"It raises questions straight out of headline news about how bio-engineering could shape the future, but also stirs up fears about the dark places in human nature that we’ve been running from forever."

"In science fiction, those issues become epic," observes producer Steve Hoban, whose association with the director dates back to his first film, the 1992 short Half Nelson, on which a young Natali debuted as a storyboard artist. "We’re speculating about the future: is it good, is it bad, is it scary?"

While focusing on the cutting edge of bio-engineering, Natali believes Splice also exposes a primal fantasy lying deep in the human psyche. "The notion of bonding with something not entirely human goes back to ancient myth.  It has always existed and I was fascinated by the idea that those mythic concepts mermaids, centaurs, chimeras, human hybrids that have tantalized people’s imaginations for thousands of years could exist in the real world through new science. 

"While ‘Splice’ is very much about the vanguard of genetic research, it’s also about things that have been with us since the beginning of time."
 
To help stir that emotional connection, Natali felt strongly that Dren should be portrayed by an actor rather than a computer-generated image, and cast Delphine Chanéac in the unusual role. "It pays homage to all the things one would expect in a Frankenstein kind of story but also delves into aspects of the relationship between the creators and their creation that really keeps it on a personal level, and it’s because of that I decided to have an actor play Dren. Only when it’s anatomically impossible do we use CG."

Ultimately, he offers, "I don’t feel ‘Splice’ makes a clear statement about whether the actions of Clive and Elsa are good or bad.  Their mistakes in creating Dren are mostly well-intentioned. 

"That the question of whether we are going in the right direction or the wrong direction is raised by the film, but not answered by it, is relevant, because, at this moment, I don’t think we know."

Splice is released 23rd July

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