The magic-makers up in Montreal tapped into to some major talent for the script, direction and sound of Cirque du Soleil's new show R.U.N at Luxor. The Weekly interviewed these celebrated creatives.

Writer Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Alita: Battle Angel, El Mariachi)

On collaborating with Cirque du Soleil: "They want to do something really different here. ... They were trying to figure this thing out themselves, so it was fun to do that together."

On the writing process: "They had a rough storyline with action set pieces, different locations. ... I had to figure out a story reason for [everything]. Reverse-engineering a story is really fun. I did that once [in] a movie called Machete, where I shot a trailer five years before I made the movie."

On stunt work: "When you do movie [stunts], if it works you don't shoot it again. These guys do it every night. It's wild. Your heart stops when they do an action scene, because you know this is real human feats, real physicality."

Film/television score composer Tyler Bates (Guardians of the Galaxy, Stumptown; former guitarist for Marilyn Manson)

On collaboration: "The tenor of the conversations was always about challenge [and] excitement. We all seem to be thrill-seekers in our careers."

On the music's feeling: "I wanted to tap into what it feels like to be performing in front of large crowds. ... So I wanted the music to have that transcendent feeling. ... The audience would [not] merely be voyeuristic ... they would feel it on a visceral level."

On the volume: "The first time I walked into the theater, they played [the] music ... and I'm like, 'Is this the level you're going to play it?' He said, 'Yeah, that's it.' I said, 'Awesome.' It's like a rock concert."

On the sound: "A combination of electro-hard-rock music and a fair amount of ethereal, atmospheric, emotional underscore ... but it definitely lives in the realm of music I've made for movies like John Wick and maybe Atomic Blonde ... like the records I did with Manson or Bush."

Director Michael Schwandt (Creative director, Fox's The Masked Singer)

On creating R.U.N: "We have this amazing toolkit. We have this amazing stage and projection system. ... I'm really happy with the outcome."

On the show's challenges: "We're doing cinema-quality stunts ... stringing them together in sequence to make a 10-minute scene with stunts that would be days of shooting—that's hard to do."

On which role he'd like to play: "The groom is the bad guy. I'd have fun playing that role. [Or] one of the motorcycle riders. If I had the ability to ride a bike onstage, I'd choose that in a heartbeat just for the adrenaline rush."

R.U.N Wednesday-Sunday, 7 & 9:30 p.m. Luxor, 855-706-5433.