A Quiet Place: Day One director got the job because of a Nicolas Cage movie

A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski says he got the job because John Krasinski loved Pig, his first-ever feature film.

“John Krasinski saw Pig. I guess he liked it, because he reached out and said, ‘Hey, do you want to bring a little bit of that Pig touch to A Quiet Place?’ He told me that they wanted to do a New York day one movie and gave me some time to think about what my in to that would be.” Sarnoski tells GamesRadar+. Krasinski directed the first two A Quiet Place movies, writing the screenplay alongside Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

Pig stars Nicolas Cage as a recluse named Rob who lives alone in a cabin deep in the Oregon wilderness, and is forced to go into the city in order to rescue his beloved foraging pig from thugs. The film received critical acclaim and had a limited theatrical release. Alex Wolff, who appears in A Quiet Place: Day One, Adam Arkin, Gretchen Corbett, and Nina Belforte also star.

“And I kind of settled on the character of Sam, presented that idea and story to John and then to Paramount, and they gave me permission to make the movie, which was pretty cool. It was a smoother process than I [thought it would be]. I think he just liked Pig and wanted me to do this.”

A Quiet Place: Day One marks Sarnoski’s second feature film, directing from a screenplay he penned himself. The movie follows Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and her cat Frodo as they venture into New York City for what they think will be a quick day trip. That all changes, of course, when bloodthirsty ultrasonic monsters descend upon the city and rip it to shreds. While navigating the apocalypse, Sam runs into a man named Eric (Joseph Quinn) and the two form an unlikely bond.

Continues Sarnoski: “I think his big thing was he kind of wanted to allow another filmmaker into this sandbox and give them the freedom to just do what they wanted to do. So mostly, he was just very supportive [like], ‘Have at it, make this a Michael Sarnoski movie and explore and don’t feel limited,’ which was kind of everything I could have hoped for.”

A Quiet Place: Day One hits theaters in the UK on June 27 and the US on June 28. For more, check out our chat with Michael Sarnoski about making a cat one of the movie’s main stars.