Earth to Echo Cast Talk World Cup, Social Media, E.T. Comparisons

Kids will be kids. At the L.A. Film Festival’s “Earth to Echo” premiere at L.A. Live Saturday afternoon, 15-year-old star Teo Halm said his favorite scene to shoot in the film was driving a car.

“I couldn’t really drive it because I’m under age, but they had it rigged with a stunt driver in the back,” said Halm. “So I was up there and it was super scary, because if I touched anything the car would veer off the road.”

Halm also couldn’t contain his excitement when asked about the World Cup.

“Oh my gosh! I’ve been super busy with this, but in between every interview I’ll be looking at my phone to see the scores. I’m a huge Belgium fan, I have no Belgian ties in my family, but they are such a good squad this year,” he said. “There are too many matches!”

let the REAL games begin #WorldCup ⚽️🌎

— Teo Halm (@TeoHalm) June 12, 2014

Social media and modern technology play a large role in the stars’ everyday lives and it was specifically featured in the film. “It’s a modern twist,” said Reese Hartwig, who plays Munch.“Everything is YouTube and social media oriented. If an alien were found today this is probably how it would happen.”

“We do have remnants of all those wonderful movies that I grew up on, but we are not that movie,” said producer Andrew Panay. “Earth to Echo” does pay homage to those films, but this movie is all documentary style.“It comes from the kids’ perspective, while those movies were from a bird’s eye view.”

Director Dave Green said that it’s beyond humbling to be mentioned in the same sentence as “E.T.”

“E.T. was a masterpiece and it can never happen again.” Although, he said there are differences.

“’E.T.’ is a friendship that happens between one boy and one creature. Our movie has a friendship as well, but the friendship is between our four main characters.”

“Yes, we have a creature in our movie, too,” he said. “But this story could have easily been about a baby bird that’s fallen out of its nest.”

Green also believes that kids will be able to relate to this film because of the authenticity.

“They don’t come across as polished movie kids in the way they talk and the way they banter and communicate. They text and Skype. The aim was that the kids would feel like actual kids living and talking and posting online.”

Ella Linnea Wahlestedt and Jason Gray-Stanford attended the premiere along with Bradley Cooper, Dax Shepard and Relativity’s president Tucker Tooley.

Founder and CEO Ryan Kavanaugh could not attend the premiere since he is in China expanding Relativity Media by forming a joint partnership with Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp.

(Pictured: Director Dave Green, Reese Hartwig, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Ella Linnea Wahlestedt and Teo Halm attend the premiere of “Earth to Echo” at the Los Angeles Film Festival)

Bradley Cooper at the @earthtoecho premiere to. Looks like someone has really bulked up for American Sniper! pic.twitter.com/UtxxOMTb4i

— Nikara Johns (@NikaraJohns) June 14, 2014

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Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-09-20

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