In "Children of Men" (opening December 25th, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine), director and co-screenwriter Alfonso Cuarón visualizes a rather miserable future. Women can no longer conceive, Earth's youngest man has been murdered at the age of 18, and a majority of the world lies in ruin as England slips into a fascist state. But Cuarón is nothing if not optimistic. His quixotic energy permeates all of his movies, which range from brusquely sexual comedies ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") to family-friendly blockbusters ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"). And his energy comes through in person. On a computer screen, Cuarón might read like a cynic ranting about the today's political climate. But hearing him talk, there's subtle cheerfulness in his voice, one which reveals he never stops anticipating the future and what it may eventually bring. In that sense, "Children of Men" is the perfect project for Cuarón. When he's complaining about the present, he's actually thinking for the future. And though "Children of Men" portrays a bleak future, Cuarón insists throughout it's about the present. It's parallelism that defines a lot of what he discusses. In our extensive roundtable chat, we talk dystopias, adolescents, a tropical North Pole, and a certain bespectacled teenage wizard. Clive Owen and Julianne Moore in "Children Of Men" Q: Is it true Emma Watson was offered the role of Kee? A: Emma Watson?! No...no, that's not true. Wow. No, that's the first I've heard that. She's a little fair for that role. Q: It was definitely a choice to make Kee a character of color? Because in the book it's Julian (played by Moore) who's pregnant. A: Yeah, we departed quite a lot from the book. I pretty much took the premise of infertility. I'm just so thankful with P.D. James because she triggered the creative process. What I took from the premise was a metaphor for the fading sense of hope that humanity has. Also contemporary humanity's lack of care and respect for the next generation. I [used that premise] as a point of departure to do a film -- not a science-fiction film, not a film about the future, but to try to do an exploration of today, of the state of things that are shaping the first decade of the 21st century. Exploring which themes are shaping this decade, you don't go very far without hitting the environment and immigration. Q: And you didn't read the P.D. James novel? A: I was very clear of the movie I wanted to do. I didn't want to second-guess myself or sidetrack. So I asked [co-screenwriter] Tim Sexton to bring the book and rescue the stuff that would be relevant for the movie we were trying to do. It wasn't about, "Oh, I have this, I don't want to touch the book." No, actually, I was very keen to find whatever would help our story, as long as it was the movie I [desired to do]. Q: But you read the "Harry Potter" novels when you got the script for "Prisoner of Azkaban"? A: Actually, at the beginning, when they offered me the whole thing, I was kind of snobby about the whole thing. I never read the books or seen the movies, and I was kind of arrogant about it, I have to confess. And then Guillermo del Toro called me and completely...pretty much...how do you call it? When your parents do the thing? Q: To reprimand? A: Not to reprimand. But...sort of. He called and said, "Have you read the book? Okay, read the book and then call me." So then at page 100, I called and said, "Man, this is brilliant." He says, "Yeah, you have to do it." That's what happened. But then, of course, I read one and it's one of those things where you keep on reading. Cuaron with Emma Watson on the set of "Prisoner of Azkaban" Q: It's an interesting trajectory going from children's movies to something like "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and then back to a children's movie. Was that by chance? A: I choose what to do based upon instinct. You believe it's the right thing. I enjoy doing children's films, I enjoy working with children. I don't know how good of a communicator I am with older people. In every single film I've done, the people I care to communicate with are young people. For me, that's where hope resides. Hope resides in the younger people, in the young generation, and the next generation. That's one reason why, when I produce films, I produce first-time directors. Yeah, there's a factor of how I wished there were people when I was starting my career that would've helped and supported me. But there's a more selfish reason: after all these years of trying to learn from the big old masters, there's a point where you stiffen yourself. And you have to start connecting to the way the next generation is going to do cinema. So you keep yourself relevant, and you keep on learning the new tendencies, the new languages. What cinema is going towards. I am from a generation which was very lucky to have been born in a moment in which the world was pretty much%u2026it was alright. It was pretty damn good. And then we saw it go down the drain in front of our eyes. You see with politicians. They have no clue what to do. Now they're starting to accept...slowly. And I'm talking about American politics. For how many years were the same people in denial of global warming? Now there's some sort of "Well, maybe there's a little bit of that going on." For how many years have they been in denial the Iraq thing was a fiasco? Now in the last couple of weeks it's "Well, maybe Iraq is not so good as we thought." But that is as far as we go. [Now we're] taking archaic solutions for new problems. Humanity was praising itself for moving away from certain things. For example, torture was erased from the acceptance of Western civilization. Now, well, you change the definitions a little bit. It's not torture, it's abuse. Or the big praise of the West tearing apart the Berlin Wall. There were conversations because, you know, walls don't work. And now there are conversations to put a wall between Mexico and the States. Everything is going into very archaic solutions, very archaic ways of seeing things. And I do believe in the younger generation, people who were already born in this reality, not in that [previous] beautiful reality. Part of the problem with older generations is that they think everything is a regressive thing. "Let's try to go back to that original paradise. Let's go back to the world before we had global warming, pollution, before we had terrorism, before we had conflicts of interest with other humans." That's not going to happen. You know, it's not going to happen. The young generation [understands] the world they are living in. They have to transform this world. I don't think humanity is going to go extinct. But, you know, a lot of casualties may happen. And, eventually, people will learn how to live in the North Pole that is going to be tropical. And try to create new societies. But maybe it's going to be for the best then. Cuaron's 2002 hit, "Y Tu Mama Tambien" Q: Why have women become infertile in the film? A: To be frank, I don't care about it because it's not true. It's just a premise. For me, what's important was the metaphor of the premise. In the movie, nobody knows why. I didn't care, because the moment I start doing a movie about exploring why women are infertile -- and I know that frustrates some of the audience -- then I'm making a movie about infertility. It's the same with The Human Project [a mysterious group the protagonists attempt to rendezvous with]. The Human Project is nothing but a metaphor for the possibility of the evolution of the human spirit, the evolution of human understanding. The moment I explain who The Human Project is, it's a movie about these guys who don't exist. I don't care about them. I don't care anymore. I despise movies that explain. I cannot stand exposition in movies. I start getting, like, a rash. It's like getting suffocated in the theater. Because I love cinema. And cinema is becoming something that is not cinema. Cinema is becoming a medium of illustrating stories. Cinema is becoming a medium in which you can close your eyes and you can watch the movie. I really love films in which audiences partake with the whole thing. They have to fill up all the gaps in-between the moments that you create. And I'm not saying that as a filmmaker, but as an audience. I enjoy watching a movie where I have to make my own conclusions. I think that cinema within the past few years has been a hostage to stories. And we have to make stories to dance with cinema, not to be just a hostage. Where story, and acting, and cinematography, and music are elements to create a cinematic narrative. I'm sorry; I'm going to rant because I don't understand the point of a movie that you can watch with your eyes closed. And I'm not saying "no dialogue". Dialogue can be amazing. Look at Woody Allen, look at Eric Rohmer. They do films that are pure dialogue. But, I'm sorry, to watch the whole thing is fundamental. There is a subtlety of behavior, but that is lost because that behavior is explained. Drama has become cheap Freudianism. At least, in mainstream cinema, that's what I feel. That's the long answer of why women are infertile. [laughs] Did you like the answer? Q: Earlier you said that the older generation goes for the archaic solution. Now with the younger generation they can think and they have hope. A: I'm talking more about politicians. Q: In "Children of Men", everything seemed archaic and barbaric. What were you trying to translate in creating such an older, ancient feel in a futuristic setting? A: Well, because it's not the "ancient" of the future. It's the present. It's interesting how people said, "Okay, you're going into this refugee camp. It's a reference to Auschwitz, right?" The sad thing is that we never even thought of Auschwitz when we were doing that. We were thinking Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and The Maze. And those were our visual references. But in a way that shows how the atrocities of humanity are ageless. Humanity has evolved at an amazing rate. Technology and knowledge in humanity has evolved in a huge way. Think about just this century, think about the last 20th century, what technology has evolved. Nevertheless, ethics and politics don't evolve side-by-side. We don't move that much. Q: You were given a script of this, and you were initially reluctant. A: Oh, because the script sucked. Q: Did you retain anything from that original script? A: Zero. I didn't even finish the script. I read 15, 20 pages and I said, "Okay, bye-bye." What happened was the premise kept on haunting me. And I had to stop at some point to reconsider why it kept haunting me. And that's when the whole process began. Q: How important is it for you to advance the technical aspects of filmmaking, such as the long uninterrupted takes? Is that something that's important to you? A: In terms of the very long takes, from the beginning we said it was going to be the same approach as "Y Tu Mamá Tambièn", in which character is not more important than social environment. So you don't do close-ups to favor character. You stay wide. So your character not only blends with the social environment, but you're hoping to create tension between your character and the social environment. The camera was just there to register that moment of truthfulness. Michael Caine and Clive Owen in "Children Of Men" Q: Can I ask about casting Michael Caine? Because when I think of hippie, I don't think "Michael Caine." A: Actually, when we were writing the script, [his character] was called the Michael Caine character. And I was excited to meet Sir Michael Caine. Then he started talking about the cool people he met in the past. And then he started talking about John Lennon, because he was his friend. John Lennon this, John Lennon that. I thought, "This guy's just bragging about the cool friends he had." [laughs] He said the reason I'm telling you these stories is because I want to play this characters as an older John Lennon. The nasal voice, the cadence of how he talks, was how [John] was. When [Caine] dressed for the character for the first time, he wife didn't recognize him. He was so excited. Q: You said you wouldn't mind doing another "Harry Potter". How likely does that seem? A: I don't know! It depends on many things. You think that depends on me? [laughs] I spent two of the most beautiful years of my life doing the "Harry Potter" thing. Everything around J.K. Rowling's creation, not just the movie franchise, her creation, it permeates this beneficial energy that is so beautiful. It's a good place to be. I love her universe, I love her creation. But I don't know. I would be tempted now, but I don't know what would be in my head if that happened. If I have another movie that I want to do, or if suddenly I don't want to do movies anymore...who knows? Q: In a previous interview you said you stopped work on "Mexico '68" because you didn't want to do another massacre movie... A: What I said was that I'll keep researching it. It's a very serious matter and we want to be fully researched. At this point, I don't want to make it my next film. I am developing "History of Love". I don't know if I'm directing it or not. The next thing I want to do is this tiny thing in Mexico. Q: Is your brother Carlos still working on his project [supposedly a drama about soccer]? A: His first movie. He's going to direct it. Q: Are Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal still going to be in it? A: I hope so. That would be great. They've been talking about it, the three of them, but I don't know when it's going to happen. One of those projects that takes on their own life and their own length. ...And I wish I could stay here a few days in San Francisco. Q: Guillermo del Toro will be here on Thursday [promoting "Pan's Labyrinth"]. A: That's what I was thinking. Stay a couple more days. Party.