Joe Kelly Talks The 'I Kill Giants' Movie and Chasing the "Amblin Feel"

Nearly a decade after the comic book series was first published by Man of Action and Image Comics, Joe Kelly's I Kill Giants made its way to theaters recently. Kelly, a film and TV veteran who wrote and produced the project, told ComicBook.com that the high stakes and somewhat darker tone the film took on were an intentional move.

The film, which was also produced by Chris Columbus of Harry Potter and Home Alone fame, is the latest family film to be compared to the Amblin movies of the '80s -- but one of the elements often forgotten in the idealization of nostalgia is that movies like E.T. and The Goonies were challenging to young audiences in a way that few modern films are.

"Kids' movies of that era did have stakes and they were scary," Kelly said. "You have people chasing kids with guns. Look at Goonies, and you have these people trying to murder a bunch of kids."

The "Amblin feel" that Hollywood is always chasing, he told us, is more complex than it get credit for and in some ways works for exactly the reasons that it would scare many more modern executives.

"Madison [Wolfe] just fits Barbara so well," he said of the film's lead. "That gives us the freedom to do these big battles with monsters that are, I think, legitimately scary at times."

He noted that, like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or Stand By Me, the more visceral and existential threat faced by Barbara in the film is not one that comes from the down-to-earth threat of bullies; she is beaten up and her glasses broken at one point in the film, and as much of the third act deals with deeply personal stakes as deals with the giant battle itself.

"It's interesting to revisit because ten years ago when I was writing this, I was in one place, and I was dealing with idea of my father's mortality, and that obviously shaped her story," Kelly said. "Now I look at it totally differently. It's more like this is a journey my kids could be on, now that they're older."

As much as the movie dwells in some dark spaces, though, Kelly thinks that the underlying message is one of hope, and that overcoming the seemingly-insurmountable obstacles of everyday life is more relatable when viewed through a larger-than-life CG battle sequence.

I Kill Giants, which stars Wolfe along with Imogen Poots, Zoe Saldana, Sydney Wade, and more, is in theaters now. You can find where your closest local screening is via Fandango. The comic is still available both physically and digitally from Image Comics.