Deadline Hollywood - Disruptors + Cannes Film Festival - 05/17/17 by Deadline Hollywood

C A N N E S F I L M F E S T I VA L + D I S RU P T O R S

M AY 1 7, 2 0 1 7 | D E A D L I N E .C O M

Disruptors

2017

LUC BESSON

On the grand gamble of Valerian

ELEANOR COPPOLA

Making her feature debutâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;at 81

DAVID LYNCH

The unexpected journey back to Twin Peaks

ANNAPURNA PICTURES

From indie haven to mini-major player

OLIVER STONE

Going face-to-face with Vladimir Putin

BREXIT & CHINA

The global forces shaking cinema

Plus:

NICOLE KIDMAN Owns Cannes ELISABETH MOSS Gets Dark DANIELLE MACDONALD Breaks Out OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Looks Back

The CHAMELEON

Back in Cannes with Okja, JAKE GYLLENHAAL takes a deep dive into his career

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NETFLIX PROUDLY CONGRATULATES

SCOTT STUBER DEE REES BONG JOON-HO AND ALL THE 2017 DEADLINE DISRUPTORS

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M AY 17, 2 0 17 | D EA D L INE.CO M G EN ERA L MA NAG E R & C HI EF R EV ENUE O FFICE R

Stacey Farish EDI TOR

Joe Utichi

C R EAT I V E DIR ECTO R

Craig Edwards

ONES TO WATCH

The names you must not miss on the Croisette this year

DEP U T Y EDITO R

Damon Wise

AS S I STA N T E D ITO R

Matt Grobar

DEA DL I NE CO - E D ITO RS - IN- CHIE F

Nellie Andreeva Mike Fleming Jr.

VOCAL HEROES

Behind the scenes with the actors who dub themselves

AWA R DS ED ITO R & CO LUM NIST

Pete Hammond

DEA DL I NE CO NTR IBUTO RS

Peter Bart Anita Busch Anthony D’Alessandro Greg Evans Lisa de Moraes Patrick Hipes David Lieberman Diana Lodderhose Amanda N’Duka Dominic Patten Erik Pedersen Denise Petski David Robb Nancy Tartaglione V I DEO P ROD UCE RS

David Janove Andrew Merrill

CANNES OR CAN’T

It’s the most storied festival in film, but is it right for all comers?

BRETT RATNER

2017

Deadline profiles the people, companies and politics changing film and TV

C HA I R MA N & CEO

Jay Penske

V I C E C HA I RM A N

Gerry Byrne

C HI EF OP ERATING O FFICE R

George Grobar

EX EC U T I V E V ICE PR ES ID E NT, B U S I NES S A FFA IRS A ND G ENERA L CO UNS E L

Todd Greene

EX EC U T I V E V ICE PR ES ID E NT, B U S I NES S D EV E LO PM E NT

Craig Perreault

V I C E P R ES ID E NT, CR EATIV E

Nelson Anderson

V I C E P R ES ID E NT, FINA NCE

Ken DelAlcazar

V I C E P R ES ID E NT, TV

Laura Lubrano

V I C E P R ES ID E NT, FILM

Carra Fenton

S EN I OR ACCO UNT EXECUTIV ES , T EL EV I S I ON

Brianna Hamburger Tiffany Windju ACCOU N T MA NAGE R

London Sanders

A D SA L ES CO O R D INATO RS

Kristina Mazzeo Malik Simmons

P RODU CT I ON D IR ECTO R

36 Bong Joon-ho 38 Lee Daniels 39 Joe & Anthony Russo 40 Eleanor Coppola 43 Ryan Murphy 44 Luc Besson 49 Scott Stuber 50 Vanessa Redgrave 52 China 54 David Lynch 58 Annapurna Pictures 60 Adam McKay 63 A24 64 Jason Ropell 67 ReFrame 68 Patty Jenkins 68 Bruna Papandrea 68 Dee Rees 69 Monumental Pictures 69 Elizabeth Karlsen 69 Lynn Harris 70 Oliver Stone 73 Lisa Taback 74 Damien Chazelle 75 Barry Jenkins 76 Jason Blum 79 M. Night Shyamalan 80 Jordan Peele 83 Micah Green 83 Leah Remini 84 Woody Harrelson 86 Brexit 88 Shane Salerno 90 Fede Alvarez 91 XYZ Films 92 Roeg Sutherland 92 Graham Taylor & Chris Rice 93 Rena Ronson

Natalie Longman Michael Petre

f facebook.com/deadlinehollywood l @Deadline TWITTE R

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NICOLE KIDMAN

Cannes’ MVP has no fewer than four titles in the festival this year

JAKE GYLLENHAAL

As he breezes into Cannes with Okja, meet the versatile actor with a penchant for transformation

Vive la Cannes! The disruptive history of the film festival

Stacey Farish

FAC EBOOK

Ready for darkness in a new series of Top of the Lake

PETE HAMMOND

A DV ERT I S I N G INQ UIR IES

ELISABETH MOSS

DI ST R I B U T IO N D IR ECTO R

S FA R I S H@ PM C.CO M 3 1 0 -4 8 4 - 2 553

On an ill-fated stay at the Hôtel du Cap—and his triumphant return

ON THE COVER Jake Gyllenhaal photographed for Deadline Hollywood by Mark Mann, with Geoffrey Berliner, at the Penumbra Foundation in NYC. The tintype portrait was made using wet-plate collodion on metal, a 19th hand made photographic process that preceded film. FInd out more at penumbrafoundation.org

FINAL FRAME

Olivia de Havilland on being the first female Cannes president

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Actor, Dub Thyself

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| Brett Ratner’s Du Cap Return p. 18 | Elisabeth Moss p. 22 | Nicole Kidman p. 24

Cannes Ones To Watch

Deadline anoints the five names destined to rock this year’s Croisette

HA I R & M A K E UP : S A RA D EN M A N F OR C E LE SI N

Deadline’s annual group of Ones To Watch is made up of actors and filmmakers who are all bringing something fresh to Cannes. The distinction isn’t always reserved for brand new faces; rather we’ve selected people who are branching out, or who find themselves in waters where they are liable to make waves. Cannes can be a place of reinvention, after all.

Danielle Macdonald THE BREAKOUT STAR OF PATTI CAKE$ IS SPITTING RHYMES AND HEADED FOR THE BIG TIME, WRITES JOE UTICHI

“Lords and ladies of the Royal Court, bow down. The QUEEN is in the building.” So announces Jheri (played magnificently by newcomer Siddharth Dhananjay) in Geremy Jasper’s Director’s Fortnight closing night film Patti Cake$. And for anyone who sees Danielle Macdonald’s breakthrough performance, as aspiring New Jersey rapper Patricia Dombrowski, it’s hard to argue. As the titular Patti Cake$ (aka White Trish, aka Juicy Luciano, aka Marilyn Mansion, aka Jane Dough, aka Killa P), Macdonald spits rhymes and takes names with the greatest conviction, bringing heart, humor and no small amount of pathos to the role. S

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Eric Schwabel

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CANNES ONES TO WATCH

anything like this, so he definitely

and Geremy’s like, “OK, I think we

because he was being honest,

for a full two years, starting at the

hadn’t seen me do this work. And he

can work with this.”

but I knew I wasn’t going to have

Sundance Labs, where, in 2014,

didn’t even ask me to audition for

Sid and I, Bridget and I, and

any downtime. But that was part

Jasper called on her to read the role

the Labs. I thought, I’m just going to

Jeremy and I, we all developed

of the magic of it when we got to

as the film was being developed,

be real with him and tell him I can’t

relationships at the Labs, and by the

it, because we were just working

alongside Bridget Everett, as Patti’s

do a Jersey accent and I can’t rap. I

end of that experience it was like,

constantly. Whenever I wasn’t on set

mom Barb, and Dhananjay. Then,

spoke to him and he kind of had to

we all wanted to do it together. But

or sleeping—and there wasn’t much

after months of intense preparation,

convince me it was going to be OK,

I never really thought it would get

sleeping—I was learning songs or we

the Labs cast were reunited on set

because it terrified me. He said, “But

funded with me in the lead. I had

were recording or figuring something

in 2016. Jasper’s call had come out

did you grow up listening to rap?”

a strong feeling this film would get

out. It was very intense, but those

of the blue for the Australian-born

And I said, “Yeah, of course.” He just

made, but I wasn’t sure if it would

experiences are incredible because

actress, who hadn’t demonstrated

had this blind faith.

get made with me.

you become like a family and your

let alone doing it in a New Jersey

What happened then?

So, when the film got a green-

live in LA, but we shot in New York, so

accent. But she jumped at the

He gave me three raps to learn for

light, with you in the role—is that

I was out of my life—and that actu-

chance, delighted that she’d been

the Labs, and they were ones he’d

when the real work began?

ally helps you enter this whole new

considered for her first lead role, and

written for the film. I had maybe

Yeah, my manager read the latest

world and not worry about what you

keen, if a little apprehensive, to take

a week and a half before I left, so

draft before we started shooting,

worry about in your day to day.

on the challenge.

I learned them by just listening to

because it had changed quite a

them constantly. I remember, I was

bit, and he called me and said, “I’m

What was involved in learning

What was your initial reaction

sitting at the Labs and Sid [Dhanan-

freaking out for you, I don’t know

the raps?

to the call that sent you to

jay] was next to me, and Geremy

how you’re going to do this. You’re on

It was a lot of hard work, listening

Sundance Labs?

was in front of me. I’d just met them

every page.”

over and over, and just really taking

I kind of thought the director, Ger-

that day, and they were like, “OK,

emy, must be insane. [Laughs] He

moment of truth, go.” It wasn’t very

Just what you want from

roommate even helped out, because

was asking me to do this, but he’d

good, because I was petrified, but I

a manager!

she grew up in Miami and listened

never met me, and I’ve never done

did it and then Sid looked at Geremy,

Yeah [laughs]. I appreciated it

to rap like it was her job; it was her

any particular aptitude for rapping,

whole world is revolving around this. I

AN D R EA M E ROL A / E PA /RE X /S HU TT ERSTO C K

It’s a character Macdonald lived

on anything anyone would say. My

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whole life. A lot of the songs that I

people in the audience, watching.

would get from Geremy to practice

I hadn’t had to perform in front of

with, she knew them completely. If

that many people before. But when

there was a bit I couldn’t get, she’d

Bridget came in, and she’s giving so

be able to break it down for me. And

much, I’m so focused on her that it

then, a month before we started

made me kind of blank out what was

shooting, I got a rap coach to really

happening. We were looking at one

cement everything I’d learned and

another, both terrified because we’re

put it all together. That was about

performing, and the emotions were

letting go of everything I’d learned—

real and it was all there.

just having to trust that it was in

Robin Campillo

there now—and be natural with it.

Does a big rap career beckon?

A few months out from shooting I

[Laughs] People keep saying that

learned how to do the Jersey accent,

and I’m like, “No, this is for this movie

and within a month I was starting to

only.” I don’t have the confidence

put the Jersey accent into the raps.

to do that. I can’t write lyrics either;

I had to completely slow down the

that’s all Geremy. It was a great

raps, put the accent in, and then

experience, and I loved being able

THIS IS NOT MOROCCAN-BORN French filmmaker

quicken it up again to get my mouth

to do it for the part, but I’m going to

Robin Campillo’s first time at the Cannes rodeo. The

around it.

leave that to Patti.

writer, director and editor was involved with Gilles March-

When did you get the actual, orig-

Did you ever imagine something

which he not only wrote and edited, but which also won

inal raps that are in the movie?

like this would ever be in the

the Palme d’Or for helmer Laurent Cantet.

Well Geremy loved to rewrite the

cards for you?

raps, the weekend before, the night

Never. I grew up in Sydney, Australia,

competition for a film he directed (and also wrote, but did

before. We would be recording on

and I started doing acting classes

not edit). It arrives with a lot of confidence—says Films

weekends, and he’d be like, “So

when I was in eighth grade. I think it

Distribution co-founder Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, 120 Bat-

here’s the song.” I’d be holding the

was just one hour of improv a week,

tements Par Minute will be “the French film that people are

lyrics, learning the flow and film-

and then there was also musical

talking about in Cannes this year”.

ing it the next day. We had time to

theater, which I was terrible at the

prepare, but then everything was so

singing. I loved it, but I was not musi-

multiplies its efforts to fight general indifference, despite

last minute when it came to it. I had

cal at all. I got stuck in the back of

the fact that AIDS has already ravaged lives for nearly a

to learn the foundation in the time

the chorus.

decade. Nathan, a newcomer to the group, finds his world

THE WRITER/EDITOR OF 2008 PALME D’OR WINNER THE CLASS IS BACK IN COMPETITION, THIS TIME AS A DIRECTOR, WITH 120 BATTEMENTS PAR MINUTE.

and’s Who Killed Bambi? (2003), and 2008’s The Class,

before, because there was no time

AN D R EA M E ROL A / E PA /RE X /S HU TT ERSTO C K

The story is set in the early 1990s, as Act-Up Paris

shaken by radical militant Sean.

to actually learn the material when it

When did you decide to move

came to it.

to Los Angeles?

That was the funny mix; I didn’t

This year sees Campillo making his first appearance in

I’d had an agent for a couple of years

The film is programmed for the first Saturday night 7pm screening, a prime slot that has a lot of heat on it. “Thierry Frémaux did a great job by selecting it,” says

have two years to learn the songs

in Australia, but I’d never gotten an

Brigaud-Robert. “We’re grateful, but we think the movie

that I was performing—I had maybe

audition. They were great, but there

deserves it.” The fact that it got a schedule spot that

24 hours sometimes—but I had to

wasn’t really the work for me there.

“everyone is calling about”, opines Brigaud-Robert, “maybe

learn how to understand rap so that I

There seemed to be in America. I

says something about the movie.”

could do that in such a short amount

came out to LA and did a casting

of time. Same with the accent.

workshop and the casting director

film and also co-producing with Memento Films Produc-

That’s why I listened to it just over

said, “Oh, you would work out here.”

tion. The co-operation was borne out of enthusiasm for

and over and over again, because I

He introduced me to my manager

the script, says Brigaud-Robert. “After a few calls, we were

had to be comfortable enough to

the same day. I went straight to their

all so excited about it that we said we had to have it even if

be able to go into it if it wasn’t a line

office, and they got me an audition

we have to share.”

that I had rehearsed. I needed to be

for the next day. It was for a series

good enough to be able to speak it

regular on a show. I booked it. It was

two films as director. Les Revenants (They Came Back) in

conversationally.

one of those crazy experiences that

2004, sold in all major territories and later became the

never happens, where you book

source material for Canal Plus’ Emmy-winning TV adapta-

something off the first audition.

tion, Les Revenants, which was then remade by Carlton

You’ve talked about family. After two years of working on this

Films Distribution is handling international sales on the

FD has history with Campillo, having sold his previous

Cuse as The Returned for A&E in 2014.

movie with the same people,

How did that work out?

did it help to sell the emotion of

I got my visa and moved to LA. I

won Best Film in Venice’s Horizons section, and was nomi-

the movie that you knew each

didn’t get my visa approval in time

nated for Best Film and Best Director César Awards.

other so well?

to do the show, which really sucked.

It helped so much. When I was

But I wouldn’t have gotten my visa

through to Eastern Boys and now BPM, “you see the giant

doing the final performance it was

without that, so I’m grateful for it. It

step forward in his mise-en-scène and the progress in his

terrifying, because we had 200

meant I was able to come out to LA

craftsmanship.” —Nancy Tartaglione

Campillo followed that with Eastern Boys (2013), which

Brigaud-Robert says that from They Came Back,

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CANNES ONES TO WATCH and start from the ground up; other-

What there is, is a very specific type

wise I’d still be in Australia wondering

of casting. But people want to see

how to work. I’m kind of glad I didn’t

themselves represented. I think

get the show, because you have to

the moment that started happen-

then learn how to figure it out; how

ing, people were able to feel more

to live away from home and not have

confident just knowing there were

any guaranteed work. I started from

other people out there who looked

the ground up, and I’ve been here

like them in society. Social media has

since I was 18; seven years now.

helped a lot with that, I think. When you’re having a hard time growing up,

Was it ever scary?

you can kind of see, “Oh, OK, there

It was terrifying. But I was excited to

are people out there going through

start doing what I wanted to do. I felt

what I’m going through.”

there was this big piece of me miss-

Honestly, I didn’t realize how

Rungano Nyoni A FAMILIAR FACE FROM CANNES’ 2013 CINEFONDATION RESIDENCY, THE WRITER-DIRECTOR RETURNS WITH HER BUZZED-ABOUT FEATURE DEBUT I AM NOT A WITCH

ing, because I knew I wanted to be

much it had affected me until I

out in LA, trying to act. I loved it so

moved the U.S. It gave me a certain

much. So the moment the oppor-

perspective, and I’m glad that I trav-

tunity came up, it was like, “Well, of

elled out here and got to see a bigger

AFTER TWO YEARS SPENT EARNING a Masters in Screen

course I’m going to do it.” It takes

world, because I think in the media

Acting at the Drama Center London, Rungano Nyoni decided

hard work, and it’s tiring, but you just

we have a responsibility to show

her calling lay primarily on the other side of the camera. “I real-

have to be really prepared. You have

that. Not everybody gets to travel

ized I was more fascinated shaping stories as a writer-director

to have the steady belief that it will

halfway around the world to see a

than as an actor,” she says. “Acting, or learning how to act, was

eventually happen for you, because

whole different perspective. If we

the best directing training I could have had.”

why else do you go out there? When

can see that on TV, we’ll know that

it does happen, part of it is timing,

society is bigger than the small world

into filmmaking, The List—about the impact of a list on a group

but it’s timing meets preparedness, I

we all live in.

of young final-year drama students—won the Welsh BAFTA

think. You really have to have both.

And she certainly hit the ground running. Nyoni’s first foray

Award for Best Short Film. Her second short, Mwansa the You’ve been on a new journey

Great, about an eight-year-old boy who embarks upon a great

adjust to LA. I came out knowing

with this film since Sundance.

journey to prove he is a hero, was nominated for a BAFTA and

nobody, and I’d never lived away

Until then, it was a family secret,

an African Movie Academy Award.

from home before. But after a few

but now it’s receiving so much

years I found the people that I love

praise—Fox Searchlight picked

arrives in Cannes with this year’s most buzzed-about UK fea-

and the places I love. And I got

it up, and now you’re in Cannes

ture debut, I Am Not a Witch, which is screening at the Direc-

animals a few years ago, which really

with it. How has that felt?

tors’ Fortnight. “It always had something to do with unrealized

helps. I have a dog and a cat, and

It has definitely opened up doors

potential and exploitation,” Nyoni says of the Zambia-set film,

they are best friends. It creates a life.

for me, which is really, really nice.

in which an eight-year-old girl named Shula is accused of being

It’s been overwhelming, but all in a

a witch and taken to a travelling witch camp.

It definitely took me a while to

Born in Zambia and raised in Wales, the 35-year-old director

Why do you think it was hard to

positive way. It’s all good things. I’m

land parts back home?

hopeful that there’s more to come

and it grew from there,” she explains. “I struggled with that

I don’t know, but there wasn’t the

and more projects and stories to be

version for a while, because it felt too heavy-handed. I had

opportunity. I know it’s changed

told, that I’m going to love and be

a separate idea for a story based in a witch camp and then

since, and there’s a lot more diver-

passionate about. I also think this is

combined the two ideas—and when I made that choice, it

sity in films and television now in

a story that needs to be seen. I think

just became the perfect setting for the story. It covered all my

Australia, but seven years ago there

it can give people a little bit of hope

themes, and it captured the absurd tone I was aiming for.”

wasn’t a lot. And there aren’t as

at a time when people are feeling a

many shows and films being done.

little hopeless. ★

“It started off as a collection of short stories and vignettes

This isn’t Nyoni’s first time on the Croisette, either: she was selected for Cannes’ Cinefondation Residency, which backed development for the feature project (later financed by the BFI, Film 4, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, and HBF+Europe). The director was also selected for the Nordic Factory, through which she co-directed the 2014 short Listen, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight that year. “I feel quite connected to Cannes,” she says. “Just because before my project got into the Cinefondation Residency, I was totally depressed. I had applied for numerous schemes and got rejected from all of them, and I was very, very low.” When she found out she was selected for Cinefondation, she says she “literally broke down in the supermarket”. It was the boost she needed. “It feels great to be here,” she beams. “It’s an honor. It’s bizarre.” —Diana Lodderhose

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CANNES ONES TO WATCH

Chloe Zhao THE CHINESE DIRECTOR BEHIND SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME RETURNS TO DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT WITH THE RIDER.

CHINESE FILMMAKER CHLOÉ ZHAO will be making her second trip to Directors’ Fortnight this year, with her sophomore feature The Rider. Born in Beijing, Zhao went to school in the UK and college in the U.S. before settling in Denver, basing her first two feature films on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. Zhao’s 2015 drama, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was developed at the Sundance Institute and premiered in Park City that year. It centers on the bond between a Lakota Sioux brother and his younger sister. The Rider— produced by Carnival and Zhao’s Highwayman Films, with Protagonist handling international sales—focuses on a young cowboy who suffers a near-fatal rodeo injury and undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

Dave McCary & Kyle Mooney

Of her decision to seek out such stories, Zhao says she “definitely felt stuck creatively” in big cities. And, “when you’re stuck, historically you go west… Coming

IT’S A FIRST TRIP TO CANNES FOR WRITER-DIRECTOR MCCARY AND CO-WRITER AND ACTOR MOONEY, WITH BRIGSBY BEAR IN CRITICS’ WEEK

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT a high-

mistakes and anxieties with your

school friendship blossoms into a

best pal.”

successful professional relationship,

Picked up by Sony Pictures Clas-

but writer-director Dave McCary and

sics for $5 million after it premiered

his best friend Kyle Mooney have

at Sundance, Brigsby Bear is a quirky

pulled it off. After college, the duo

comedy about a children’s TV show

founded Los Angeles-based sketch

with a twist—it’s produced for an

comedy group Good Neighbor (with

audience of one (Mooney), and

Beck Bennett and Nick Rutherford),

when the show abruptly ends, he

developed a huge YouTube follow-

sets out to finish the story himself.

ing (Louis C.K. and Steven Spielberg

“Kyle had been thinking about

are fans), and were snatched up by

this idea for years,” recalls McCary.

Saturday Night Live.

“We’re big fans of dated, obscure

Now, nearly four years later,

thrift-store VHS finds, especially

McCary is making his feature direc-

regional Christian educational

torial debut at Cannes with Brigsby

kids videos, and I remember Kyle

Bear, which stars and was co-written

explaining to me the seed of this

by Mooney with Kevin Costello.

idea maybe five years ago, where an

Featuring stellar guest appearances

animatronic bear show was being

from the likes of Claire Danes, Mark

made just for him as a brainwashing

Hamill, Greg Kinnear and Andy Sam-

tool. I obviously loved it.” When they

berg, the film is scheduled to close

were hired by SNL, Mooney gave the

the Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

idea to another childhood friend

“I’ve been very fortunate to be

of a place like South Dakota where nothing has really changed.” Non-actors Brady, Tim, and Lilly Jandreau; Lane Scott and Cat Clifford star in The Rider. The main character is inspired by the real Brady, whom Zhao met two years ago. “I would love people to meet him,” she says, “as he represents a lot of people in that part of the country which today is demonized for probably voting for Trump, but they are humans. I find my calling more in telling the story of that part of the world.” Was it a challenge working with non-actors? “I thought my last film was hard,” Zhao laughs, “but for a Chinese woman to try to wrangle a bunch of young cowboys?” Just don’t call the movie a western. “What defines a western?” Zhao says. “I’ve probably seen three my whole life. The film is really my version of a feminine gaze on one of the most masculine images in American culture.” Although she hasn’t yet worked as a filmmaker in China, Zhao says that her desire to do so is growing. “I think I have a Chinese sci-fi in mind. I was born and raised in China, Mandarin is my first language, and I definitely know America. I think that will be my strength to try and bring the two worlds together.” —Nancy Tartaglione

(Costello). He wrote a rough script,

working alongside my best friend

and three years later they were “run-

over the past couple of decades,”

ning around Utah with a camera and

says McCary, “from our high school

an animatronic bear head.”

band to internet videos, to SNL to

Of his Cannes debut, Mooney

this film. I think we’ve faced all the

says, “I’ve certainly dreamed of hav-

typical challenges that young film-

ing a film at the festival since I first

makers go through over the years—

started making videos in high school.

time, money, negativity—but it’s a

It’s all very surreal and special, and I

lot easier to manage when you can

hope I don’t embarrass myself.”

learn from and laugh about all those

—Diana Lodderhose

from a country that’s rapidly changing, I love the idea

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he continued to dub his own roles, though he calls it a very demanding task to “recreate that energy and that quality and that passion in the movie and to translate that and make it as good as it was in the original … It’s nice to see that sometimes you can even improve certain things in your own performance.” He points to his role as Niki Lauda in Ron Howard’s Rush (2013), for which he received a lot of compliments from Austrians because, even in the German dub, he maintained an Austrian accent. “Which is very different to my own,” he notes, “but it was then even more authentic and believable for the Austrians.” The subtleties are important, LINGUA FRANCA Daniel Brühl speaks Spanish, German and French, as well as English, and dubs his own roles.

says Brühl. “When you dub in different languages you can play with the strings and the different qualities. And you cannot even [totally] control it because, by itself, Spanish dubbing will always sound a bit more passionate, the German always

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF

sounds cold and drier, and, well, you know French … ” Professional voice actors often

Actors in mainstream English-language movies are routinely dubbed into foreign tongues by other voices. But some prefer to do it themselves

become very closely identified with the stars they dub. For every Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford, there is a local-language counter-

BY NA N C Y TA RTAG L I O N E

part who generates their own share of excitement. Brühl mentions

FOR ANGLO-SAXONS, THE CONCEPT of dubbing can carry with it a comical stigma, bringing to mind the martial arts movies, horror flicks and softcore porn films of the ’70s, where the lip movements of the actors hardly matched the (usually flat and booming) voices coming out of the screen. At the Cannes film festival—where all films must be presented in their original language, with French subtitles—it is unthinkable. But dubbing is for many cultures a matter of fact, and helps ensure films reach wider audiences.

Born in Barcelona and raised in Cologne, Brühl is unusual in that he speaks fluent Spanish, German

Christian Brückner, a prolific German voice actor who does Robert De Niro. “I remember dubbing a film when

and French, having started out as a

I was 15,” he says, “and he was next

professional voice actor at the age

door. I heard his voice and, of course,

of eight. When he was 15, Brühl was

I thought, ‘Shit, Robert De Niro’s in

recommended to an agency for kids

there! What’s he doing here? Why

and began getting regular work as an

the hell is he in Cologne?’ It’s so

actor. “I dubbed all sorts of things,”

weird. In a few cases I would say they

he recalls, “including a lot of very

have really managed to find fantastic

it may surprise them to know that

trashy films—dubbing Jackie Chan

equivalents.”

and, even in America, audiences are

in some cases, it’s the original actor

in his worst B-movies and C-movies.

used to that—think of the works of

translating their own text.

But I always loved the Asian and

nuances between languages, dubs

Jackie Chan movies, because most

are not straight translations from

Animation is roundly dubbed,

Hayao Miyazaki. But live-action is too

Stars who have dubbed

Because there are so many

in most offshore markets, and par-

themselves in other languages are

of it was just ‘Ooh-ahh-ooh’—some

the original English, and the writers

ticularly for prints released outside

more common than one might

fighting, you know? And then only

who do the actual adaptations of

major cities. In Paris, for example, it’s

think, including Jodie Foster, Antonio

a couple of lines which was always

the language are, along with voice

easy to find a Hollywood movie in

Banderas, Christoph Waltz, Salma

easy money.”

actors, some of the unsung heroes

VOST (original version with sub-

Hayek and Danny DeVito (more

titles), but head to the provinces

on him later). But one of the more

Goodbye Lenin!, he became one

sense of linguistics to be able to

and you’ll hear French actors lend-

prolific is Daniel Brühl, star of

of German cinema’s biggest stars,

make not only the meaning fit, but

ing their voices to the screen. This

Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 World

returning to voice work only briefly,

also the timing.

doesn’t faze audiences, who have

War II yarn Inglourious Basterds—for

with the German-language dub

grown up with dubbed TV series

which he did his own voice work in

of Disney’s Cars (2006). “I was

input. “Especially when it comes to

from the U.S. and other markets, but

German and Spanish.

Lightning McQueen,” he laughs. But

swear words,” the actor enthuses.

After breaking out in 2003’s

of the business. It takes a very keen

Brühl says he generally provides

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salutes our clients

JASON BLUM LEE DANIELS WOODY HARRELSON BARRY JENKINS PATTY JENKINS RYAN MURPHY BRUNA PAPANDREA JORDAN PEELE VANESSA REDGRAVE SHANE SALERNO OLIVER STONE and our own

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where people don’t go any farther— you get up to that spot and you go, ‘Holy shitballs, am I really doing that?’ Once you finished Russian it felt like you needed to lie down and have somebody spoonfeed you ice cream. Doing the movie was a piece of cake compared to this, but it was so much fun and so rewarding.” DeVito also found a new respect for voice actors. “I have a lot of respect for them,” he says, “and [they can] rest assured that I’m not going to do it again.” Illumination’s Brett Hoffman, who was script and recording supervisor on The Lorax, says of DeVito’s achievement, “It was an amazing feat to watch.” Hoffman also points out that Despicable Me director Pierre Coffin routinely redubs specific “Minionese” cognates, which are meant to be understood in the local parlance. “Some German translations are

But, because he makes up the

just far too long and harmless

language, he will also need to redub

and sound stupid. English is ideal,

sounds that are unknowingly too

because a lot can be said in short

similar to offensive words in other

sentences, just with a few words,

tongues. “Universal International

whereas in German you need three

Dubbing will give him guide tracks or

times as much, and to adapt it can

suggestions for safe replacements in

be quite tricky. I love to be involved

those cases,” says Hoffman.

and change it if necessary.”

Other high-profile multi-dubbers

Although Brühl says he’d prefer

include Banderas, who did the vari-

to see a film in its original version,

ous Spanish-language versions of his

he believes dubbing is important.

character in DreamWorks Anima-

“Some films wouldn’t have a chance

tion’s Puss in Boots, including a Latin-

to be seen in the countryside unless

American Spanish take for Mexico,

you dub them,” he reasons.

Central and South America; and

And although it’s more expensive,

versions for Spain in Castilian and

dubbing also opens up extra market-

Catalan (he also did multiple ver-

ing avenues. Slotting a famous local

sions for Puss’s appearance in Shrek

star into a main role and having them

2, 3 and 4). According to Dream-

out on the red carpet can help; so

Works’ head of post-production

an influencer who will then promote

VOCAL HEROES Top: Danny DeVito learned Russian, Spanish, Italian and German to dub The Lorax (2012). Above: Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas launch Puss in Boots.

the film to their followers.

Jim Beshears, Banderas wanted to do Puss because it was his favorite character he’s ever done, “and for his

In what turned out to be a savvy

audience in Spain and Latin America,

marketing hook borne out of what

of the international voices myself?’”

if you live in Moscow, I have a south-

he wanted to deliver that perfor-

he thought would be an interesting

He chose to do Russian first (“For

ern accent,” he explains. “I got pretty

mance for that character to that

challenge, Danny DeVito did the dub

some reason I thought that would

close with Italian, really close with

audience”. Hayek similarly re-voiced

for his lead role in Illumination’s The

be the most difficult”) and did a test,

the two Spanish. German was more

her role as Kitty Softpaws several

Lorax (2012)—in Russian, German,

working the words out phonetically.

difficult, but it was so satisfying

times, and so did Guillermo del Toro

Italian, Catalan and Castilian Spanish,

“To keep the energy that we have in

when it got close.” Working with two

as Commandante.

despite the fact that he speaks none

the original, you had to make some

coaches in each language, DeVito

of those languages.

little adjustments here and there,” he

says the process was exhilarating

a foreign language version it’s a

When the original actor can do

“It was kind of a crazy thing,” he

remembers, “but we got going and it

but daunting. After finishing the

positive, says Beshears. “Actors are

recalls. “I was speaking to the pro-

wasn’t bad. It took a lot longer than I

Russian version, he says, “I had the

brands,” he notes, “and they know

ducer and they were telling me about

imagined, but it was fun.”

feeling of what it must be like when

they need to burnish the brand—and

people say they want to climb Mount

if they really love the characters, they

Everest. They get to that plateau

jump in there and do it.” ★

it coming out in various places … and I just said, ‘I wonder if I could do any

DeVito says he thinks he got “pretty close” with the Russian, “Like,

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

too can giving a small voice part to

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THE

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

PODCAST

AND ON DEADLINE.COM

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A DANGEROUS PLATFORM

LARS ATTACKS! Lars von Trier wears his Cannes persona non grata status with pride in Berlin.

A Cannes premiere is every filmmaker’s dream. But it can be a nightmare…

WHEN THIERRY FRÉMAUX UNVEILED this year’s lineup, the Cannes festival chief made the surprise admission that one of his selections—Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never There—was missing a few scenes at the time of programming. The amount of work needed was minimal, but submitting unfinished work can be a poisoned chalice. In fact, for all the glitz and pomp of a Cannes berth, there are many caveats awaiting the unwary filmmaker. Some entries, like Bennett Miller’s 2014 Best Picture nominee Foxcatcher, cruise all the way to awards season, while others fall hard—like Gus Van Sant’s critically panned Sea of Trees (2015), which looked hot on paper with a cast including Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts but sputtered out with a fall VOD release.

time to blow the film up to 35mm

“shambolic”, while Ebert (again) was

from Super-16 using rare vintage

“dazed, confused, bewildered, bored,

equipment. Instead it was accepted,

affronted and deafened by the boos

and while the starting gun inspired

all around me”. After the film was

Gallo to find his ending, the middle

picked up by Sony, Kelly cut 20 min-

was flabby. It premiered at a messy

utes and delivered a vastly superior,

119 minutes, prompting critic Roger

if still somewhat anarchic release

Ebert to label it “the worst film in

version, but this time Ebert did not

the history of the festival”. The quote

relent—it was “even more of a mess”,

spread like wildfire; but not so widely

he decreed—and the audiences

reported was Ebert’s three-star

stayed away. Worldwide, it took less

re-evaluation of the recut film on its

that $400k, and Kelly learned a harsh

release in 2004. “Make no mistake,”

lesson about film-industry loyalty.

he wrote. “The Cannes version was a

“Everyone’s your best friend when

went home unrewarded, and though

bad film, but now Gallo’s editing has

you get into competition at Cannes,”

example, Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-

Wong went back to the film, chang-

set free the good film inside.”

he later noted. “But then the movie is

wai, who took so long tinkering with

ing it substantially from the festival

his hotly anticipated sci-fi 2046 that

cut and adding six minutes, 2046

Brown Bunny redux, a fate that also

it arrived at the 2004 event too late

never really regained momentum.

befell Richard Kelly’s ambitious 2006

Talent just isn’t enough. Take, for

for its press and first public screen-

Still, other directors have had it

It was too late; few have seen The

widely ridiculed, and all of a sudden, your phone stops ringing.” But there are plenty of other

apocalyptic comedy Southland Tales.

reasons why a Cannes premiere can

ing, and began its evening world pre-

worse. After pressure from his Japa-

Just 29 when he started shooting,

backfire. It’s worth noting this year

miere with the last reel still in transit.

nese backers in 2003, Vincent Gallo

Kelly couldn’t resist the festival’s

that two much-mooted Hollywood

The drama brought lots of attention,

later said he only entered a rough cut

invitation, even knowing that the

titles, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead

but that’s all. Perhaps hurt by grum-

of The Brown Bunny in the hope that

visual effects were far from finished.

Men Tell No Tales and War Machine,

blings of a publicity stunt, the film

it would be rejected, allowing him

Reviewers called it a “fiasco” and

are absent. No doubt there are

T IM BRA KE M E I ER / E PA/ R EX /S H UT TE RSTO CK

BY DA M O N W I S E

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congratulates its

2017 CLASS of DISRUPTORS For challenging norms, setting their own paths, and forging an exciting future for the ďŹ lm and television industries.

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The reviews were not kind, and the director was tipped off on his way up the red-carpeted steps of the Grand Theatre Lumière by a text from his son advising him not to read them until the morning. Blindness at least had a release, but in 2013 James Gray saw his film The Immigrant disappear in front of his very eyes—as a result of bad UK reviews, notably one from The Guardian, The Weinstein Company yanked it. “The film got shelved,” said Gray, “it was a tremendous sadness to me.” In the age of Google, bad buzz at Cannes is hard to shrug off. And yet in a rare case of serendipity, it worked in the favor of one of Cannes’s more divisive selections: had Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives (2013) starred Luke Evans, as planned, the director would likely still be picking up the pieces of a film derided by critic Rex Reed as “plotless, creepy, meat-headed and boring”. Instead, bailed out by his Drive star Ryan Gosling, Refn benefited from the kind of publicity money couldn’t buy: all his distributors had financial and logistical reasons for

pre-bought the film, so when Evans

that, but the two stars, Johnny Depp

left to make The Hobbit, not only did

and Brad Pitt—both reeling from

they have a Cannes talking point on

highly public relationship dramas—

their books, they also had a bargain.

must have breathed a sigh of relief.

But sometimes the wind blows

Last year, after opening the festival

the right way. When DreamWorks’

with Café Society, Woody Allen’s

2001 animation Shrek, starring Mike

Cannes reverie was rudely shattered

Myers as an unhygienic fairytale

when his estranged son Dylan Farrow

giant, was selected—in the main

penned an angry column re-igniting

TROUBLE ON THE RIVIERA Clockwise from top: Jodie Foster directs Mel Gibson in The Beaver; Southland Tales director Richard Kelly; and 2046 director Wong Karwai with producer Chan Ye-cheng.

allegations of abuse made by his sister Dylan. Though the film was kindly reviewed, it quickly dropped from the awards conversation. Similarly, when Jodie Foster

competition, no less—there was a collective intake of breath. Prior to that, and excluding 1973’s cerebral Planète Sauvage, there hadn’t been an animated film in competition since 1953, when Disney brought

attempted to bring back Mel Gibson

Denmark’s Lars Von Trier after the

was canceled by the venue’s Jewish

Peter Pan. It was a bold move to put

from his self-imposed exile with

car-crash press conference to pro-

owners, several distributors pulled

Shrek onscreen alongside works

2011’s dramedy The Beaver, reports

mote his 2011 competition entry Mel-

out of their deals, and six years later

by David Lynch, Michael Haneke,

of his bitter custody battle the previ-

ancholia. Quite forgetting that the

Von Trier, ever the Cannes darling

Jacques Rivette and the Coen

ous year were still fresh. Though he

world’s media were mostly there to

since The Element of Crime in 1984,

brothers, and producer Aron Warner

wisely ducked it, Gibson was the

see his star, Kirsten Dunst, Von Trier

remains firmly out in the cold.

admits that “as soon as Shrek

hot topic of the press conference,

made his usual darkly humorous

leaving Foster to defend him to the

remarks about the film’s Wagnerian

less booing that so often occurs in

media. Europe was more receptive,

flourishes: his jokey reference to his

Cannes, but it is the critical jungle

but The Beaver tanked in the U.S.,

discovery that his father’s fam-

drums that actually kill a film. Von

appear regularly on the Croisette,

making less than $1 million.

ily was German—not Jewish, as he

Trier had fallen victim to the global

another reminder that, as Thierry

jumped into the water and farted, I know I put my head in my hands”. Now, though, animated movies

thought—will go down in Cannes his-

reach of instant opinion in the

Frémaux once remarked, “Cannes is

quarters, was frosty, Gibson was

tory. A fair percentage of press pres-

internet age, which began creep-

a laboratory”—and while there are

never actually persona non grata.

ent knew otherwise, but many took

ing up on the festival in 2008 when

likely to be bad smells and the odd

That ignominy was bestowed—lit-

him at face value when he declared,

Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness took

explosion, it is still first and foremost

erally, by the festival itself—on

“I’m a Nazi.” The post-premiere party

the festival’s opening-night slot.

a place for discovery. ★

RE X /S H U T T E RSTO CK

Though his reception, in some

Much is made of the mind-

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GUEST COLUMN small that I could lay on the bed and practically touch all four walls with my hands and feet. I went back to explain that there must have been a misunderstanding, but it was made clear to me that the room I’d been assigned was the only one available for the next two weeks. I was stuck. In desperation, I convinced my then-girlfriend, tennis star Serena Williams, to leave Paris—where she was preparing to defend her French Open title—and join me. I used all of my charm and powers of persuasion and hyperbole, telling her she’d get the best room in the hotel, and she could train on the du Cap’s clay courts during our luxurious stay. All this to impress the manager into giving us the room I so pined for. I namedropped that my girlfriend and the reigning French Open champ would come—and train on the hotel

NO VACANCY The exclusive Hôtel du Cap and (right) dissatisfied guest Brett Ratner.

courts, because I asked her to. I said her luggage wouldn’t fit in my room,

HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE HOTEL DU CRAP

and asked for something bigger. “I will do my best, Monsieur Ratner,” he said in his heavy French accent. By the time I returned from the Croisette one day, Serena was playing her part: training on the clay courts.

How I survived a troubled stay and a banishment to return to the exclusive Cannes resort an honored guest

The entire hotel seemed to be watching. Did this sway the management into moving me? No way. Not even

BY B R E T T R AT N E R

close. “Brett, you did it again,” Serena told me. “These people hate you. I

I’m back in good standing at the

Before I tell you how I got back

friend, Charles Koppelman, a frequent

had to walk down a back stairwell to

visitor and EMI Records chairman. He

find a room with a window that faces

suggested I slip the reservations man-

a brick wall. I have to crouch just to

ager €500, and assured me everything

get under the shower head.”

would work out. I did this myself, but the French

Man, was she pissed. I needed a new plan and took

class system looks down on the

to loitering in the lobby, positioning

underlings who handle these tasks.

myself where the manager could see

I was 35, but looked no more than

Hollywood royalty like Spielberg and

Hôtel du Cap and have been for

in, allow me to remind you why I was

25, and so the reservations manager

Katzenberg walk past and say hello

several years. I might even be able to

once as unwelcome at the hotel as

assumed I was probably some mem-

to me. But this didn’t seem to work

say my article brought about certain

the accountant who mixed up the

ber of Hollywood’s lucky sperm club—

either. Each evening, everyone went to

reforms to the most desired haunt for

Best Picture envelopes will be at the

the son of a director or a producer—

their rooms upstairs or back towards

the world’s biggest movie stars, stu-

next Oscars.

and, as a result, not only did I fail to

the Eden-Roc—and I would exit out

make the Eden-Roc guest list, but my

the front, on the way to the Annex.

dio executives, and financiers during the Cannes Film Festival.

My first stay at the hotel was at the invitation of then-New Line chairman

pre-booked room in the main hotel

Finally, someone famous and attrac-

It’s still the most expensive place

Bob Shaye, for whom I had made the

was taken away and given to some-

tive asked me why I wasn’t coming up

to rest your head on the French Riv-

Rush Hour franchise. I had no film, but

one deemed more VIP. I was moved

in the elevator. I told them I was going

iera—€33,600 for the 14-day duration

I enjoyed being Bob’s honored guest.

to the Annex, the building where the

for a walk in the moonlight. But it had

of the festival. Gone, though, are the

Regular Hollywood types stay in the

drivers, assistants and publicists are

nothing to do with the moon.

days when they wouldn’t take credit

main hotel, but the studio chairmen

unceremoniously housed.

cards, and when, if guests wanted

stay at the Eden-Roc, overlooking

a TV in their room, it came with a €500-a-night price tag.

I was beyond embarrassed. And

I dragged my luggage because

when Serena left, it was game on for

the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. I

there was no bellman, and when I

me. I devoted myself to getting even,

wanted to be there, so I called a family

turned my key, I stepped in a room so

and I called publicist Dennis Davidson

RAT N ER : B RI G I T T E LACO M BE

IN 2004, I BECAME PERSONA NON GRATA and was banned for life from the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, after I wrote an article about the traumatic experience of having been given the worst room in the entire hotel. And ever since that article, any time I check into a five-star hotel anywhere in the world I’m upgraded to the presidential suite, as a manager gently asks me to please never write an article about their hotel.

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RAT N ER : B RI G I T T E LACO M BE

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GUEST COLUMN has changed here at the Hôtel du Cap. Welcome to your new home.” Upper management had been fired. I didn’t ask what happened, or if my article caused it, but apparently stuff was going on that the owners didn’t know about. One night I found myself talking with this lovely, elegant German woman through most of dinner, when Jean Pigozzi said, “Oh, Julia, do you know who this is?” She replied that I was a film director. When he told her I was the guy who wrote “Why I Hate the Hôtel du Crap”, she lit up and said she loved the article. I asked who she was. “I own the Hôtel du Crap!” It RAISING THE BAR Brett Ratner buries the hatchet with Du Cap staff; (left) Ratner with his former girlfriend, tennis champ Serena Williams.

was Julia Oetker, who said the story opened her eyes. I am often in Cannes on RatPac business. They now take credit cards, and provide televisions in the rooms. But you’d still be shocked at how much one has to pay for a bottle of water, or the cost of a towel and a chair by the pool. It all comes with the territory when one chooses to stay at one of the greatest hotels in the world.

to gain some insight into the system

I said, “One room, I’m just going to

expecting to head over to my room

at the hotel. What I learned was

sleep in. The second room, I’ll dress in.

on the Croisette. But the local public-

from a friend that the wife of New

that during Cannes, the best rooms

The third room, I’ll use the bathroom.

ity people met us to say a man by the

York billionaire Saul Steinberg asked

in the hotel were flipped, multiple

And the fourth room, I’m just going to

name of Philippe Perd had requested

her husband to buy the hotel for her

times. When studio heads reserved

enjoy the view.”

I call the Hôtel du Cap with urgency.

as an anniversary present. He agreed,

He was furious. “This is ridiculous,”

So I did. “Hello, Mr. Ratner. I am

and bought it. When they arrived at

after their movies premiered. Their

he opined. But there was nothing he

Philippe Perd the new manager of

Nice airport, the driver started going

studios were required to pay for a full

could do except give me the keys.

the Hôtel du Cap.” He must have

in the opposite direction. “Where

14 days. Once they had left, the hotel

When I got back, Bob Shaye had

been aware of my ban, and that

are you going?” she said. The driver

re-rented the same room, for another

already received the infamous letter.

nobody from the glitziest Cannes

replied, “The Hôtel du Cap.” She said,

14 days. When those secondary

It said, “Mr. Ratner is banned for life

premiere was staying there, and all

“No, it’s this way,” pointing to Antibes.

guests left, the hotel did it again and

from the Hôtel du Cap.”

the billboards read, “Realisateur Brett

He replied, “No, the Grand-Hotel

Ratner.” Was the new manager rein-

du Cap-Ferrat is in this direction.” It

again, charging 14-day fees through-

I wasn’t quite done. I’d stay at

out the festival. What would happen

my friend Jean Pigozzi’s home, Villa

forcing my ban, or asking for premiere

turned out the husband bought the

if the original guest gave the room to

Dorane, right down the street from

tickets for du Cap VIPs?

wrong hotel; one that happens to be

a family member or a friend? It was

the hotel, or on my good friend Ronald

allowed, Dennis told me, but only if

Perelman’s yacht, which I requested

arrived, Mr Ratner. Please come to

Eden-Roc, but not near it. I’m looking

the request was sent on official busi-

be docked at the foot of the hotel.

the hotel from the airport directly. We

forward to staying at the Grand-Hotel

will give you our best four-bedroom

du Cap-Ferrat. I wonder if they will upgrade me to the Presidential suite.

ness letterhead. So I asked four different studio

When my “Hôtel du Crap” article

Mr. Perd said, “We know you just

was published, I made beautiful

villa, with a personal butler, gratis, for

bosses if I could have their room after

printed copies—hundreds of them—

your entire stay.” Without a second

they had gone. All I was hoping for

and asked friends to put them on

thought I said, “I’m on my way.”

was one—all four said yes.

tables all around the hotel. I continued

The manager called me down to

As I pulled into a gate directly

as beautiful as the Hôtel du Cap-

Influencing changes at the hotel has given me great pleasure, as does the knowledge that everyone who

to mail packages with the article to

across the street from the hotel—still

works there knows I am a great friend

his office. “Monsieur Ratner, there’s

the hotel, to make sure they had a

in my pajamas from the overnight

and a terrible enemy. I’ve written this

a big problem here. You have four

copy for every guest. That got me

flight—I was convinced I was being

sequel to my original article simply

rooms.” I said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “It’s

banned from even eating lunch there.

Punk’d. But it was the hotel owner’s

to express that the Hôtel du Cap is

Years later, when X-Men: The Last

impossible, you cannot have four

villa, a private paradise fully serviced

still the most beautiful hotel on Earth.

rooms.” He’d already gotten the let-

Stand was in Cannes, I convinced

by the hotel. The entire staff lined up

It’s the center of the universe at the

ters from the studios. I told him, “I’d

Tom Rothman to have Fox rent a

to greet me, with the new manager,

Cannes Film Festival, and it’s where

like the key to each one.” He asked,

big plane for the cast and the entire

Mr. Perd, standing at the front door.

everyone wants to be. I no longer call

“Why would you need four rooms?”

team. When we landed in Nice, I was

“Mr. Ratner,” he said. “Our attitude

it the Hôtel du Crap. ★

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

the Eden-Roc, they would leave right

The stories are legendary. I heard

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P R E S E N T S

T H E CO N T E N D E RS E VEN T PR ESE N T E D BY D E AD L I N E H O L LYWOOD I S CO M I N G TO LO N D ON T H I S O CTO B E R ! The only eve n t whe re BA F TA m e mb e rs will h ave t he opport u n ity to s pe nd t he day h earing direct l y from t h e actors an d film m ake rs of t his yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award season .

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

D eta i l s com i ng soon: C on te n de rs BA FTA . D eadlin e .com

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5/11/17 3:33 PM

DIA LOGUE

Elisabeth

MOSS

The star of Top of the Lake travels to Cannes to premiere the entire second season of the Jane Campion-created TV hit BY J O E U T I C H I

JANE CAMPION AND GERARD LEE’S Top of the Lake can now boast two film-festival firsts. When Season 1 debuted in March 2013, telling the story of detective Robin Griffin and her investigation into the disappearance of a young girl in New Zealand, it became the first TV miniseries ever screened at Sundance. Critical and awards glory soon followed, with Moss picking up her seventh career Emmy nomination for her turn as Robin. And now, with Season 2, the show joins Twin Peaks in a premier Cannes berth—a shift into television few saw the venerable festival ever making. Top of the Lake is produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two in co-production with SundanceTV in the U.S., BBC First and Foxtel in Australia. And Moss is a key collaborator on the project. “Elisabeth challenged Jane and Gerard to take risks in exploring the chaos inside Robin’s character as they were writing,” notes producer Philippa Campbell of Season 2. “Once we were shooting, it was thrilling to see her capacity to hold the tangles of the new story together and to unlock Robin’s heart in a way we’ve not seen before.” Here, Moss teases the pitchblack darkness ahead for her haunted detective. When you made the first season of Top of the Lake, everyone thought it would be a one-off. What changed? That’s what we thought, too. Honestly, Jane and Emile [Sherman,

“I ASKED JANE TO MAKE IT MORE CHALLENGING AND MAKE IT DARKER; WE NEEDED A REAL REASON TO DO IT AGAIN.”

challenging and make it darker; we

It leaves the audience slightly

needed a real reason to do it again.

off-balance.

And then it just took forever. Jane

Exactly. I was so pleased when I

and Gerard don’t just churn these

saw the first two episodes because

things out. They take their time to

I felt like it had the same Jane

make sure it’s good and worth it.

Campion-esque element that you want—that really strange sense of

It’s hard to believe it’s possible,

humor, that creepy feeling against

but this season really is much

the beautiful images—but then, it’s

darker for Robin.

much more interior.

Because we didn’t wrap everything

Jane kind of set the tone at

up cleanly at the end of Season 1, I

the very beginning with this little

think it made it easier to do that. Four

manifesto that she wrote for the

years have passed, the exact amount

cast and crew about what Season

of time that passed between filming

2 was. She said that the first

the seasons. It has not been a good

season was about the wilderness

four years. I think that she’s sort of

outside, and the second season

in this place where she’s figuring out

is about the wilderness within.

what she’s looking for, and this thing

For me, that describes it so well,

that she has run away from since she

because it feels like a film noir—

was 16—which is her daughter—she’s

you’re in a city this time, and

discovering is the one thing that she

there’s jazz on the soundtrack. I

actually needs to find.

was so pleased because I felt like it retained what we liked about

Beyond the darkness, you’re also

Season 1, but … why do the exact

working in a new location, with

same thing all over again? You do

an almost entirely new cast. Did

want to do something that has a

that change the experience?

little bit of a different feel.

You know, it felt as different as I think it needed to be. One of the

How do you feel about joining

great things was that we had this

Twin Peaks as one of the first

four years. Robin had had a four-

television shows to premiere at

year gap in her journey, and I had

Cannes?

also had a four-year gap, so I was a

I think it’s so telling of what’s

little bit older. I had my experiences

happening in television. The fact

now to draw on.

that it’s being included at Cannes

For me, honestly, it didn’t feel that

is not lost on us. I think it speaks to

different. I think that’s so much to do

the quality of the work, obviously,

with Jane. Our connection is just very

and the quality of the filmmakers.

strong, and it felt like coming home.

But it also really speaks to this

I feel like the scripts in Season 2

thing that I’ve witnessed in the

are so much more complicated, and

last decade of my career, going

so much more challenging. I also felt

from The West Wing to Mad Men

like they were much more rooted in

to Top of the Lake, which is, before

reality, with the basic storyline of the

I started on Mad Men, it was

crime and illegal surrogacy, and all of

considered perhaps a risky move

Zealand, filming the first season.

that. I felt like there was a lot more

to do television. It was starting to

But at the time, it was one of those

to bite into, and there was a lot more

change then, but I’ve seen it really

things, like, “Let’s see how the first

realness in it that I really loved.

change in front of my eyes over

executive producer] and I kind of started lightly talking about if there was a second season, and what it might be when we were in New

season goes first.” You can imagine:

It’s not a strict anthology like

the last decade. When you have

we were making this weird show in

American Horror Story or True

filmmakers like David Lynch and

New Zealand, and thinking, I don’t

Detective, where you have a totally

Jane Campion doing this work

know if anyone’s going to watch it.

different story and a totally different

on television, I think everyone

cast; the whole thing is completely

starts to go, “I don’t know what

it after that. It started to get more

different, but in the same genre.

the difference is.” It’s fantastic to

serious around the time of the

You have one or two, I guess, of

see something like this on the big

Emmys, the year the show was

the original cast, but it’s the same

screen, as well. It’s so beautiful, and

nominated—that was when we had

story with a new cast. It really does

it’s so visual and cinematic that the

our first real conversation about

kind of defy the expectations of a

chance to see it on a big screen is

it. I asked her to make it more

second season.

really, really cool for us. ★

Jane and I kept musing about

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PHOTOGRAPH BY

Gabriel Goldberg

5/11/17 9:06 AM

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DIA LOGUE

Nicole

KIDMAN

The queen of this year’s Cannes film festival, and star of TV’s addictive hit Big Little Lies, reveals what makes her tick BY PE T E H A M M O N D

Was Celeste the role you envi-

I’ve seen you in Cannes many

sioned playing?

times. I’ve seen you as a juror,

I read it and I just went, “Whatever—I

at many red carpets and

would just love to get this made.”

premiere parties.

If they’d said to me I had to play

You’ve seen me happy, and devas-

somebody else then I would have

tated, and shocked.

played that part, but when the author says, “This is the role that I

All kinds of things. There’s a

envision you in,” then you honor that.

whole history of Nicole Kidman in

It all came together perfectly. Reese

Cannes and this year is no excep-

called Laura Dern, and Laura called

tion; you have four projects. Tell

Shailene Woodley. Zoë Kravitz we all

me about Yorgos Lanthimos’s

knew. It was friends creating oppor-

The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

tunities for friends.

How do you like that title? Yorgos is tremendous. I loved The Lobster and

NICOLE KIDMAN HAS BEEN A HOUSEHOLD NAME for nearly 30 years now, but her star never seems to wane. Rocketing to fame in the ’80s, she survived the spotlight of a high-profile celebrity marriage to Tom Cruise and emerged triumphant from trial by tabloid. While her peers, and some of her predecessors, chased box-office success in romcoms and franchises, Kidman went for the interesting role, starting in 1995 with Gus Van Sant’s mordant black comedy To Die For. Since then, Kidman has been very much a director’s actor, collaborating with established names— Stanley Kubrick, Lars Von Trier and Anthony Minghella— while supporting visionary newcomers.

I don’t know of any actor that

Dogtooth. C’mon, when do you see

makes as many fearless choices

films like that? That’s rare. In this

as you.

day and age, those films need to be

It’s not fearless because there’s an

heralded. Whether you like them or

enormous amount of fear at times.

not, they still need to be made.

But it’s curiousity. I’m always interested in exploring human nature and

Then you have The Beguiled,

the human condition. I actually feel

which is Sofia Coppola’s reimag-

safer and closer in the world when I

ining of the 1971 Clint Eastwood

do that, if that makes sense.

movie, I guess? Yeah, and it’s Sofia’s unique vision.

You’ve worked with an amazing

She’s deeply feminine, so her

list of world-class directors over

storytelling is not plot-driven. Jane

through the whole season. I would

the years—Stanley Kubrick,

Campion said it beautifully—she

whelmingly the latter that brings

get texts and calls and emails, and

Park Chan-wook, Lars Von Trier ...

talked about that “unique femme

Kidman to Cannes this year. There

that’s when I knew it was really

How do you choose your roles?

style” that Sofia has.

are projects that reunite her with her

penetrating. Particularly when my

I’m so random. I would love to say

I’m in a place, at this stage in

Rabbit Hole director John Cameron

husband was saying, “Oh, my friend

that I have this really decisive way

my life, where I can support female

Mitchell (How to Talk to Girls at Par-

just texted me and they were like,

of working, but I am just completely

directors over and over again. It’s a

ties) and Portrait of a Lady’s Jane

‘What’s gonna happen next week?’”

random and spontaneous. If I feel it, I

very conscious choice. I’m not gonna

Campion (Top of the Lake: China

I haven’t had that for years, so it’s

do it. If there’s something in the story

go for two or three years without

Girl), while new partnerships come

been an extraordinary journey.

that I love, if there’s a director that

working with a woman. I will seek

I just love, then I don’t even need

them out and will continue to do it

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is over-

in the form of Greek “weird wave” auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’s The

How did you get involved as a

to read the script. I’ll do favors for

because that’s part of what I feel is

Killing of a Sacred Deer and Sofia

producer?

friends. That’s how I work.

important right now.

Coppola’s The Beguiled.

I produced Rabbit Hole and then

Artistically, I want to explore

The Family Fang, and this came to

things. I want to fail at times,

Do you like going to Cannes? Is

common is nothing except Kidman’s

me through Bruna Papandrea, who

because I need to fail to get back up

it fun for you to walk up those

bravery and spirit, born of a love for

was with Reese Witherspoon and

again and to not be afraid. When I

steps?

acting that has burned in her since

their company Pacific Standard. She

did a play in London [Photograph 51,

Fun? I go there because it’s part of

she was young and starting out. “My

called me and said, “I’ve just read a

as scientist Rosalind Franklin], I was

the job. It’s what you do. I support

mother said I was an intense child,”

book that Reese and I love. Read it.

terrified—absolute stage fright—but

the filmmakers. These people are

she notes. “She still says it.”

It’s by an Australian author.”

it felt amazing to get though it.

putting out money to make these

What all of these films have in

I read it overnight and I said,

movies. It’s part of what I have to do.

You’re starring in four movies

“You won’t believe it. I’m going to

You’ve done a lot of theater.

There’s the glamor attached to it but

in Cannes—and then there’s

Australia tomorrow. I’m gonna call

Yeah. Theater is important for me.

it’s also, pretty frightening at times.

also Big Little Lies. It’s very hard

Liane [Moriarty] and ask her if she’ll

I hadn’t done it for 17 years but the

That’s why, when you say fearless,

to come up with a project that

meet with me and let’s see if we can

emotional discipline that’s required

I say, no, no, there’s definitely fear.

really gets people talking, but

get the book.”

of theater—the eight shows a

Always fear, but I’m willing to put one

week—is important. It’s a part

foot in front of the other, right?

this is one of them.

I went and had coffee with her

I’d hoped it would be, but you never

and I said, “Liane, if you give us the

of the scope of being an actor.

know. I think when it first aired, I

rights to the book, I promise you

There are amazing roles.

was like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s not gonna

we’ll get it made.” She said, “Oh, but

It’s dangerous being onstage,

catch on like we’d hoped it would,’

you’ve got to play Celeste.” That was

but the immediate reaction with the

of the other. Would you agree?

and then it just built momentum

the genesis of it.

audience is so gratifying.

Two steps forward, one step back. ★

DEADLINE.COM

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Always. That’s the career of Nicole Kidman: one foot in front

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Michael Buckner

5/11/17 9:08 AM

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JAKE GY 26

JAKE G

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5/11/17 9:38 AM

E GYLLENHAAL AS HIS NEW MOVIE OKJA COMES TO COMPETE IN CANNES, MIKE FLEMING JR. MEETS THE STAR OF NIGHTCRAWLER AND NOCTURNAL ANIMALS TO FIGURE OUT WHY HEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SO DRAWN TO THE DARK PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK MANN

DEADLINE.COM

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5/11/17 9:38 AM

IN A WHIRLWIND MONTH, JAKE GYLLENHAAL has just completed a lauded run starring in a Broadway revival of the seminal Steven Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George. Between performances, he found time to preside over the Tribeca Film Festival launch of Hondros, the documentary about slain war photographer Chris Hondros produced by Nine Stories, the ambitious production company Gyllenhaal runs with Riva Marker. Now it’s off to Cannes for the premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, one of Netflix’s first productions in Asia and its first to be accepted into Cannes. And from there, it’s all about making sure the Nine Stories-produced Stronger gets its due as the second feature out focusing on the Boston Marathon bombing. Gyllenhaal plays Jeff Bauman, whose legs were blown off as he waited on Boylston Street to watch his future wife cross the finish line, and whose courage under extreme adversity made him a symbol of the resilience of the city of Boston.

JAKE AT WORK From the top: Gyllenhaal shoots Okja; co-star Tilda Swinton; the curtain call on opening night of Sunday in the Park with George.

After starting his career in traditional leading-man roles,

adolescent or going into the world. I think it’s a fam-

Gyllenhaal has evolved into one of the most dynamic

ily film in that way because of it, but it is really in the

and interesting performers in movies. He has spent

sensibility of Bong, because I think it’s cross-cultural.

his thirties taking one extreme emotional and physical

He brings a sense of humor along with an emotion. His

deep dive after another, into complex characters that

ability to play with tone—you know, those filmmakers

range from a dying mountain climber in Everest to an

that we love, no one can speak like they speak—he’s

emotionally gutted widower in Demolition, a hollow-

one of them. I don’t know anyone who sort of vacillates

eyed sociopath in Nightcrawler, a chiseled, emotionally

and also rides this wave of humor and emotion the way

damaged brawler in Southpaw, and an astronaut

he does with this movie. I’m a sad sack of sorts, a really

disillusioned with life on earth in the alien thriller Life.

wild character who comes in and is a disruptor. I play a

Gyllenhaal breaks off as big a piece of himself as is

guy named Dr. Johnny, He’s a zoologist, and he had, at

needed and is carving out a career not measured by

one time, a very popular animal show, and it has since

grosses as much as these other factors.

been in decline. He was hired by the Mirando Corpora-

Okja helmer Bong describes his appeal. “Just looking

tion—which is Tilda Swinton’s company, her character

at Jake,” he says, “looking at his eyes, you can sort of feel

is Lucy Mirando—to be the spokesperson and head

sadness or a craziness that exists.” Gyllenhaal smiles

of this contest that they have, where each continent

at the reference as we get underway. In fact, when I

has developed one of these creatures. They’ve been

suggest that his Nightcrawler character seems more a

genetically altered, and a different farmer on each of

reptile than the wolf he claims to have used as inspira-

these continents has been given one of these creatures

tion, we split the difference on the character it took him

to raise. I’m the face of the contest, and because I’m

about three months to find. “Like a desert creature,” he

a zoologist, I pick the most perfect specimen who’s

muses. “Scaly, not necessarily something you want to

going to then be cloned. He’s insane. He’s mad. He has

touch or get very close to, but who can survive in very

horrible style, but he’s a wonderful character.

hard conditions? That works.” How much of a challenge is it to find the tone

You have Okja at Cannes—it sounds almost

of that character, when you’re working with a

like a gentle version of King Kong, in which

director whose first language isn’t English?

there’s a creature to be protected. Is that a fair

Unfortunately, finding madness for me is not too

assessment?

difficult. But I do think Bong is a visionary. I don’t use

It’s really a story about a young girl and her relationship

that word very much. The way and the process in which

with this creature. I think it’s really a story about growing

he works is not like anything I’ve ever been a part of.

up, in the way you could probably think about Pan’s

He’s a visual artist, so everything is drawn, everything

Labyrinth—it’s fearless in how he talks about being an

is very specific in how it’s shot. He edits on set, which

DEADLINE.COM

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5/11/17 9:38 AM

is also kind of amazing to be a part of, and there’s a

was the famous class at Columbia. He’s a really brilliant

real specificity to his vision. You fit within his frame, but

guy, and I asked him about sociopathy, I asked him

he loves actors and allows for pretty broad choices. I

about that kind of behavior, and he gave me a number

make some very broad choices in this movie, and a lot

of books to read. We had a number of discussions

of it has to do with surety as a filmmaker, and his vision

about that. Then I just went, not another way, but that

overall. He describes things in the most amazing ways.

led me somewhere else.

He once said, “His voice is like … “and then he drew a guitar. He said, “Not the strings of the guitar here, the

You decide, “I’ve got to be gaunt,” so you’re physi-

strings of the guitar on the end. That you pluck at the

cally preparing that whole time?

end that you don’t ever play.” I love that about Bong.

I don’t know initially that was a conscious choice. I just

It’s always an interpretation and an artistic expression

thought, I know that there’s a sort of physically impos-

in terms of how he talks to artists. But working in Korea

ing quality when you feel like somebody who’s physically

and working with those crews, and being in that space

imposing, and somehow that takes away, at least in my

was so much fun.

mind, from the sort of mental chess that he’s playing

TRANSFORMER From the top: Gyllenhaal pushes himself to the limit with Southpaw, Everest and Nightcrawler.

with people, and the intensity of his brain, you know? Your character in Nightcrawler—that was the most

I just thought, if I walk in, and I feel like this guy’s in

wonderful, murderous sociopath who just kind of

shape, I go, “Where does he have the time to get in

snuck up on you. Wow.

shape like that?” Mostly his brain is just thinking, think-

It was such a good script, and the elements of all

ing, thinking. He’s not sleeping, he’s thinking, thinking,

the people, all the department heads, and everybody

thinking. He’s not really eating, he’s not fueling himself

in charge of the storytelling were really top notch.

with that. His fuel is manipulation and human interac-

You’re in safe hands in that way, so I just took big

tion, so that led me to think … I’ve talked about it a lot,

risks with the character.

but he’s sort of like a coyote. There were references to coyotes in the initial script.

I was looking and it kind of felt like you didn’t blink that often. Did you? Is that a conscious part of

When Deadline ran that first picture of you in the

your performance?

boxing ring in Southpaw, it almost crashed our

No. I don’t think so. There was something about

site. As an actor, you have to use everything as a

the soliloquies that he gives throughout—there

tool—and your body as a tool also—but I feel like

was a strange pace and rhythm to the writing, and

people underestimated what a character you

punctuation—that I learned everything. That’s how

played there.

I tend to learn things generally, how I memorize or

My idea of acting, and what to do—that changes too. A

prepare, is I try and learn it at a speed that can be

lot of that’s experimental, trying to figure out what the

unflappable when slowed down.

craft is, what you need to do, what you believe in, what can create a character. It’s hard to play a boxer without

What do you mean?

knowing how to box, or getting in shape, but there are

Meaning, if I learn it at a very fast pace, it becomes an

other things where maybe it’s not as necessary—I think

unconscious, more melodic memorization, as opposed

that’s an evolution. It’s an argument my sister and I

to memorizing through meaning. Meaning comes to me

have all the time about how much you need to change

when I read it first, when I’m interpreting a character,

your body to play a role, and I do believe in the physi-

but in terms of memorizing, I don’t memorize based on

cal aspects of the character. I have great fun creating

that, I memorize based on sound. I don’t know if that

that. Not necessarily gaining or losing weight, getting in

makes sense. Because of that, I could deliver these

shape, those things, but I think the physical attributes

things really fast, and in doing that maybe I just didn’t

of the character, how they behave, that’s why I love

blink as a result.

what I do. That’s so fun. Mimicry and that creation is what I have loved since I was a kid, and that’s the

It’s more than finding a handle, it’s really a deep

thing I do it for. I love observing, I love human behavior.

plunge into these characters you play. What’s

I love the oddities of it, the beauties of it. But it does

involved in finding that guy?

at times get frustrating when you’re having to have

It’s just time. It’s a lot of time. I’ve always needed a

conversations about the surface of things, without the

long runway. There are things that come, you’re sort

acknowledgement of how much you care, or the story,

of immediately inspired, and you kind of go, “OK, I can

or the conversations you’ve had with the filmmaker. But

see where it is, but it’s far off.” I’m far into the alphabet

I don’t expect everyone to care or understand why I do

before I even start at A. In the case of Nightcrawler, I had

what I do. That would be a futile effort. Most people

initial ideas. I had a number of ones that didn’t really

have much more important things going on in their lives.

stick, and then it just became about a process with Dan

I would say everybody does. And I understand that the

(Gilroy, director) of slowly chipping away and discover-

perspective is fleeting. You see something on the street,

ing how this guy looked, how this guy behaved. It took

you see a picture of someone, and it’s fun for a moment.

me, like, three months. It was an intellectual process

Why is that picture interesting? Because essentially you

initially. I went to my professor at Columbia who taught

can go, “Is that real?” And that gets passed along for a

me this class called Contemporary Civilization, which

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You take some extreme plunges. Have you allotted a period of time for yourself now, where this is kind of your wheelhouse—to basically throw yourself under a bus every time you take a role? The reason why I love Sunday in the Park with George is there’s a line in it where George says to Dot in the love story, “I am what I do … which you always knew, which I thought you were a part of.” I think there is part of me that really understands that, and then there’s also a part of me that knows, particularly now in my life, it’s time to settle down. I think, though, I will never deny myself, because it is who I am—that expression, if I have the opportunity to continue to do it. I read somewhere that basically you were up there on a mountain dying in Everest. What did you have to do honestly to accomplish that scene? I mean, we were up there in the freezing cold, and I was basically freezing. It was a verging on hypothermia. It wasn’t something I have to say I enjoyed. It wasn’t a great, great moment, but it was interesting. It was interesting to know the elements. Look, people go to extremes all over the place. This job affords the opportunity to explore a lot of different extremes. And also not. You explore intimacies—those are conversations I don’t have a lot about scenes. What is it like exploring the intimacy of a relationship? That, sometimes, is more thrilling and dangerous than being up there in the obvious things. What did it feel like? You go, “I put myself through that thing,” and then you go, “Can you really feel that on the screen?” These days you’ve got Tom Cruise actually hanging from the side of airplanes … That’s what he loves. He really does. I think he’ll talk about it, and I’ve read about him talking about it. He loves those extremes. That is who he is, essentially. What do you think when you see a stunt like that? Do you go, “This is the level I don’t go to —120 floors up in a Dubai skyscraper”? His rationale, which I know because he told me, is “If I’m 20 floors up and I fall, I’m going to die. So what’s the That’s an interesting perspective. I don’t really believe in the same thing—20 floors may be enough for me, but I do think that I don’t need that. I really don’t. I do think there is an aspect to a performance and performing that always has to do with facing a fear of some kind. There are also things that make me go, “I don’t want to do this,” and I don’t do them. But I think about it, and I go, “How is this interesting? Is this something that is in me?” Because I think my biggest hope is that what I’m doing now, people feel comes from me. You’ve been on Broadway, you’ve got this documentary you produced, you’re in Cannes with a crazy movie by this Korean filmmaker—what has a period like this told you about the course you’re on right now and the choices you’re making? A number of years back I decided that this is really and truly a business. You have to love the quality of

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that—you have to love that piece of it. There’s often a

I do.

these men who go to physical and emotional

relationship with the artist and business that’s at odds.

I think that that’s the hope, but I think we remember our

extremes. What does this give you that

Inevitably, I think that’s how we function, in a way, but

experiences. You can go back and see those things, but

maybe was lacking in that other period?

I think what I realized was, see the space within which

I think the magic of an exchange with an audience is

I definitely have made choices not necessarily

you really can evolve and grow, and where you thrive.

really humbling. If you’re on stage, so often at night you

being so sure of what my artistic instinct was. I

Since I’ve been able to do it, and have been lucky

go, “That was a great show,” and people go, “That was

think some of it was just trying my hand. I don’t

enough to be in the business for a very long time, since I

good.” Then you go, “That was a shit show,” and they go,

know, I’ve answered a number of questions

was so young, I think I’ve tried different paths. I’ve been

“That was good.”

about this over time, because people are like,

given the opportunities to try those paths. Some of those have succeeded, and some of them haven’t.

Yeah, but also the structure of the piece holds. The

I once sat in George Clooney’s office in

All the movies that you like to make are the

energy, the foundation of what it is, the storytelling

Warner Bros., and there was a picture on

often-orphaned children that have to scratch,

holds, whether or not you have the minutiae of this

the wall of him as Batman. I said, “Why

basically, to exist.

choice there, and a lot of it is giving in to that idea. I

would you put that up?” He said, “Because

But at the same time … Take, for instance, a project like

think as actors we believe that we have more control

every time I look at it, it reminds me to

Nightcrawler. First of all, it’s all about the relationships

than we actually do, and I think that we’re given that

never make a choice based on the wrong

that you have. The people who really truly love you,

belief if we have a certain amount of success. But the

reason, which was to become a global

who really love your work and who want to work with

truth is, even in a movie, the number of times I’ve seen

movie star and hate every second of it.”

you. I think that energy is what goes through an entire

certain actors, not all, but some, cut a scene or stop in

I was raised on commercial films as a child. It’s

movie at the foundation. The excitement of having a

the middle because they feel it’s not going a particular

inevitable—you’re not going to go see movies

conversation with the filmmaker, the person who is

way, you don’t have that opportunity on the stage. You

that are in obscurity.

at the helm is everything. Whether you’re starting it

don’t get to see the perspective of the filmmaker, you’re

just as an actor for hire, or whether you’re developing

not sitting there behind the monitor, you’re not sitting

But given that your parents are also

a project with them. However you help them facilitate

behind the camera. Sometimes on a film I’ve walked out

filmmakers, I wonder if perhaps the stuff

their vision, if you share that vision, not necessarily

of a scene going, “That was not good,” and everyone’s

you’re doing now … maybe that was kind of

perfectly, but if you can do that, if you can find that

going, “That was amazing,” because there’s 70 other

a household sensibility, in a way?

energy, that’s where I get excited.

people, sometimes more, sometimes less, that are cre-

No. Well, part of it was like this idea of an artist

But I think Nightcrawler had a very commercial aspect

ating that space and creating the tension that you have

being a particular way. Which I like to throw out.

to it. We said, “OK, we can make it within the budget.” I’ve

no control over. You don’t have that perspective. To me,

I think maybe there’s this sort of idea that, if

had a lot of experience marketing movies and then selling

it’s not really about permanence or impermanence; I

you wrack yourself, if you put yourself through

movies—I can go out and I can do that. I found myself in

think the effect you have on people lasts.

that kind of turmoil, that you’re an artist, and

an interesting place. I think very much empowered, and

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“Prince of Persia didn’t do well.” Right, because they’re not with you every night.

My dad, when I was a kid, was a great sandcastle-

I don’t believe that. There’s a sort of seeming

very empowered by the people I work with. I love being on

builder. My dad won prizes for his sandcastles. I think

pretentiousness in this, but as an artist and

a set where everyone’s together in the space. So often,

one of the things that messed me up, that made me

as an actor, your body is a very important part

in a huge film, it’s rare when you feel like you’re really in

into an actor and also gave me my love for the imper-

of it. There’s this perpetuated idea that if you

a community where everyone knows each other. That’s

fect, is based on the fact that my dad was like, “At the

destroy it somehow, that you’re really giving to

why I love the theater. You’re in a theater and it doesn’t

end of the day, this thing goes away. The ocean takes it

what you do. That’s something I’d like to throw

work without all of us working together. The people who

away and that’s it.” I think that was a big part of what I

away, because I believe that’s an important

really know what’s happening are all of the stagehands. I

was taught as a kid that has given me a lot of strength—

part of longevity, of life, of having a life that is

was broken-hearted to leave that theatre.

the love of impermanence and the exchange. I admire

worthwhile. That’s important—taking care of

movies, being a movie actor, and having those opportu-

oneself, being thoughtful.

As I was sitting in the theater watching you on

nities has always been a mystery for me, because I don’t

stage, I said to myself, “What is the power of

know that if that’s the full animal that I am, and I’ve had

Was there something specific that made

doing these performances where it’s not

a very interesting relationship with it.

you feel, “I’m going to try it this way”?

permanent?” I mean, when you're making a

I would go back to the beginning. Look at

film, you might go, “Man, I nailed that take.

You did a couple of big movies—Prince of Persia, Day

what you really believe in. What you can speak

People are going to remember this forever.”

After Tomorrow—and for a moment it looked like

to. That’s the reason why I’m on stage, the

Do you think that people really remember movies

you were going to be Spiderman when Tobey’s back

reason why I’m singing. I’ve sung since I was a

forever?

gave out. But now you’re on this track of playing

kid, something I’ve always done. Do I sing all the time professionally? No. But for years my

“I admire movies, being a movie actor, and having those opportunities has always been a mystery for me, because I don’t know that if that’s the full animal that I am, and I’ve had a very interesting relationship with it.”

biggest joy was singing on stage. It is still. To me, it feels like home. I have a pretty clear instinct of how I can be my best self. When I did End of Watch with David Ayer, I remember David and I, we were both at particular places in our career, where I was trying to figure it out. I didn’t know how much I liked preparation, but I realized that was a huge part of my love, of the study of the craft of acting that I had left out for a number of years. I thought of Donnie Darko as an example a number of years back, because I DEADLINE.COM

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Then I was doing a play on the West End, and I was 22

working on something from the ground up, where I can

years old and I was doing press in London because it

use the resources that I have, as well as all the resources

was coming out in London, and all of a sudden there

that he has, to make the movie he wants to make.

was this groundswell. It found its roots and I went, “I’ve

There are a number of projects that we’re working on,

always believed in this movie. I always knew somewhere

there’s so much that I can’t talk about, which is what’s

inside me,” and I guess to begin anything you have to

really frustrating, because it’s actually really exciting. I

believe in it, but I always knew that it had something

really love working with him creatively, and I love him as

special, and it found its way. It didn’t find it in normal

a human being, and I can’t wait to work with him again.

ways, in the conventional ways. I feel that’s the way it’s

On this, or on anything else. That’s a friendship and a

gone with me. Though you can look at it from the out-

partnership that I love.

side, probably and say it looks pretty conventional, from where I sit, and probably within the business, it’s not.

Nocturnal Animals was such an emasculating role for you, because it’s a father’s worst nightmare—if

Do you put pressure on yourself in terms of how

your family is threatened, do you act, or do you

your choices perform commercially? What makes

hope you can sidestep it? What was it like for you

these things a success for you?

to wear that character?

Let’s not forget that it was really amazing to make Don-

That was a difficult character space to be in. Because

nie Darko. The people were really wonderful. Oftentimes

it was—like you said—trying to ask myself questions

we forget about those things because we ostracize

about the reality of the situation: how I would actually

people when something doesn’t “work”. I made

behave; what is masculinity? Which was a conversation

wonderful relationships out of Life. Bonnie [Curtis] and

that Tom [Ford, director] and I had a lot. I do believe

Julie [Lynn] who made that movie—Skydance were

that a lot of acting is about wish-fulfilment. We play

wonderful, they were great producers on the project.

roles in which we pretend we were the one who was

Daniel Espinosa and I have a project that we’re develop-

able to always defend. The superhero. It’s fun, because

ing again. Ryan [Reynolds] has become one of my

we know that’s not necessarily possible. That role … I

close friends as a result of that. There were numerous

ran a lot. That tends to be something that I do. I just did

successes out of that film. In terms of the business of it,

this movie Stronger about Jeff Bauman. I spent all of my

you give what you can give. Ultimately, who knows?

days in a wheelchair. Simulating the idea of having lost my legs above the knee, which Jeff did. He now walks on

The armchair quarterback in me says, “Jake grew

titanium legs that are pretty extraordinary. Still, that’s

up in a household with a father who’s a director

hard to even walk on those legs, to watch anybody who

and a mom who’s a screenwriter, and they prob-

has an injury like that, and to watch them walk. I ran

ably had flush times and times when there were

then, too. At a certain point when we were in Boston,

gaps between jobs. Maybe producing is a good

even when we were in pre-production, throughout that

way to make sure he doesn’t become an actor who

journey, I was running almost 10 to 15 miles sometimes.

waits for the phone to ring.” How true is that? CHARACTER JOURNEYS From the top: Gyllenhaal goes maverick in Nocturnal Animals, Life and Donnie Darko.

It’s a little bit of that, along with the movies I like to

Is that out of anger on his behalf, for a ridiculously

make and the filmmakers I like to work with—they

cruel terrorist act and the aftermath?

don’t always come initially from the pool of the initially

I think there’s a lot to that. We were mining that story,

most hyped. I like to work within discovering talent, and

the situation and the strength, and the difficulties

working with people like that is very exciting to me. I like

that he went through to get to the place he is now.

looking for material outside of the system. When Denis

That’s part of the fraudulent aspect of what we do in

Villeneuve and I first worked together, we made this

making movies. In a situation like Jeff’s, I’m constantly

small movie in Toronto—Enemy. People knew Denis and

aware that there’s no way I can get near what he went

loved Incendies, but now Denis is Denis. You know?

through, though that’s the effort. That’s what you try to do. As much as I spend time with him, as much as

Partly because of Prisoners.

I know him, as much as I learn about the situation, as

thought when we made that movie, I was cast

Obviously. It's because of all the amazing work he’s

much as I talk to everyone around him, as much as I

at the very last minute. When I came into that

done, and just who he is. He is not an anomaly, he is a

spend time with them, there’s no way. It’s fraudulent.

project, we were kind of working on that script

very special human and an extraordinarily talented film-

You’re constantly reminded of that. But you’re in that

as we went along. We had a certain amount of

maker. His way with humans, his kindness, his humility

energy, you’re thinking about that often. At the same

money because of Drew Barrymore, and Nancy

as well as his incredible powers of persuasion and enor-

time, too, I think there’s a gratefulness for my own

Juvonen, who were producing the movie,

mous visual and emotional talent is unmatched. There’s

position. It was all just an expression of trying to get out

and the cast of characters was an amazing

always a Denis coming from somewhere, just as there’s

a certain energy. It was also running around the space,

amalgamation of personalities. We brought it

someone like me, too, for him in that space. Facilitating

trying to clear your head, feeling a sense of sometimes

to Sundance, and it didn’t sell. Finally it was cut

that is what I enjoy. I really enjoy those relationships,

creating distance between the character and yourself.

down a little bit more, New Market bought the

really giving opportunities. When you looked at that project, what convinced

movie right after they had done Passion of the Christ. There was all this talk about whether or

You’re working with him again on The Son, based

you that this was something that you had to do?

not it was going to get a theatrical release. It

on Jo Nesbo's novel. What can we expect?

It was just so beautiful and so funny. Beautiful, tragic,

got it, and then it sort of didn’t work in America.

I’m very excited to be working with Denis again, but also

but also it was undeniable. It’s a story of a human being

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working their way through the inexplicable. Out from

You worked with Chris Cooper on Demolition

What will it take to get you to accept your

a narrow space—beyond narrow—into an opening.

in 2015 and you’d done October Sky together in

hereditary gifts and get behind the camera?

The metaphor of that, setting aside the reality of the

1999—it almost felt like full circle, in a way. Do you

Is it still an incubation period that you’re

situation, was everything to me. Jeff is a representation

remember how he thought of you when you were

going through, maturity-wise?

for every one of us, though we have not experienced

this wide-eyed and maybe cocky kid?

I think it has to happen soon. Like you’re saying,

that. I think there are many events happening horribly

He was very focused. He always is. I think I didn’t under-

I’m laying the foundation. I think once I decide to

and horrifically almost daily now; there are bombings

stand his focus at the time. It felt a little aloof to me,

know exactly where I am, I’ll know it’s time. For

and explosions, and people lose their lives and lose so

and I didn’t know if it was that he didn’t like me. What

many years I was thinking it was presumptuous

many things from those events. But I think the reason

I’ve done is grown to realize why he is the way he is, why

to say that I would want to direct a film. It now

to make this film—and Jeff and I talked about this—is

he’s focused. I’ve adopted some of that focus from his

feels less presumptuous … There are a couple

that when you’re with him, you feel it. The thing you feel

influence. We worked together again on Demolition, and

of things I’ve been thinking about, but nothing

is life. You feel like you are touched by him. It is still a

we had done a little scene together in Jarhead. We’ve

specific yet. I do think within the next couple of

quagmire to me, that character. The things that Jeff and

stayed in contact through all the years and we had so

years, and I feel like you’ll be the first to know. ★

that character have taught me, not just the character,

much fun on Demolition.

but also the process of making that movie, I would say I am most proud of that experience. I think it’s an incredibly important story to be told. I

I think there was much more space for joking, because he knew how focused I was. Whereas when I was younger, he had to create that energy. He had to

live a life where people do recognize me. Not everyone,

make sure that the set was established by that energy

but I live that life. When I’m with Jeff, I’m his shadow. We

and that focus, to keep the honesty of the scene. I

threw out first pitch at a Red Sox game, and it was a big

remember him saying to me when I was a kid, we were

event. It was on Patriot’s Day, the marathon was start-

in a fight in the scene, and he came up to me and was

ing. Erin, his then wife, she was running. She eventually

like, “You’re just yelling, you’re not listening to me.” He

crossed the finish line for the first time, she never

said, “Just listen to what I’m saying to you for the take.”

crossed it in the first one she ran. It was a big moment

The simplest things in acting are always the hardest

for everyone. All I was on that day was a shoulder to

things to remember in a lot of ways. Particularly at a

literally, figuratively, get support from. It was all Jeff.

young age, but so much is about simplicity in the end. I

WAR GAMES From the top: Gyllenhaal keeps it real in Jarhead and Demolition.

remember listening, finally, because I did have that skill, You also produced Stronger. How does being a pro-

I just wasn’t using it. The entire scene became a true

ducer inform your work as an actor? You probably

fight. It actually hurt. It was those things that I carried

knew everyone’s lines, didn’t you?

with me, and then evolved into things that, when we did

It’s taken me a little bit of time to really understand

Demolition, I had at my disposal. It made the process

it—that’s been a really humbling process. I’ve learned so

with him so fun. It was like, “See? Look at all the things

much about the business that I didn’t know. As an actor,

I’ve learned from you.”

I think a lot of people consider being a producer to be a vanity thing. I did grow up in a family of people who

You got to meet President Obama. It sounds like

made movies; I recognize the chess that it is. I recognize

he was impressed with you …

what a novice I am, but I’m not interested in getting into

I don’t know about that. I don’t know about impressed

it for a sense of vanity, I’m interested in really learning

with me, but he knew who I was because probably

about how it works. That’s been really fun. As an actor

some staff member told him.

I think you’re kept from all of that information. If your primary work is as an actor and then you start produc-

He’s a pretty pop-culture guy.

ing a movie, I think you start to see how all the parts

He is, yeah. I was given a directive, and I think that’s

work. One of the great things I was told by a director

really lovely.

once was, “Do you know what I look at more than the monitor?” I said, “What?” They looked at their watch. When we did Nightcrawler, we had 22 days to shoot

What was his directive? The directive was, “We’re going through really hard

that movie. I was not going to be the one wasting

times. You have a responsibility as an artist to entertain,

money in that case, saying, “I need another take.” I

and to tell stories, and to give people hope.” It’s the

was ready to go if you needed one take. I could do that

same thing my mom has always told me; the same

monologue in one take for you, and we could print that.

thing my dad has always told me: that’s the job of what

I was ready. Because I knew that if I did it like that, then

we do. I think to be able to be told that by the leader of

we’d have enough time to get seven more shots in.

your country—that, as a citizen of this country, that is

Speaking of George Clooney, I remember a story—there

your duty—I was like, “All right, OK, cool.” When I read

was some discussion about an actor, something about

a script or when I do something, maybe what I feel is

a trailer, and they were complaining about their trailer

not a space that everybody always wants to see, but I

size. [Clooney] said something like, “Where I come from,

believe that I do have that same idea of hope. I do. Even

a bigger trailer is not a good thing.” You know what I

if it’s a crazy, dark character, I’m a very hopeful person.

mean? I think as a producer, like when we did Stronger,

That directive was huge to me. I walked out going, “OK.”

all those things got stripped down, and it was fun, because the quality of work gets to change when you’re

Boy, that will put a little pep in your step.

putting the priority in the essential things.

Yeah, we should all feel like that. DEADLINE.COM

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Italian Masterpieces ARCHIBALD ARMCHAIR. DESIGNED BY J.M. MASSAUD. SALA DEL THE, PALAZZO COLONNA, ROME. poltronafrau.com Los Angeles, 8950 Beverly blvd

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2017 Deadline presents our annual list profiling the people, companies and politics shifting the landscape of film and television. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class, in alphabetical order: 63 A24 90 Fede Alvarez 58 Annapurna Pictures 45 Luc Besson 76 Jason Blum 36 Bong Joon-ho 86 Brexit 74 Damien Chazelle 69 Lynn Harris

52 China

75 Barry Jenkins

69 Monumental Pictures 68 Dee Rees

67 ReFrame

88 Shane Salerno

40 Eleanor Coppola 68 Patty Jenkins

43 Ryan Murphy 83 Leah Remini

79 M. Night Shyamalan

38 Lee Daniels

83 Micah Green

69 Elizabeth Karlsen

68 Bruna Papandrea 93 Rena Ronson 70 Oliver Stone

84 Woody Harrelson

54 David Lynch

80 Jordan Peele

64 Jason Ropell

60 Adam McKay

50 Vanessa Redgrave

39 Joe & Anthony Russo

49 Scott Stuber

92 Roeg Sutherland

73 Lisa Taback 92 Graham Taylor & Chris Rice 91 XYZ Films

DEADLINE.COM

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BONG JOON-HO The director who faced down Harvey Weinstein explains to Damon Wise why creative control is so vital to his vision

IN 2013, THREE OF SOUTH KOREA’S most

the experience, but not Bong. His follow-up film,

traveling from the mountains of South Korea to

famous and influential directors went to work for

Cannes competition entry Okja, is an equally ambi-

New York City.”

Hollywood. Park Chan-wook made the stylized

tious flight of fancy, filmed in two languages, span-

Gothic thriller Stoker at Fox, Kim Jee-woon went to

ning two continents and featuring a huge, digitally

with him for several years and that the inspiration

Lionsgate for the Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-

created creature, named as per the title of the

struck shortly after making the Hitchcockian thriller

’em-up The Last Stand, and, in the most publicized

film, that lives peacefully in the Korean wilds—until

Mother, which graced Cannes’s Un Certain Regard

instance of them all, Bong Joon-ho teamed up

danger looms. It’s a cryptic title, so what does Okja

section in 2009. “The first image came to me when

with The Weinstein Company for his sci-fi graphic

mean? “Actually, it has no meaning,” Bong explains

I imagined this very large animal,” he recalls. “This

novel adaptation Snowpiercer. They were all in for

when we meet in a Santa Monica hotel room a

was in 2010. I was driving in Seoul, and I imagined

a shock; treated as royalty in their homeland, the

few weeks before the festival begins. “It is a female

an animal that was even bigger than an elephant in

trio suddenly found themselves displaced from the

name in Korea, but it’s a little outdated. Not many

the middle of the city—like, in the road—and instead

top of the pecking order, losing status in the studio

kids have that name now. It’s like Margaret. The

of this animal being very ferocious, it was large but

hierarchy to the executives and the money men.

movie is about an animal called Okja, and also a

very shy and introverted.”

The following year, Bong later joked, the three would get together and, over drinks and DVDs, try to outdo each other with their horror stories of

girl named Mija who looks after Okja—it’s the story about this girl and their relationship.” Much like Snowpiercer, Okja is a yarn filled with

Bong, now 47, says that idea for Okja has been

On a superficial level, it seems very reminiscent of Bong’s breakout hit The Host, which debuted in Directors’ Fortnight in 2006. “Of course,” says

creative interference. You’d think that Bong would

peculiar characters; that film’s glorious villainess,

Bong. “The Host has a creature and so does Okja, so

win that contest easily: after a public spat with

Tilda Swinton, returns to play Okja’s nemesis—the

there’s a similar quality in that aspect, but in every

Harvey Weinstein over its structure and running

scheming businesswomen Lucy Mirando, who

other way Okja and The Host are very, very differ-

time, Snowpiercer was sidelined to TWC’s indie

wants to take Okja back with her to the States—

ent. Most significantly, it’s because Okja is actually

offshoot Radius and remains unreleased in some

while Jake Gyllenhaal, playing the charismatic host

a love story and that’s the emotional center of the

European territories. But, surprisingly, Bong thinks

of a TV wildlife show, and Paul Dano round out a

entire film. It’s my very first love story, but it’s not a

he fared the best of them all; unlike Park and Kim,

quirky English-speaking cast. The part of Mija, who

boy-meets-girl type of love story, it’s about the love

the director retained full control of his work. “I was

plans to kidnap the creature and send it home, is

that is shared between an animal and a person.”

very lucky,” he grins. “It was a limited release, but it

played by rising star An Seo-hyun.

was my own, director’s final cut.” Other directors might have been fazed by

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“The story lent itself to this type of mix of cast,” says Bong, “because it’s a story about a girl

Typically for a Bong Joon-ho movie, Okja comes with its own strand of deadpan comedy, and to help him write the script he contacted Jon Ronson, I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

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the British journalist and screenwriter of the 2014

small-budgeted film, and there’s really no process

film Frank—a road movie about a neurotic would-

of me having to keep explaining myself. It was just,

be indie-pop star (Michael Fassbender) who hides

from the very beginning, a very supportive environ-

under a huge papier-mâché head. “I’m very fond of

ment that I found myself in.” For a director with such a firm will and strong

mood, and the dialogue I found funny and also sad

sense of ambition, Bong is a surprisingly modest

at the same time. I was fascinated with that, and

man; a warm and friendly presence. Asked if he

so I reached out to Jon. Of course, I wrote the first

is familiar with the word “disruption”, he draws a

draft, and the story—the narrative—is all mine. For

blank. Would he consider himself a disruptor—

the English-speaking characters, played by Tilda

someone who doesn’t play by the rules? “Me?” he

and Jake and Paul, in terms of fleshing out those

asks softly. “In real life? Well, maybe not con-

parts and working on the dialogue, Jon played a big

sciously, but when I look back on my experiences in

part in that, because my English is quite limited.

film, the results kind of maybe signify that perhaps I

The Korean dialogue and characters is mostly me.

am. But it’s not something I set out to do.”

has a unique sense of humor.” It was this script that Bong began shopping

Bong says the same about his filmmaking style—in the 17 years since his tonally awkward debut film Barking Dogs Never Bite (“Please

LEE DANIELS

around the studios. “The basic cast was in place,

forget it,” he laughs), Bong has moved effort-

and the VFX company was already attached,” he

lessly between genres, never following each film

explains, “but because the story is quite unique, the

with more of the same. “It’s not so much that I’m

traditional studios had a few elements that made

obsessed with not repeating myself or doing things

them hesitate.” Enter streaming giant Netflix, who

differently,” he reasons. “It’s because I’m a film-

gave Bong carte blanche to make the film exactly

maker who generates his own ideas and develops

as he saw it. “Netflix, from the very get-go, was very

his own products rather than being offered some-

passionate about the project,” he says, “and very

thing by a studio or producer. It takes a lot of time

From films like Precious to TV hits like

excited and supportive. That was also the point

and energy to create a film, and so it always has to

Empire, writer-producer-director Lee

at which [Brad Pitt’s company] Plan B joined the

be something fresh or new to sustain my interest.”

Daniels continues to break the mold

process.” Was Bong keen to protect his independence

Okja is Bong’s first film in Competition—“which is exciting,” he says. “At the same time, it makes me

after the dispute with Harvey Weinstein? The

nervous. I just want to enjoy it.” Nevertheless, he’s

director continues to downplay the incident (“It’s

already starting to think about his next move(s).

a long story,” he apologizes), but it’s clear that

First up is a small Korean-language film, which he

he wasn’t about to walk into the same situation

thinks he might follow with something more ambi-

twice. “The script was already locked when it was

tious. “Not big, but there’s an entirely English-lan-

presented to Netflix,” he explains. “They were 100

guage project that I’m thinking about right now.”

percent supportive of what I was trying to do.

He admits that it can be hard for him to switch

They supported my vision, and for that I feel very

off once the muse takes him. “I have to write,” he

grateful. I feel very fortunate to have met Netflix

laughs. “Sometimes my laptop is open, but I’m not

on this, because it’s not a small movie, it’s not a

actually working. My brain is the sort where I’m always occupied with thoughts of the next project. It just takes a long time to get there.” Will it be another genre film? He points to his producer, Choi Doo-ho, who has been doubling up as his translator for the morning. “He is the producer,” says Bong. “Right now, we cannot define which genre, but it is a crazy story.” So what’s it like being a producer for a director like Bong, an artist blessed with such a vivid and restless imagination? “Oh, it’s a dream,” smiles Choi. “It’s a dream.” “Be honest,” laughs Bong. “Well, I mean, it is horrible,” says Choi, “in the fact that he wants to do something that’s kind of nuts. But it’s a challenge. He’s a nice guy to be

FIRST CLASS Tilda Swinton as Snowpiercer’s villainous Mason.

around, so even though it’s really difficult, there’s always joy involved, every step of the way. And after it’s all done and you look back, you realize what a crazy accomplishment you’ve made. I couldn’t think of a better director to be working with.” ★

“I gotta tell you, for the record, I’m bored with Hollywood people of color saying Hollywood owes you something,” Lee Daniels told CBS News in January. “Don’t nobody owe you nothing. I had to fight for everything, from my very first movie on.” This perspective from Daniels is only a part of what makes him a disruptor. In both his film and TV work, Daniels tells the previously untold stories of the marginalized. With Precious, he followed a plus-size Harlem girl enduring physical and emotional abuse; while in The Butler he told the story of Cecil Gaines—played by Forest Whitaker and loosely based on the little-known true story of Eugene Allen—an African-American White House servent reflecting on his eventful 34-year tenure. In Empire, Daniels presents a soap operastyle drama with an almost entirely black cast: Loretha “Cookie” Lyon is a powerful woman taking back her record label after a long prison term, while one of her sons copes with bipolar disorder and another reveals he’s gay. In tackling themes of mental illness, the LGBTQ community and incarceration, Daniels once again puts the under-represented at the forefront. In Star, meanwhile, Daniels put Amiyah Scott in a key role, making her only the second trans person to play a trans character in a scripted American drama series. Scott plays Cotton Brown, daughter of Queen Latifah’s religious beauty-salon manager Carlotta, who wrestles with her daughter’s sexuality in light of her faith, while struggling to reconcile her deep love for her daughter. As always, there are no simple, pat solutions in Daniels’ world. Aside from his clear passion for music—both Empire and Star are musical dramas—Daniels’ success is founded on the strength of great storytelling. While he may be creating an even platform for those who’ve previously been kept out of the spotlight, it’s also true that his projects are all-inclusive, telling universal stories for audiences all over the world. —Matt Grobar

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RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

But I really enjoyed working with Jon, because he

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

Frank,” says Bong, “in terms of its unique tone and

JOE & ANTHONY

RUSSO

The dynamic directing duo tell Mike Fleming Jr. about their new, creatively liberating venture as patrons of the arts

same thing with us. We want to get out of bed every day and be proud of fostering and honing the voices of young filmmakers.” One big push for the Russos’ new venture will be virtual reality. Their commercials production company won two Golden Lions for VR work, and they believe there is a future for VR in narrative entertainment. “After 100 years, 2D structural storytelling is so ingrained in audiences that they can too often tell where the story is going in a two-hour film, an hour-long drama or a half-hour comedy,” explains Joe. “I sit and watch movies with my kids, and they will tell me exactly what they think is going

JOE AND ANTHONY RUSSO are currently oversee-

to happen, who’s going to hit rock bottom and be

ing back-to-back sequels to The Avengers that will

redeemed, who’s going to die—and they are usually

consume most of 2017, with Infinity War, bow-

right, because of all the predictive precepts.

ing first on May 4th, 2018. After they finish what

“The VR space is limitless, with the potential to

amounts to their fourth Marvel superhero block-

break us out of the traditional structure. Already,

buster—counting two Captain America instalments

you can be in VR for what seems like five minutes,

that set up the Avengers films―the Cleveland-born

and an hour has gone by. Without the preconceived

siblings will go full speed on building a funded pro-

mile-markers of 2D storytelling, the possibilities

duction company, where they will direct films and

are endless. I’ve had immersive experiences and

empower like-minded talent.

emotional reactions I just don’t get with most

The venture doesn’t yet have a name, and its

movies. I played a horror game on PlayStation two

full-financing scheme is still in process. They’ve

weeks ago; I don’t get scared in life or at the mov-

got seed money from China-based Huayi Brothers

ies, but I had to take the headset off half an hour in,

Media Corporation ($250 million to get up and run-

because it was so intense. It’s an experience you

ning, and $100 million in production funding), and

can’t elicit in a 2D projection in a theater. Tech is an

have made their first deal—the next film by unique

area we need to explore, because a big advance-

Swiss Army Man writing/directing team Dan Kwan

ment is coming in narrative. Who’s to say, 30 to 40

and Daniel Scheinert, better known as the Daniels.

years down the line, what the predominant form

The Russos are inspired by the career-starting autonomy over the process,” says Anthony Russo.

Though their current films are squarely constructed

“While we are building a large company that will

to appeal to the widest global audience possible,

need to deliver major films to be successful. We’re

and the funding being raised, will allow them to

the Russos’ origins are more avant-garde, having

also doing this because of creative inspiration. We

explore multiple storytelling platforms.

grown up in Cleveland’s art houses, revering Truf-

saw Swiss Army Man and fell in love with the Dan-

faut, and maxing out credit cards and hitting up

iels, who are adventurous filmmakers and radical

where we won’t lose our jobs based on quarterly

every relative for their 1997 debut Pieces.

storytellers, pushing the boundaries.

earnings and can afford to play a longer game,”

That project never played beyond festivals—the

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

“We do feel we owe a karmic debt to the uni-

storytelling you participate in.” The Russos hope their big directing projects,

“Anthony and I are putting together a company

says Joe. “That short game is what creates a glut

brothers set the film to specific music, whose

verse because of what Soderbergh did for us, and

of mediocrity in the market, because people are

rights they didn’t secure and couldn’t afford.

that true success lies in being excited about what

desperate for hits, and it puts so much pressure

Luckily, Soderbergh saw it at Slamdance and took

you’re doing. The mission behind this company is to

on executives to deliver them. We will take that

them under his wing, backing their first released

take ownership of what we do as directors moving

pressure off the artists. Our offices are built around

film, Welcome to Collinwood. Well, it wasn’t much

forward, while leaving room to help get interesting

what we call our ‘Storytellers’ Room’, and there

of a release; the auteur put the picture through

voices out there.”

we’ll have a meticulous process that starts with

the Warner Bros. deal he and George Clooney’s

While the Russos shoot the Marvel movies in

now-defunct Section Eight had at the time. The

Atlanta, they are simultaneously building out space

spend weeks on that before moving on to a 10- to

$7 million movie played in 12 theaters and grossed

in downtown Los Angeles. Why take on such a

20-page outline that incorporates characters and

$300,000, but it was a calling card to TV series

major entrepreneurial move while they are at their

theme, and then move onto script after that.

work including Arrested Development, Community

peak commercial powers as directors, and could

“There won’t be target dates; things will get

and Happy Endings, and paved the way for features.

comfortably move from one big film to the next?

made when everyone feels they are ready. We are

The answer is Soderbergh’s influence, again.

being humble, but we hope this can be a legacy for

All of these lessons are bundled into the new RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

of storytelling will be? It might well be interactive

lifeline they received from Steven Soderbergh.

venture: just as Soderbergh once told them that

“He took the opportunity at the peak of his

a three-page outline on plot and structure. We’ll

artists, on their terms and our terms, and not about

Pieces reminded him of his experimental 1996 film

career, and brought us and Chris Nolan [with

Schizopolis, the Russos say the Daniels’ Swiss Army

2002’s Insomnia] through it, and made a lot of

Man reminded them of their early work.

careers and interesting projects because he and

them, once they get past those Avengers sequels,

Clooney had the muscle,” Joe Russo says. “I know

and the $500 million or more that Disney’s Marvel

that Steven did it because it excited him. It’s the

has invested in them. ★

“Our goal in setting up the company was to expand our reach as filmmakers, with creative

a corporate agenda,” he says. There’s a bright, disruptive future in front of

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ELEANOR COPPOLA Joe Utichi meets the Coppola family matriarch, who documented the making of Apocalypse Now and has just become the oldest American to direct a narrative feature debut

“FRANCIS FEELS VERY FRUSTRATED,” wrote

destined to fall apart at any moment. In 1991 she

tantalizing reminder of the rewards that can come

Eleanor Coppola in Notes: The Making of Apoca-

teamed up with Fax Bahr and George Hicken-

from exceptional creative endeavor; and of what

lypse Now. “He gathers up his Oscars and throws

looper to direct Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s

could be lost when it doesn’t work out.

them out the window. The children pick up the

Apocalypse, based on the footage she shot, which

pieces in the back yard. Four of the five are broken.”

has become perhaps the definitive document of

pola in 1963, after they’d met on the set of one of

The shoot for Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic

a major motion picture production. It is both a

the director’s early features, Dementia 13, where

had yet to even begin—the director was still trying

cautionary tale and an existential salve for filmmak-

she worked in the art department. It was a shot-

to cast the key roles of Willard and Kurtz. Steve

ers, who talk regularly about its impact—if one of

gun wedding, hastily arranged in Las Vegas when

McQueen, Al Pacino, Jimmy Caan, Robert Redford

the greatest movies of all time can suffer from such

Eleanor became pregnant. After the wedding, she

and even Marlon Brando had all turned him down.

troubled seas on its way into cinemas, perhaps that

met Francis’s parents, and “I learned he was from

Their reasons bounced between keeping kids in

struggle is a necessary part of the creative process.

generations of Italian men who believed a woman’s

“Francis had this incredible ability to keep going

life work was caring for home and children and sup-

school, fears about getting sick in the Philippines

Eleanor Jessie Neil married Francis Ford Cop-

and, of course, money. This is just the start of a

on Apocalypse Now,” Eleanor Coppola reflects

porting her husband’s career”, she wrote in her 2008

book crafted from Eleanor Coppola’s three-year

now. “There were times when I would just say to

memoir, Notes on a Life. “Francis knew I had artistic

diaries kept during production on Apocalypse Now.

him, ‘You know what? We can just go home. You

aspirations, but expected they could be pursued at

can just say this one didn’t work out. You’ve made

home in my spare time.”

The entire Coppola family had moved to the Philippines—Francis, Eleanor and their three chil-

fabulous films before, and you can again. Just let

She earns a place on our list of disruptors pre-

dren, Gian-Carlo, Roman and Sofia—and Eleanor

this one go.’ But that kind of determination was a

cisely because those aspirations have never abated.

had been additionally tasked with gathering

big lesson in living my life.”

This year, at the age of 81, Coppola has become the

documentary footage of the shoot that could be

We are sitting on the veranda of the Coppolas’

oldest American director ever to make a dramatic

used by the United Artists marketing department.

Niebaum mansion, on the Inglenook Winery in

feature debut. Paris Can Wait, starring Diane Lane

“I don’t know if [Francis] is just trying to keep me

Rutherford, California, which Francis purchased in

and Arnaud Viard, premiered at the Toronto Film

busy or if he wants to avoid the addition of a pro-

1975 with the proceeds from The Godfather. It’s

Festival in September, ahead of a U.S. release last

fessional crew,” she wrote. “Maybe both.”

from one of these windows that he likely jettisoned

week, making Eleanor the latest, and perhaps least

those Academy Awards (since repaired). But as the

likely, addition to the Coppola filmmaking dynasty.

Whatever the reason, Eleanor and her documentary crew soon bore witness to the com-

sun beats down on the beautiful, rainbow-colored

plex and chaotic shoot of a movie that seemed

gardens around us, the estate seems to serve as a

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Born of a real road trip Eleanor took after a visit to the Cannes Film Festival with Francis—when a head PHOTOGRAPH BY

Jeff Singer

5/11/17 12:00 PM

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cold prevented her from departing Nice by plane,

myself,” she admits. “Little quirks I have. I thought

that you just suddenly realize you’re not going to

as scheduled, and she instead drove to Paris with

it was important to make her specific and particu-

live forever, and you kind of adopt a ‘why the heck

a French business associate of her husband’s—the

lar so that we got to know her. I know more about

not?’ attitude. What had I got to lose?”

film follows Lane’s character, Anne, as she sets off for

myself than anybody else, so I used those aspects.”

what she expects to be a seven-hour direct journey

The fiction is layered on top—in the film, there’s

It was Francis who suggested, one morning over breakfast, that Eleanor might consider

to the French capital. But her traveling companion

a flirtation with Jacques that never occurred, and

directing the film herself. She had struggled to find

Jacques (Viard) is in no hurry to return, and so he

Jacques himself turns out to be carrying a few

a director whose aesthetic sensibilities felt right.

side-tracks Anne into any number of bistros, inns and

secrets that she insists add a layer of drama miss-

But his suggestion carried with it an additional

picturesque sights, on a ride that takes several days

ing from her real companion. But the film is as hon-

pressure—not just that it required Eleanor to learn

and reawakens Anne’s spirits.

est as Eleanor Coppola has ever been, in her writing,

a new skillset, but that it demanded of financiers

in her documentary filmmaking, and in her life.

that they take a chance on an untested director.

“When I came back from this trip, I was telling a friend the story, and we were laughing about it,”

In retrospect, it’s hard not to wonder if this jour-

And Eleanor was determined that she should only make the film if an outside party believed in the

“In your most desperate moments, you figure out how to be as creative as possible, and it’s a part of the process you never really think about when you’re writing and planning.”

film enough to put up the budget. “It was a hard sell,” she admits. “It took six years to raise the money, because I don’t have any aliens, nobody dies, there are no guns and no car crashes. There was nothing that an investor wants to invest in. No sex, no violence. And I was a woman who had never directed a feature before. I had a lot of points against me.” The challenges started with casting, as she worked to raise finance. “I had interviewed another actress I really liked,” Eleanor recalls. “I wanted the

Coppola recalls. “She said, ‘Oh, that’s the movie

ney into narrative cinema wasn’t always in the cards.

woman to be about 50, and by the time I’d raised

I want to see.’ I could never have imagined it, but

“The beginning of the film idea for me was certainly

the money, she was in her 60s. Diane Lane had been

some little lightbulb went off. I’d published my book

documenting Apocalypse Now,” she says. “I had no

44, and was suddenly 50. These kinds of things

that year and I was in the mood to write, so I got a

idea. I’d made some little art films in the early ’70s,

moved and shifted in the course of time. When it

program for my computer and set off. I began to

but when I got this camera in the Philippines I was

finally worked out, and Diane committed, it still took

really see the fun of making fiction, which is differ-

just mesmerized, looking through the viewfinder. I

another year, because I thought I could raise the

ent than documentary.”

really responded to that, so I made different docu-

money on Diane, who is such a terrific actress. But

mentaries, because I always loved to shoot.”

no, I had to have somebody play the husband.”

Different, but not entirely. Aside from the road trip itself, Anne is a keen photographer with an

But fiction film never crossed her mind, she

The financiers had given Eleanor a list of

interest in textiles—just like Eleanor—and she’s

says. “And it was a little intimidating, because here

four actors they thought could play Anne’s film

married to a film producer, whose work seems to

I was living with two Oscar-winning screenwriters.

producer husband. She cast one of them, only to

consume him. “I got to sort of play out aspects of

But something happens to you in your 70s, I think,

have him drop out two weeks before he was to be called to set. “I called every actor that Francis had ever worked with, in a panic,” Eleanor recalls. “I had a list that I went through. Nobody was available. By

ROMAN COPPOLA (SON) Sofia’s elder brother Roman followed father Francis’s Apocalypse Now Redux to Cannes in 2001 with his feature debut CQ. A long gap ensued before 2012’s follow-up, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.

GIA COPPOLA (GRANDDAUGHTER) Roman and Sofia’s niece Gia directed Palo Alto (2013), followed by shorts Blood Orange: You’re Not Good Enough (2014) and Strange Love (2015).

NICOLAS CAGE (NEPHEW) The Leaving Las Vegas actor also directed Sonny (2002), starring James Franco as a Southern gigolo and Brenda Blethyn as his mother.

JASON SCHWARTZMAN (NEPHEW) Co-writer of Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, Schwartzman directed a 2015 episode of the Amazon show Mozart in the Jungle.

ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN (NEPHEW) Directed 2016 film Dreamland, starring older brother Jason as a frustrated pianist.

A DIRECTORY OF COPPOLAS

Her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides (1999) was followed by an Oscar nomination for Lost in Translation (2003) and a Golden Lion win at Venice for Somewhere (2010). After The Bling Ring (2013) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015), her latest film, The Beguiled, is in this year’s Cannes competition.

The directing genes are strong in the Coppola family

SOFIA COPPOLA (DAUGHTER)

chance, Alec called Francis and said, ‘Would you do me a favor?’ Francis said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t. But would you do me a favor?’” Just as Francis had contended with a chorus of refusals as he cast Apocalypse Now—even from Brando, who would later consent to play Kurtz—so Baldwin, too, declined. “Diane was instrumental in convincing him, because they’d worked together on a play 20 years ago. She wrote him a note and said, ‘You should get over here and help these women make this movie.’ And he showed up.” The cast, she says, “turned out to be the people I wanted, but it took a while to get there”. It’s hard to imagine Apocalypse Now, with Al Pacino as Willard and Steve McQueen as Kurtz. For Eleanor, this marriage of creative vision and the flexibility to roll with the punches has marked her filmmaking experience, too. “I think it gave me a great appreciation for everything my family goes through on their movies,” says Coppola. “There are disappointments, but

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also surprises at the same time that are caused by the difficulties. And all of these are things you learn when you just don’t give up. In your most desperate moments, you figure out how to be as creative as possible, and it’s a part of the process you never really think about when you’re writing and planning.” Her biggest lesson of the shoot? “That no matter how well you prepare, there are these things that can happen that you can’t be prepared for. You have to create a solution in the situation.” From the woman who tracked the making of Apocalypse Now, and has accompanied Francis, Roman and Sofia Coppola on any number of film shoots, this sounds faintly amusing, and I tell her so. “Well, they bowled me over when they happened to me, and it wasn’t so funny,” she laughs. “But every time there’s a crisis on a film, and you’re doing the documentary, you go get it. It’s great material. So it was the flipside of documentary-making, because you now have to solve all these problems.” Motherhood, she says, prepared her for those challenges in ways she hadn’t expected. “You’re always trying to get your kids not to fight, and thinking about them. Are they cold? Bring their sweater. Bring their shoes. You are focused on tending to the needs of the people around you.” Paris Can Wait was shot in 28 days—“And I don’t think I appreciated the nitty-gritty of it before,” Eleanor says. “‘What do you mean I can’t have more days to shoot?’ I guess I was used to being with Francis, planning 168 days in the Philippines, and then it’s the 200th day, and we’re still there.” That a warm-hearted, meandering road-trip movie through the picturesque scenery of rural

RYAN MURPHY The prolific showrunner is stretching his wings, and crafting the industry he wants to belong to

France could compare—on any level—to the fevered shoot of a war epic in the Philippines speaks to a universal truth about film production that so often goes unrecognized. “It’s never easy,” Eleanor says. In the press, perhaps conditioned by movie marketing that paints picture-perfect visions of cast and crew harmony, artistic pleasure, and a sense that everything happened as it was meant to, we are suspicious of reports of troubled productions. But isn’t film history littered with classics that seemed destined to crumble before the final hurdle? And aren’t the greatest directors the very ones who lean into the madness as they journey up the river? “I’ve pondered that question a lot,” says Eleanor Coppola. “There’s something that I think comes from pushing yourself to the limit. If things are difficult, then you have your challenge. You have to expand your thinking and go further and deeper than you intended to go. When I got into these tight spots with my project, and after four or five years of development with people saying, ‘You’re never going to make this film,’ there was a part of me that knew: I wasn’t going to stop.” ★ I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

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Bram Vanhaeren

THERE REALLY IS PRECIOUS LITTLE HALLMARK for a Ryan Murphy show. Popular, Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, The New Normal, Scream Queens, American Crime Story, Feud—just when you might get a sense of a common thread linking these shows, and just when you suspect he might be ready to lay back and enjoy his success, another show comes along to upset the math. And yet somehow, still, they are all inescapably Ryan Murphy shows. Through them all, an auteur streak that can’t be denied; a storyteller’s stamp that doesn’t need to conform to format or genre. “My life really changed around 10 years ago,” Murphy says now, reflecting on this golden run. “When I got my overall deal at Fox, I got amazing bosses in John Landgraf and Dana Walden and Peter Rice. For the first time ever, they said, ‘Don’t change who you are, be who you are. And write something you want to watch.’ That thing was Glee, and it took off from there.” With these supportive partners, Murphy created shows that revitalized the Fox slate, transformed FX into the prestige rival it was always intended to be and revived the longdormant anthology format. But at the heart of this disruption is an outsider who sought simply to be heard. “I started off in this business in 1998, and I didn’t fit in,” Murphy recalls. “There was no place for me, and I always felt like an oddball. Nobody really understood my work, or what I wanted to do in my references.” There is no precedent for a show like

American Crime Story: The People v O. J. Simpson, and none for Feud: Bette and Joan. When both were announced, the expectation was that they might be mercenary attempts to cash in on some famous controversy, at the expense of the respective victims of each story. It wasn’t that Murphy hadn’t proved himself a deft hand at creating compelling television; rather, it was hard to see any other approach to these subjects. And yet, as O. J. examined the racial tensions of the ’90s, and as Bette and Joan documented the struggles for mature actresses in the ’60s, Murphy’s interest in both subjects became clear. Through them, he held a mirror to the world of today, demanding conversation about whether anything material had changed. “I feel every day that everything I create— everything I do—I want it to be a risk,” Murphy says. “I think when you take the big swings—and I’ve done plenty of big swings that I was told were never going to work—those are always the things that break through.” His priority now is to offer a voice to the voiceless. “I keep trying to change the industry into the world I want it to look like,” he says. “I guess it’s just my way of repaying my karmic luck, because it could have gone really badly for me. When I talk to young people, I always tell them the biggest lesson I learned was that you shouldn’t care about the outcome. If it fails, it fails. Every failure will groom you for your next big reward. I lean into fear, because I feel like that excites me as an artist.” —Joe Utichi DEADLINE.COM

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LUC BESSON Mike Fleming Jr. meets the filmmaker whose latest movie marks the culmination of a lifelong dream—and a big spin of the dice

SOME 37 YEARS AFTER FIRST BREAKING

hadn’t thought about it, because it was part of my

filter of time. You look every year, and go, “God-

into the movie business, Luc Besson is about to

childhood, and who thinks of making a film about

damn it, I still like it.”

see whether his biggest career gamble will pay off.

a childhood souvenir? I had [Valerian comic book

Besson wrote, directed and produced Valerian and

writer Jean-Claude Mézières] working on The Fifth

It sounds like you were waiting to fall out of love.

the City of a Thousand Planets, an adaptation of

Element, and he’s the one who said, “Why are you

It’s such an energy when you make a film. Nonstop,

his favorite French comic book growing up. From a

doing this shitty film? Why you don’t do Valerian?”

for two, three years—you feel lost, so tired, and

world-creation standpoint, the film is as ambitious

you wound relationships with your family and your

as George Lucas’ Star Wars, Peter Jackson’s Middle

What was your reply?

friends. You pay a heavy price to make a film, so if

Earth movies or James Cameron’s Avatar. Its $180

My first answer was, “Because it’s impossible.” In

you do it, make sure it deserves to be made. There

million-plus budget puts Besson in a domain usu-

my memory, there are basically two actors and a

are ideas I liked, but after a year or two I decided,

ally reserved for studios, Marvel and DC super-

billion monsters, and I didn’t know how we could

it’s too small, too cute, not strong enough. It’s more

heroes, or Star Wars spinoffs. Besson mounted

do it. I went back to the comics to read them again.

about being strong than big. Like this little tiny film

Valerian independently, and raised what is reputed

I arrived at the same conclusion—impossible. But

that I did that was in French, and black and white,

to be the largest budget for an indie ever in Europe.

every year I looked again and thought, maybe one

called Angel-A. It was very important for me to

day it is possible. So I took an option, and started

do, because of the purpose of the film, and it had

writing a little bit.

nothing to do with the numbers of admissions. It’s

The film is the culmination of a great career spent directing French-flavored hits including Léon:

in French. I knew it was small.

The Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element and Lucy, while hatching, writing and producing

How often do you option properties and

such franchises as Taken, Taxi and The Transporter.

develop them over a long term?

Did Léon: The Professional or Taken take the

Those films, and the building of his EuropaCorp

I’ve got some, but usually ideas, not properties.

same amount of time?

production banner and his Cité du Cinéma studios,

Take Lucy, for example. I wrote the first 50 pages

Léon, it was Jean Reno, who one day said to me he

were all stepping stones to his dream project.

10 years before I made it.

loved the character he was playing in [La Femme]

How long did the desire to turn Valerian into a

Why did you stop?

said, “OK, when I have time I will write it.” I started

tent pole-sized film burn in your gut?

It was about the intelligence, and I was not intel-

to think, put down a couple of notes, while awaiting

It only came to mind during the shooting of Fifth

ligent enough. So I had to wait, and I did three, four

the green light for The Fifth Element from Warner

Element, not before. I was already 30 years old. I

films before Lucy. You put these ideas through the

Bros. They told me, “We need two weeks to figure

Nikita. “Can you write me a story about this guy?” I

I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

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Bram Vanhaeren

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out the budget.” I said to myself, ‘OK, let’s write

and it’s seven days for a woman. Horrible.

something else in case the film is not made.’ I wrote

supersonic plane. There were 188 visual effects shots in The Fifth Element; there are 2,734 in Vale-

Léon in two weeks. In fact, I finished two hours

What made this the right time for Valerian?

rian. To do near that for The Fifth Element would not

before I got the answer, which was a no, actually. So

I thought the script was kind of good a few years

have been possible, and everything we did was a

I said, “OK, fine, I’m going to do Léon.” I wrote it fast,

ago, and I was ready to start the financing. Then,

nightmare. There is no limit in special effects today.

not for me to direct, but I fell in love along the way,

Avatar arrived. The good news was that, technically,

You can do whatever you want. And that’s very,

and decided to do it. Then I came back again with

I could see that we can do everything now. The film

very good news for people like me.

The Fifth Element, and made that script better.

proved that imagination is the only limit. The bad

And Taken?

news is, I threw my script in the garbage, literally,

You once made your movies quietly and

when I came back from the screening.

showed them when you were done. But since then you’ve shared your process with journal-

Taken was a small story I had in my head. I talked with Robert Kamen, and he liked it. It was tiny, really

Why?

ists like me, starting with the concept paint-

the same vein as Charles Bronson in the ’70s. I

It wasn’t good enough. James Cameron pushed all

ings of the worlds and creatures you hoped

never wanted to direct that one.

the levels so high. So I started again.

to create. You seem more vulnerable, looking

It became a huge hit, landing after the 2008

Ridley Scott told Deadline that when he saw

painted canvas. What did you get from open-

financial collapse, when people felt help-

the first Star Wars he was angry with George

ing up like this?

less, watching their 401Ks disintegrate. Here

Lucas, because of his overwhelming film, and

I don’t like so much your example with Picasso,

was every parent’s nightmare—a daughter

that he dropped out of a film to find a space

because Picasso is Picasso, and even if he showed up

abducted to be sold into sex slavery and most

project, and that led to Alien. Before you threw

with five percent, we would be amazed. For me, this

would be powerless to stop it, but not this guy.

your script in the trash, how did you feel,

was the only solution. There is too much competi-

It was the only thing he did well. Did you write

walking out after seeing Avatar?

tion, from Warner Bros., DC Comics, Marvel, Disney.

it as a response to the global financial crisis?

First, I was amazed. You watch and say, “Wow, OK,

The biggest films of the industry are The Avengers,

No, and I’ve seen films that don’t come out at

now we can do that.” That’s a higher level, a new

Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Star Wars. And then

the right moment and nobody cares, which is

step. One half of me felt desperate. After a couple

you show up with what? Your cute face, saying, “I’m

just life. On Taken, what was also important is, I

of days, you say, “Yeah, OK, that was Usain Bolt I

going to do a film in this group”? You have to be either

found this article in the press where they discov-

just saw.” It doesn’t mean you stop running, if you

very pretentious or crazy in a way, OK? I think, why

ered this house in Marseille in the south of France

aren’t him. So let’s try to run with Usain Bolt and if,

not me? I’m happy to try. Do you mind if I try?

where some girls stayed for a couple of days. They

for a second during the race, Usain Bolt is nervous,

described breaking the girl like you’re breaking a

you win. For sure you can’t beat him, but at least he

playing in Hollywood, the temple of these films. You

horse. They were tied up at the bed, 15 girls in the

takes you seriously and says, “I still have to run hard,

cannot just put on your sunglasses and say, “Shh,

house. They got raped every 20 minutes. They had

because these guys behind me are in good shape.”

you will see in three years.” You can’t do that. So

drugs. I read the article, and I could never imagine

That gives you some energy.

I try the opposite and say, “Do you want to follow

for approval. Picasso didn’t show a partially

that humankind could do that. I know that we do

With this film, I am playing not just in France; I’m

me for the entire thing? Maybe I’ll fail at the end,

ugly things to animals; I never imagined they can

How much greater are the visuals in Valerian

but here’s how I am spending my days.” And when

do that with women. They really use the expression

than when you made The Fifth Element?

you see it finished, you will remember the drawings

“breaking them”. They say it’s five days for a horse,

It’s the difference between a bicycle and a

that I showed two and half years ago. Since then, I

SINGING THE BLUES (left) Maïwenn as Diva Plavalaguna in The Fifth Element; (right) Natalie Portman as Mathilda in Léon: The Professional.

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worked nonstop to make it good, with 900 people who worked on the special effects. I’m so proud of what they have done. Also, we have Weta and ILM on the same film; usually, it’s one or the other. They both accepted because the film was too big, so neither could take the entire thing. They are sharing, but you can tell they are fighting to show their best work to impress each other. I am the winner, because the film has gone to a level I was not even expecting, honestly. You’ve put EuropaCorp and your long relationship with territorial distributors to the test here. They say Valerian is the biggest budget ever for a film made in France— In Europe.

SPACE IS THE PLACE Dane DeHaan as Valerian in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Europe, then. It’s also got to be one of the most expensive indie productions ever. How are you sleeping at night?

That’s true.

and be happy, because they have seen their kids.

First, I always sleep very well. I have absolutely no

Usually, these movies go over budget, but we

And not coming back at 11 pm, where they don’t

trouble sleeping, because I never forget that it’s

finished early, and that’s how prepped we were.

see their kids, and they are grumpy, and you pay for

only a film. I’m not a surgeon, saving lives. I take my

We were on stages, so you can control the light, the

it, one way or another. So if we say 6pm, I finish at

job very seriously, but I’m not taking myself seri-

weather, everything. The cast was so sweet, easy,

6pm, and everybody can organize their life.

ously. It’s only a film. The best I can have is people

no entourages. I must say also, the studio in Paris

watch and after two hours they say, “Oh my God,

that we built was made for this kind of film. The

Besides Avatar, what movies made you believe

it was so fun. Oh, I want to see it again.” That’s

ergonomics of it; the location of the lab, the editing

you could do something like Valerian?

basically the best I can achieve, which is not going

room, the facilities, the gym, the rehearsal room,

Oh, many. 2001, for sure; Star Wars, the first one;

to change the face of the world. That’s why I’m

everything is so well fitted that you don’t lose time,

Indiana Jones, the first one, I was amazed. The first

sleeping well. No one is asking me to do more than

and you’re not even tired. You go boom, boom,

Alien—that’s the one where I think I got the most

the best I can, and that is what I am doing.

boom, boom, boom, boom, all day long.

heat. I like heat. What they make you feel is, noth-

You must pay a price when you risk your com-

Did you build your studio with this film in

not here, they’re over there.” Add in Jean-Jacques

pany on the biggest project you’ve ever done.

mind?

Annaud’s Quest for Fire.

Where does it take its toll on your life to do

Yeah, six years ago. Because I remembered when

something this ambitious?

I did The Fifth Element in Pinewood. The team of

Why?

Usually, the price is paid because you don’t

English people was great, but the location made

Cinemascope. You follow the story for two hours

measure how you become victim of your enthu-

it painful. First, it’s an hour and a half to go there.

and it just works. You see love, adventure, every-

siasm. It’s like you say, “Let’s go for a walk,” and

The commissary is a mile from the stage. Even to

thing. And there are no words spoken at all for the

then people say, “Sure.” And the walk is 40 miles,

go to the restroom was complicated, and because

entire film. Wow. I go, “OK, we can do a two-hour

and you realize you have on your shoes for town,

we shot for, like, 18 weeks, I realized the time we

film without a word. Now we’re allowed.” Each

and not sneakers. After a while, you say, “God, that

were losing. When you want to go to costume,

director pushes the limit for the others. Peter Jack-

hurts. I should have taken another pair of shoes to

you have to take the little cart, and the cart is not

son is the same. So you come on the back of that,

go so far.” So that’s my problem. Most of the time,

there. You have to call the guy for the cart. You are

and the field of play is even bigger now. It allows

my enthusiasm makes me blind. All I see is, “God,

losing energy, all the time. When I built the studio,

you to be crazy. You thought, I can’t do that, it’s

it’s going to be so fun. My kids are going to watch

I remembered that. I said, “No, no, no, no.” For

going to be too much, it’s not going to be believ-

the film, my friends. It’s going to be great.” And then

example, on the first plan, they put the restrooms

able. Then you see Avatar, and you say, “OK, I guess

two and a half years later you’re just destroyed. So

very far from the stages. When you have 300

I can.” These guys give you the permission.

tired. I don’t know if it’s a fault or a quality, but if I

extras, every minute there is someone who wants

say I will do it, I don’t know how to let it go. Until July

to go to the restroom. If you put the restroom four

In casting Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara

21st, I will fight for it.

minutes away, it’s not the same as 30 seconds. You

Delevingne as Laureline, you are creating stars

save almost an hour per day, just with that. I was

instead of relying on existing ones. Why them,

How do you prepare for that ordeal?

very careful because I’m the director who always

and how much harder was it to mount such a

I was ready. I tried to lose some weight, before. I

starts on the dot, and always finishes on the dot. I

big film this way?

took some gym. We prepped, a lot. I never prepped

never go over time. I don’t like that.

What we have to understand today is that the

ing is impossible. You realize, “OK, the limits are

so much on any movie in my entire career. The

studios, the six studios, are all powerful. So, around

result is that we finished three days early, which

Really?

the world, there are lots of independent distributors,

was totally unexpected for this kind of film. I heard

Everybody has a family. They want them to go back

and they never have their hands on Avatar, Spider-

that Rogue One had, like, six weeks of reshoots.

home to feel good and come back the day after

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by because Buena Vista has an office there, and so

Your leads aren’t yet stars, but there is a light-

response, do you dare look ahead to sequels?

does Warner Bros. But they can get their hands on

ness and playfulness to them reminiscent of

Oh, yeah, of course. I will be the happiest guy in the

Valerian. The first time I understood the importance

the original Star Wars.

world if the film works and I can do a second one

of this was with Nikita and Léon. People were fighting

That was my feeling at the time, exactly. I want to

and a third one. I will sign, right now. Cara and Dane;

to get the film because that was the only opportu-

be able to discover Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.

every time we see each other, we pray we can do

nity they have that year to have a kind of American

I remember clearly when I saw that film. They were

another one. Cara is always teary every time I see

film. I remember it with Léon—I was in Cannes, and

so young and fresh, even the robots. Avatar, the

her, because we had a really good time. It’s like, you

there was even one guy who wanted to buy the film

same. We knew Zoe [Saldana] a little bit, but not

go on holiday to a place, and you want to go back

for his country, and he arrived with a suitcase full of

Sam [Worthington]. I wanted to give the audience

next year to the same place, because you had so

cash. They didn’t know what to do with the cash.

the same pleasure of discovery. I wanted a hero

much fun. But that will only be possible if the film

They were like, “Can we have a check instead?” But

25 to 27 years old, maximum. Honestly, today, the

is big enough to do another. That’s why we have

I understood it at the time. We were a real opportu-

so-called star system is almost dead. No actor in

to wait. I’m ready to go on two and three already. I

nity for them. But it doesn’t mean that because they

the world today can open a film by themselves.

know what I want to do.

need films, they’re going to buy everything.

Dwayne [Johnson] or Leo [DiCaprio], in certain kinds of films, but it’s still them, plus the project

What does the film have to gross to warrant

come to expect from us. We come with the script,

and director. Before, you had stars where, no matter

the sequel?

and the concept art you have seen. I went to

what the film, comedy or drama, you’d follow them,

It’s not just about the money. It’s a little more com-

So the process on Valerian is the one they’ve

plicated than that. It’s a feeling, also. What I need to

“The audience is aware now. They eat the food and they want more, but they won’t buy if it’s a bad meal, just because you put a star name on it. They will say, move your ass, make it better, and then we’ll come. The audience is pushing us to be better.”

have is an enthusiasm. I need to have an audience around the world start sending messages, “Oh my God, please do another one.” If I feel this message, then off I’ll go. But not if it is just the core fans, and the rest of the world hates the film. What does it need to gross? Take Lucy, for example. If it goes to the same kind of numbers that we had on Lucy, then we’re fine. It comes down to something you feel in your gut, and you feel it around the world. You smell it. Fifth Element, I never thought about doing a sequel. Why? Because the response in the U.S. was, at the time,

Cannes with Virginie [Besson-Silla, producer], Cara

you wanted to see their new film. Today, people

very deceptive for me. The film was probably too

and Dane. We made a show for an hour and a half.

are careful. It’s not so cheap to go to the movies,

much in advance. The film did $70 million box

I explained the story, the drawings, and they had

and they want to know first. For sure, they love Tom

office. We opened at number one, but I went to a

an hour to read the script, in the room. If they like

Cruise, but they love Tom Cruise in certain kind of

couple of cities in the middle of America where I

it and think they can make money with it, they will

films, and if it’s not that, they don’t go. Look what

saw people leaving in the middle of the screening,

buy it. We sold probably 70 or 80 countries in one

happened to Scarlett [Johansson].

saying, “What the fuck is this thing?” I remember a family watching the film, and when the blue alien

had not been good enough, they would have said,

In your $40 million film Lucy, Scarlett Johans-

starts to sing classical music in space in the opera,

“Oh, we’re interested, but we’re not sure, because

son played an action star, and it grossed over

the guy says, “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” and

it’s a lot of money for us.” I knew that day, we would

$460 million worldwide. But Ghost in the Shell

they stood up, and they left.

know if it made sense or not.

didn’t open well at all. Take the two biggest stars this year, Chris Pratt

What does that tell you?

Sounds like a nerve-wracking day, the fate of

and Jennifer Lawrence; they are both gorgeous

guess it made me realize how European I was at

your dream project being decided by territorial

actors, really good. I love both of them. Put them

the time, 20 years ago. And the cultural differ-

buyers.

together in Passengers, you think, wow. And then

ences—what the European and the Asian audi-

And the funny thing is, you’re not even nervous.

the film doesn’t go very far. It’s over, and it’s a good

ences love about the film was exactly what Middle

Because if the answer is, “Not yet,” you have been

thing. These films are more complex every year, we

America hates about the film. So that was too

given the signal you have to go back and work on

are spending $250 million to make them. And the

much. It was too different. And it’s very interest-

your script.

audience is aware now. They eat the food and they

ing with Valerian, because I think we’re closer now.

want more, but they won’t buy if it’s a bad meal,

The Fifth Element worked in a lot of countries, but

How much of your budget did you cover that

just because you put a star name on it. They will

the country where it worked least was the U.S. I

day?

say, move your ass, make it better, and then we’ll

think it was Variety that had a list of the top films

More than 60 or 70 percent. Then you have the TV

come. The audience is pushing us to be better.

in the U.S. and international, and then combined.

and others. But we knew the level we had to reach

Under U.S., we were number 26, and international,

to make the film. If we didn’t get to this level, we

There are many adventures in the original

we were number three. It was Jurassic Park, Men in

could not make the film. This was three years ago.

Valerian comics. While you wait for audience

Black, and Fifth Element. What’s interesting is how

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

day. That was the moment of truth. If the script

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The Fifth Element over time became a cult favorite

it came to me like this. When I started on my first

here. I see it often on TV, which is good for Valerian.

film, and I was 19 years old, I said, “We’re going to do a shot like this.” The guy said, “No, you can’t do it

After turning yourself inside out to real-

like this.” I said, “Why? Who says that we have to do

ize a dream project, what makes Valerian a

it this way?” He said, “Luc, come on, everybody’s

success?

doing it the other way, OK?” And I was saying, “So

For now, I succeeded in bringing it in on time, on

what’s the point in doing it if everyone’s doing it

budget. Second, it’s really close to what I wanted

that way? Why we don’t just try?”

to do, so I’m happy at least that I love it. I hope I’m not alone.

You ask about stress? My stress comes from the people who try to not let me do what I want to do. That’s probably why it happens that I’ve worked

When you were a kid you used to wait for the

a few times with a studio, but never for a studio.

hands on the next volume of the Valerian

You work for yourself?

comic. What’s it like to transport yourself back

I work for the film, not for myself. The film is the

to something that you absorbed as a child and

king, and you have to protect the king. I hear from

SCOTT STUBER

turn it into a big movie like this? Is it better

friends the stories where the executive comes

The former Universal VP intends to ramp

than you remember?

with his notes. Obviously the notes are not for the

up Netflix’s homegrown film collection

It’s so different. At that time, I didn’t have a TV at

film, the notes are to show that he’s got the power.

home, and the only time I went to a cinema was at

He’ll say, “You have to add this guy from Bulgaria,

Christmas to go to see a Disney film. I watched a

because it will be good for Bulgarian territories,” or

film per year at the time. So what I was reading had

some stupid thing like this that has nothing to do

no rhythm with the film. I was reading backward,

with the film.

grocery store to open, so you could get your

forward, backward, forward, and I turned the page

But that doesn’t mean I believe it’s my way and

again. It was more than the storytelling; it was the

no other. My rule is very simple. If there are more

characters. When I was young, I could stay 10 min-

than two people who watch a scene and say some-

utes on one drawing to see how it was made. I didn’t

thing isn’t clear, go back to the editing room. You’re

have any culture of movies. It’s not like when you

not here to say, “Oh, you don’t understand. You’re

read a book and then you say, “Oh my God, I wish we

stupid.” No. If you don’t understand, I’m stupid.

could see that as a film.” I knew what a film was, but at the time, I didn’t know what a film was at all.

You asked before: why were we taking all this risk? What’s the motivation? In fact, the answer is we have no choice, because the other choice is

What film did you see that made you want to

not to be ourselves. We cannot fight this. When I

do what you are doing now?

decided I wanted to do movies, it wasn’t because

Actually, what made me want to be in the movie

I was hoping one day that they would offer me

business is not films at all. It’s because one day I

Spider-Man 7. I want to share. I make films because

went to a set, after a friend said, “Can you help?” It

I want to say something, and I want to show some-

was a short film, and I went on the set and just fell

thing—this is what I want to do.

in love—with the creativity, how they were building with their hands, the boom, the guy putting up the

Last year, Peter Jackson told stories of how it

lights, and controlling the lights. All these things.

felt to know that if The Fellowship of the Ring

I said, “Oh my God, I want to be there.” I went to

failed, so would the whole New Line studio. At

watch films after, but not so much. At the time, I

certain times in one’s life, it’s probably best to

didn’t have TV at home. My stepfather didn’t want

bet on yourself, the way you’ve discussed here.

TV, and we didn’t have VHS, and we were living 15

We went to New Zealand, and Peter was kind

kilometers from the city.

enough to invite us to dinner, and he told us those stories himself. We were laughing so much, you

Where did your film education come from?

can’t imagine. I started telling my stories, too. It

I was taking still pictures when I was 13, and I have

turns out they are similar for everybody. Everybody

been writing since I was 14. So my background is

said to Lucas that he was crazy to do Star Wars.

pictures, architecture, music, and writing. Those are

Everybody said to James Cameron that he was

my tools. Not films.

crazy to do Titanic and Avatar, and said to Francis

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

Ford Coppola that he was crazy to do Apocalypse Most directors immerse themselves in films,

Now. There are so many examples in the history

but it’s like you developed separate parts of

of movies where the crazy ones are the ones who

your brain with still images and literature.

have made the greatest films. Not all of them.

What do you think that gave you?

Sometimes, the guy was just crazy, and failed. But

Freedom. I’m never reacting because of something

my God, if everybody was reasonable, I wouldn’t go

else. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I’m very glad that

to see movies anymore. I would stay home. ★

WHEN SCOTT STUBER TOOK himself out of contention to replace Brad Grey as Paramount chairman, and instead accepted an offer to run Netflix’s feature film division, many felt he’d taken the more exciting job. Now Stuber has a blank slate and the financial backing to make Netflix as aggressive a film studio as it is on the television front—try 40-50 films per year. Netflix has already built some movie momentum. Beyond landing its first Cannes festival films, early Netflix successes include Beasts of No Nation and the eight-film deal for Adam Sandler comedies. There’s also the upcoming War Machine with Brad Pitt, Bright, starring Will Smith, and possibly the mob-movie reunion of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro in The Irishman. Its ability to pay generously has helped Netflix overcome the challenges of making filmmakers and stars comfortable generating movies for a subscription audience spanning 190 countries. Those artists are accustomed to seeing their work in multiplexes, accompanied by P&A spends that make their work part of the pop-culture conversation. Instead, Netflix is more like a global club, and the priority is keeping its members entertained enough to pay their monthly fees. A former vice chairman of worldwide production at Universal Studios who oversaw The Fast and the Furious and The Bourne Identity among others, before transitioning to producer of such films as Ted, Central Intelligence and Safe House, Stuber has the strong relationships with talent and their reps who need persuading to take part in the Netflix slate instead of the traditional theatrical model. He also has the experience to broaden Netflix into the next logical step in its feature growth curve: generating its own projects. That veers away from Netflix’s earlier film strategy, which consisted of outbidding theatrical distributors. The best example of this was Bright. For its first potential franchise play, Netflix made a $90 million-plus commitment, half of which covered salaries as well as back-end payday buyouts for Smith, director David Ayer, Joel Edgerton and others. Netflix has already put a few book properties in development, but homegrown films will become a focus for Stuber and his team if Netflix is to generate the volume of pictures needed to sustain subscriber growth goals. That means Netflix will become an aggressive acquirer of properties, once again putting traditional theatrical release distributors on their heels. —Mike Fleming Jr. DEADLINE.COM

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VANESSA REDGRAVE The award-winning star of film, TV and stage tells Damon Wise how, at the age of 80, she discovered a new means to speak truth to power

“I’VE NEVER DISRUPTED ANYTHING,” says

Sea Sorrow is the first film you’ve directed. Why

view of a child who was evacuated during the war.

British stage and screen icon Vanessa Redgrave

have you left it so long? And what was so urgent

We knew that we were mainly up against it, and I

with a mixture of surprise and mild indignation.

about this issue that made you want to do it?

wanted to do my bit, and I think every child in the

“Why would you call me a disruptor?”

I’ve been acting. And why this issue? I think you can

country wanted to do the same. My uncles and my

tell why. There’s so many wars causing so much

father were all in the Royal Navy. One of my uncles, as

long-standing commitment to political and

It’s a measure of the 80-year-old veteran’s

destruction, and so many people are fleeing. Trying

a matter of fact, was drowned in the Sea of Singa-

social causes that it’s quite possible Redgrave

to find protection, trying to find a life, trying to live.

pore, having been fighting for the Royal Navy, behind

really doesn’t see her formidable career as being

enemy lines, Japanese lines, in the hinterland of Sin-

anything out of the ordinary. But in the 50 years

But why did you make a film? Why not a

gapore. But anyway, at the age of 11 I understood that

since her first Oscar nomination in 1967 for Carol

theater or TV project? You’d already done a

the governments comprising the United Nations—

Reisz’s black comedy Morgan, A Suitable Case for

stage presentation in London, hadn’t you?

very few at that time—had made a declaration which

Treatment—followed by five more nominations

It’s a very good question. The stage presenta-

they felt was the basis for preventing anything like

and a Best Supporting Actress win in 1977 with

tion was really just a fundraiser. And that went

the Holocaust, and the horrors of the Second World

Fred Zinnemann’s Julia—Redgrave has consistently

well. It was in a tiny theater we packed out, and

War, from ever happening again. Realizing that so

challenged the public’s expectations of how far an

we made a lot of money considering the theater

much work had gone into a Declaration of Human

actor will go to effect change, taking a particular

was an 80-seat theater. We made £7,000, which

Rights—this was really revolutionary to anybody, let

interest in the field of human rights.

was very good. Never good enough, obviously, but

alone to me, at age 11. And then followed the Euro-

it was a good evening. We filmed it, and originally

pean Convention on Human Rights, and from there a

slowing down the pace, Redgrave’s life has taken

we wanted to make a film of the actual fundrais-

pattern was laid in my life, which told me that there

another unexpected turn: shocked by Europe’s

ing performance, but it segued into a film that was

are laws that everybody needs to obey, and that will

refugee crisis, last year she stepped behind the

very different in my mind from what we’d planned. I

go a long way to preventing genocide, pogroms, and

camera to make a documentary-essay film about

began to have a feeling that this, maybe, could be a

things like the Holocaust—the horrendous destruc-

the subject, a hybrid mix of news reportage and

personal narrative. And then I got cold feet, because

tion of the European Jews.

spoken-word performance that she describes

I thought, I didn’t mean to make a film about me.

Indeed, just when others might consider

The film takes its title from Shakespeare and

as “sort of a poem”. Taking its title from a line What changed?

references classical literature from Greek and

Tempest—Redgrave notes that Prospero and his

My son encouraged me to continue to think of this

Roman times. Why did that inspire you?

daughter Miranda are themselves refugees, forced

as a personal narrative, because it could conceiv-

The approach in the film owes a lot to the fact that,

into exile by his duplicitous brother—Sea Sorrow,

ably help people understand better what it means

culturally speaking, there’s a lot in our culture that

which premieres in Cannes as a Special Screening,

to be a refugee. In fact, while we were researching

begins with Greek poetry, that begins with Virgil

looks at the urgent crisis currently engulfing the

it, we found a poster in the Imperial War Museum,

and Homer. Well, one of them was Roman, but,

world, speaking to aid workers, politicians and

urging people to do their National Service, which

still, that’ll do. The stories of the first refugees that I

citizen activists while drawing intimate first-person

the poster said was to take care of evacuees. Back

ever came across in literature— that lots of people

accounts from the refugees themselves.

then, evacuees was the name for people—children

ever came across—were in The Iliad. The escape of

Redgrave is thoughtful, erudite and filled with

mostly, like myself—who’d been sent out of London

Aeneas with his father on his back, the Trojans, from

compassion when discussing the project, although

to escape from the bombs. Masses and masses of

their burning city, and the defeat of their kingdom

she concedes that brevity does not figure strongly in

children, huge-scale numbers. And the words on the

and what they had to do to try and find safety. It’s

her considerable armory of talents.

poster are, “It could be you.” Yes, indeed.

a fascinating story and it includes drowning, which

“Any question you ask, I’m afraid you’re likely to

seems rather terrifying, of course, because it’s so

get a long-winded answer,” she says with a gentle

In your director’s statement you say that this is a

real. They’re written about in a very real way. Just

and rather British chuckle.

subject you’ve been aware of since the age of 11.

like the horrifying deaths of so many people who

I was aware of a lot back then, from the point of

shouldn’t have ever had to get into these dreadful

“It’s part of my makeup—I do beg your pardon.”

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

spoken by Prospero in William Shakespeare’s The

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boats to try and get to safety. I hold our European government—and my own government—to blame. You spoke to child-refugee rights campaigner Lord Dubs for the film. Do you know him well? Yes. Needless to say, we’ve become close friends, because we’ve been campaigning now quite a long time, and will carry on campaigning. First of all, we’re still trying to get the children who have the absolute, undeniable right to come to this country because they have relatives here. Unaccompanied children, 18 and under, have the right to come here. I’m afraid every government in Europe, including the British government, won’t obey the law unless they’re forced to, i.e. by election. It’s very hard. It’s much harder than I ever dreamed when I was a child. I thought governments would obey the law. I didn’t dream that it wouldn’t just be very, very bad governments that wouldn’t obey the law, but it would be governments that are supposedly decent, good governments that wouldn’t obey the law. If you see, I’m being slightly ironic here. Who else did you speak to? Did you travel throughout Europe? Well, not only Europe, actually. My son Carlo [Nero, producer] went to Italy, to interview refugees being looked after by a wonderful orphanage that my husband [actor Franco Nero] has supported ever since I first met him, back in the ’60s. He collated those interviews. I was in Lebanon, though of course, that’s not Europe. I filmed there, and we filmed in France, a little bit. The rest, I think quite a lot of it, we got in interviewing on the Refugees Welcome march in London in September 2016. How did your research affect you? It’s normal for me. I’ve been everywhere, in the midst of war, goodness knows. It’s just how it is, but there you go. How many times have you been to Cannes now? Quite a lot. I haven’t counted, but quite a lot. The last time was last year, with Howards End [in Cannes Classics]. It was— I don’t think the right word is renovated, but, anyway, a marvelous and expensive piece of restoration work was done by a guy called Charles Cohen. Howards End badly needed it. Some films do. A lot of them, actually. I I love being there. The first time I went was long, long ago with Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment. What would you like the audiences in Cannes RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

to take away from the film? Hopefully, it will stay with them. That’s what would be nice. I’d like that. And do you think you’ll direct another film? Probably not. I’m 80. This is a one-off, I think.★ DEADLINE.COM

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CHINA

For Hollywood, the booming Chinese film market offers a potential goldmine—but is it too good to be true? Nancy Tartaglione reports

China does its level best to maintain at least a 51 percent market share for local movies, but if that potential box office is maxed out, big players like Wanda, Alibaba and others will want to get a larger percentage of the U.S. cut. Yet a number of recent deals have evaporated. There are stricter government controls in place, slowing money flow out of China— and also attempting to curb “irrational” investments by companies whose core business is not media. But many also see that as a convenient excuse. In the case of the $1 billion Paramount/Huahua

CHINA’S BREAKNECK BOX-OFFICE GROWTH may have ground to a sputter in 2016, but one need

any number of reasons”. With the yin comes the yang, and folks disagree

slate financing, which hiccuped before recently getting back on track, and other deals that have been

only look at the recent success of The Fate of the

on China’s positive role as a disruptor. Chris Fenton,

announced with fanfare only to never materialize, an

Furious for proof there is still gas in the market. Last

a trustee of the Washington DC-based U.S.-Asia

exec cautions, “There is no deal unless the money is

month, F8 crossed 2.43 billion RMB to become the

Institute and also president of DMG Entertainment,

in your account and you have sole discretion over it.

No. 1 import ever in the market.

is pro. “There is no better way to bring two countries

Nothing. It doesn’t exist.”

That performance reflects what has become a

with a tense relationship together than through the

Examples of investment deals that have moved

source of excitement and consternation for Hol-

high-profile artistic collaboration necessary to make

forward include Perfect World Pictures’ 50-film

lywood. In the five years since it paved the way for

globally relevant movies,” he says. “The bridge it

financing pact with Universal; Hony Capital, Tencent

more studio films—and Wanda acquired AMC—China

builds is both practical and emotional.”

and others’ arrangement with STX; and Alibaba

has come to represent the holy grail of box office

But another exec doesn’t believe the market itself

which has put money into individual tentpoles.

bucks and a key financing source. Yet it remains an

is all that hot. “China is a major market, but the quota

enigmatic labyrinth whose twists and government

and revenue share make them less relevant, as they

their own deals out of their own bank account and

agenda appear to shift continuously. So what’s

can’t change bottom line like they could if those were

that’s encouraging. Says one film exec, “There wasn’t

Hollywood’s upside in having China, with its flashy

gone.” This person believes the revenue share issue is

a lot getting done until [Wanda’s Chairman] Wang

pronouncements and strict censors, disrupt it so?

“essentially cutting off their own nose because they

Jianlin bought AMC. That was a really important

have a chance to become the biggest revenue earner

moment—people were saying that the transaction

for Hollywood, and therefore an ability to control the

was real and funded, in the same way as if they had

What were the Japanese, Germans, French, Arabs,

field. It’s not enough to be the biggest overall mar-

bought a steel company.” Jianlin has certainly done

Indians—and Wall Street—lacking? A giant pot of gold

ket… If China was 40 percent revenue share like every

his part to disrupt the landscape; his company is now

at the end of an ocean-spanning rainbow that leads

other market in the world, then it really matters.”

the world’s largest exhibitor, via its ownership of AMC,

It’s important to look at how China differs from previous deep-pocketed comers to Hollywood.

to what will soon be the world’s biggest theatrical

Co-productions, which entitle studios to a 43

The likes of Wanda, Tencent and Alibaba are doing

and also owns Legendary Entertainment.

market, that’s what. Hollywood simply can’t ignore a

percent return, are still in the growing-pains stages.

country of 1.3-plus billion people.

“Speaking to two cultures at the same time and try-

as part of a broader hand-wringing over China’s

“Every studio and financier in town and filmmak-

Wanda has come under some scrutiny in D.C.

ing to bridge that is really, really challenging,” says one

investments in Hollywood. But after a recent meet-

ers and creatives have all changed their strategy to

exec. But, “there’s no trend of them stopping and no

ing between U.S. President Donald Trump and his

adjust to the fact that there is a new market that will

one is pulling the plug on things. The two markets are

Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, tensions seemed to

be the biggest in the world,” says one film exec. “The

too big and too important to not try to approach this.”

ease on issues of trade. Some think China is going to

way they think about moviemaking and the creative

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will soon

continue to be restrictive on offshore investments,

process and the financing of it and the P&L have all

begin negotiating a new contract with China on

but others say that if the Chinese government sty-

been disrupted by that.”

behalf of the film industry. When the last one, in 2012,

mies capital conversion by multinationals, the effect

raised the quota floor and upped the revenue share

of them not being able to expand is more deleterious

“China came around at exactly the right time to help

from 12.5 percent to 25 percent, a boom time began.

on the economy than sending money offshore.

make up the fall-off of physical home entertainment

But studios quickly learned that with no control over

and a weakness at the box office.” But they caution,

release dates, films could be sandwiched into unsa-

will flow into Hollywood like it has recently. But he’s

“Now, the same way everyone got dependent on

vory slots or cannibalized by the competition. Release

positive about the future. “Right now there is a bit

home entertainment dollars, the studios are depen-

date say-so isn’t likely to change, and many consider

of a stall. I think things will maybe not go back to the

dent on China dollars.”

that raising the quota floor again is counter-produc-

peak, but there will definitely be some more of the

tive because P&A costs are growing in China. On the

past five years.”

A dealmaker who works with both countries adds,

Further, says a distribution executive, “The irony is that most of the studios have started to include

other hand, if the revenue share is increased, it could

China grosses into ultimate numbers for films when

actually send more Chinese money into Hollywood.

first mapping out in the budgeting process, which

The renegotiated contract “is going to be a

Attorney Tom Ara says it’s “TBD” whether money

Turning back to actual moviemaking, China and Wang personally have said they want to learn from Hollywood. But isn’t that dangerous? Ara thinks not.

can be dangerous. To hit budget numbers, you used

catalyst to open up China as a market for U.S. movie

“Hollywood has always been Hollywood and anybody

to completely exclude China—which was a smart

companies and China for allowing different types

who thinks that they are, even the Chinese, going to

way to go about it and allowed China to become your

of investment into the U.S.,” suggests a Hollywood

make films with international appeal, they’re not, not

upside opportunity.” Now, this person says, “Including

dealmaker. “If the revenue share goes up, it will be tre-

in my lifetime. Are they going to be able to dominate

China makes it even harder to hit your number and

mendously powerful for U.S. companies and Chinese

their own box office better than they are now? Abso-

disastrous if the film does not get a release slot for

companies that are multinational.”

lutely. And that’s what they want to do.” ★

DEADLINE.COM

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I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

Sébastien Thibault

5/11/17 11:54 AM

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DAVID LYNCH Damon Wise meets the master of the surreal as he returns to Cannes with a new 18-part series of murder-mystery Twin Peaks

IN THE 40 YEARS SINCE HIS TWISTED debut

of Transcendental Meditation pioneer Maharishi

an open ending. And the same thing goes with

Eraserhead, David Lynch has established himself

Mahesh Yogi. “It’s about disruption of the old, and

this—it’s a film. It’s broken into parts.

as the godfather of the cinema of the strange.

making way for the new,” the director says. “Disrup-

Creating directly from the depths of his subcon-

tion is a good thing—being disruptive can mean just

So what was your mood, going in?

scious, Lynch challenged accepted notions of

bringing better knowledge along to people.”

Oh, I love mood, and, y’know, Twin Peaks has a

realism in the thriller genre with his breakout 1986

mood and it’s the ideas that you follow, and the

hit Blue Velvet, a psychosexual neo-noir, then did

Why did you want to return to the world of

ideas dictate everything. But most every idea

the same for serial TV in 1990 with the ABC show

Twin Peaks?

comes along with its mood.

Twin Peaks, in which the murder of a small-town

Well, you know, the story was not over. I love the

beauty queen opened a festering can of worms.

world—and I love the people in the world.

Lynch hasn’t taken a full feature to a film fes-

And what was your personal mood? Happiness.

tival in over ten years, since his three-hour digital

Had you always wanted to go back there?

phantasmagoria Inland Empire (2006) premiered in

For a while I didn’t want to go back in, and then

Happiness to see that world again? Or were

Venice. His last appearance in Cannes was in 2001,

Mark Frost asked me to go to lunch, and I realized

you in a good place in your life?

when he unveiled perhaps his masterpiece, Mulhol-

that I had been thinking about going back in.

No, I just love working, and, like I said, it was seeing

land Drive—one of just two films released in the 21st

And then one thing led to another, and there

a lot of new faces, as well as a lot of great people I’d

Century to appear in Sight & Sound magazine’s

we were—back in.

worked with before.

back with the most anticipated TV event of the

So what was the starting point? I’ve heard

How did it compare to the first and second

year: the first two hours of an 18-episode return to

that you think of it as an 18-hour movie, not a

series? A lot of reports about the the first

the lumber town of Twin Peaks, where Laura Palmer

series as such.

series say that you were very loose, that you

was brutally murdered, although the director has

Well, like I said, I love the world, and ideas started

liked to embrace accidents.

made it a condition of this interview that he will not

coming. So there we were, and I always saw work-

I always say, you follow the script, but you should

discuss the show’s characters—or plot.

ing in television the same as working on a film. It is

be on your toes for new things. A thing isn’t finished

a film. So when I shot the pilot for Twin Peaks, way

’til it’s finished. And nature has a way of surprising

disruptor, last year launching his own Festival of

back when, I just saw it as a short film. The pilot

you with ideas along the way. It’s just a fantastic,

Disruption after being inspired by the philosophy

was not that short, it was a feature film, it just had

beautiful thing. So it’s not over till it’s over.

Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time. But this year he’s

Now 71, Lynch relishes his role as a grand

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Bram Vanhaeren

5/11/17 12:39 PM

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5/11/17 12:39 PM

And was it the same on this shoot?

With Me in 1992. How do you feel about going

Same thing.

back there?

and different things, for sure.

I love the Cannes Film Festival, it’s the best film

Is it that kind of hand-crafted quality that

Did you have more of a plan this time round?

festival in the world. Not to put any other festival

makes an auteur? In fact, do you believe in

No, you never have. You never know what you have,

down, but everybody kind of agrees on that. And

the auteur theory?

till it’s done.

it’s a big deal, and it will be really great to show the

[Pauses] You know, in the old days, people came

first bit to the people at Cannes.

out here to California, and they just made films

You’ve often said that you didn’t ever want

and had fun doing it. Then they’d go to a great

to solve the murder mystery involving Laura

What does Cannes mean to you?

dinner afterwards, when the sun went down,

Palmer. Have you gone some way towards

Well, you know, it’s a celebration of cinema. Big-

because they were using just sunlight—the light is

addressing that regret in this series? Or is

time celebration of cinema.

so beautiful. They’re making it up, they’re getting

that—again—under wraps? That’s totally under wraps, Damon, you know that.

ideas and they’re working away. There’s no rules, And do you have a particular fond memory of a

there’s no bullshit, and they just make the films.

being there?

Then they got rules, more rules, and more rules,

Well—

Yeah, I won the Palme d’Or [in 1990, with Wild at

and a certain way of going, where directors aren’t

Yeah, I know you gotta try.

Heart]. That’s a pretty thrilling experience.

given final cut a lot of times, and it’s just assbackwards. Of course you want to be involved

It’s funny that, in the internet age, people get

It was a very interesting film to win with.

very upset when you won’t tell them what

Yeah. It was the first time I was ever there. I wanted

they’re just about to find out anyway.

to go—I was going to take Eraserhead there, prob-

Obviously you’re busy with Twin Peaks, and

No, no, no, they don’t get upset, they get curious.

ably to Directors’ Fortnight, or one of the other

you’re probably not thinking too far ahead, but

And it sometimes gets frustrating, and they want to

things, not the main event. But it didn’t work out,

would you like to make another film?

know. People want to know right up until the time

so Wild at Heart was the first time I was there. I had

Well when Inland Empire came out, it was three

they know, and then they don’t care any more. The

no expectations of getting anywhere near a Palme

hours long, and no one understood it, so it didn’t do

whole thing is about the experience of going into the

d’Or, but there it happened. Thanks to that great

real well. And anything that’s not summer block-

world of Twin Peaks, and catching that mood, and

jury, and Bernardo Bertolucci.

buster fare doesn’t do well these days in the the-

going on a trip. And this is a beautiful thing. It’s

with everything. It’s making a film.

ater. They don’t last in the theater. And arthouses

a delicate world. I always say you should turn the

Did they ever tell you why they voted for you?

are gone, so hopefully a new wave will come, and

lights down low, make sure there’s no interruptions,

They just thought it was a great piece of film

they’ll be back at the arthouse. But right now, cable

get as big a picture as you can, the best sound you

[laughs].

television is the new arthouse.

can, and go for this experience. Why are you laughing?

Do you think you’ll stay that way?

For me, personally, I don’t want to know what I’m

I was just making a joke. You know, I don’t know, I

I don’t know what will happen, but whatever hap-

going to see, I want to discover it on my own, with no

didn’t get any feedback.

pens, it will be based on ideas that come along, and

And this is a beautiful thing, a precious thing.

bullshit surrounding it. And that’s really important.

the thrill of doing something based on those ideas. Last year you screened the making-of film Blue

Have you been surprised by the anticipation

Velvet Revisited at your Festival of Disruption

Where are you right now?

for the series?

in LA. It gives a fantastic insight into how you

I’m in the wood shop, about ready to make some

You know, there are many surprises. How some-

worked on that movie—everything was so per-

hinges, but I do have time to talk to you a little more.

thing that took place in a small town in the woods

sonal. Surely no major director has ever been

can travel around the world. It’s very surprising

allowed that kind of freedom ever since?

What are you making at the moment?

what happened.

I’ve always had that. You have to have that free-

I’m making a table, and this table, it’s a side table

dom. You have to have the freedom. Freedom is the

next to my chair. And it will have a space for two

Did you ever have that thought in the back of

name of the game. Final cut, and freedom to make

remotes, one pair of glasses, some pens, a yel-

your mind?

the film you want to make, that’s what it’s all about.

low pad, a box of Kleenex, and a wine bottle box,

No, you just do the thing. There’s a Vedic expres-

Why, I say, would anyone go and make a film if they

plus another door for cigarettes and a lighter, and

sion, “Man has control of action alone, never the

didn’t have that freedom?

another door for cheese crackers and things like this. And it has electricity in the table, too—it’s for a

I have just now, I’ve got no control of what’s going

But you spent a lot of time handcrafting

to happen. It’s up to fate. And the people.

signs and props, doing things that the art

lamp on top of the table.

department would normally be doing. You’re

I take it you designed that yourself.

Is it all done now? Have you finished

getting involved.

Yes, I’m designing it and building it myself, yeah. It’s

everything?

Every element is important, and you work along to

so much fun, I can’t tell you.

There’s still a lot of loose ends, deliverables, and

get them to feel correct for you, the director. I love

things like this. But it’s, you know, a long way down

building things, painting things, and doing stuff. It’s

Is that based on something that you want

the road now. It’s coming out May 21.

part of the great experience of making a film.

from a table?

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

fruits of that action.” So when you finish a thing, like

Yeah. You know, instead of all the stuff being on You’re also taking it to Cannes, where you had

Has that been the case with all your films?

top of the table, now there’s a place for it within

a bad experience with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk

Yes, yes. They send me out with the painter’s kit

the table.

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WHAT HAPPENED? In 1989 the body of 17-year-old high-school student Laura Palmer washed up on the banks of a river outside the sleepy logging town of Twin Peaks. The girl’s naked body was wrapped in plastic. As the local police investigated, a second girl—Ronette Pulaski, reported missing—was found stumbling, half-dressed and halfdead, along the railway line. Ronette was taken to hospital, where she fell into a coma. The discovery of a second victim prompted the arrival of FBI special agent Dale Cooper, who believed the girls to be the victim of a serial killer he was tracking.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS You vaguely remember the dancing dwarf, owls being not what they seem and “damn fine” coffee. But what actually happened in the original show?

Working with local sheriff Harry S. Truman, Cooper discovered that, behind the folksy façade, Twin Peaks was a hotbed of intrigue: Laura and Ronette had been part of teenage prostitution ring operating out of a brothel called One-Eyed Jack’s. As the duo investigated, they found dark forces at work in the forest, bringing Cooper into contact with the mysterious Black Lodge and an evil spirit named Bob.

Do you still watch a lot of golf, or is that an obsession that’s passed? I’d like to watch golf. I haven’t been watching too much golf lately, but I love watching golf, I love watching these great shots, and it’s really beautiful, these courses and stuff. It’s a nice thing to watch sometimes. You seem to have a very nice life balance, in terms of your art and your hobbies. Is there anything that you haven’t done yet? I would like to learn how to sew. I have a sewing machine, an industrial sewing machine, but I don’t know how to use it, and I would like to learn how to sew. There’s a lot of things like, you know, covers for things, bags to carry things. A lot of these car shows, they have these guys that do the interiors of the car, the seats and the door panels. These people are artists. All the metal workers, and the machinists, and the interior guys, it’s unreal what they do. They can work that sewing machine like nobody’s business, and cut

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

this foam, and different layers of foam, different

The town is pretty much as we left it—25 years older, and haunted by its past. “It's an exercise in engaging with one of the most powerful themes in all of art,” says the show’s co-creator Mark Frost, “which is the ruthless passage of time.”

types of foam, and stretch this leather, and then iron this leather, steam it, and get it perfect. It’s amazing what they can do. Your films are all incredibly stylish. Have you ever thought of going into fashion? I’ve never thought about fashion, but there’s where sewing comes in as well, and getting things shaped just exactly right. They’re artists as well. Total artists.

I’m a bit surprised—you’ve got this massive TV

generally speaking. And it’s a real sadness, because

It’s interesting that there’s never really

show coming up, and you’re making a table. Is

people think they’ve seen the film, but they really

been that much of a tie-in industry with

it therapeutic?

haven’t. And that’s not right. If people at home had

Twin Peaks—the only spinoffs appear to be

No, it’s something I want to do, and ideas come for

as big a screen as possible, and great sound, and

books. Was that something you decided?

many, many reasons, and all of us don’t do anything

if they did turn the lights down for the things they

Well, we didn’t really get into that on the first

without an idea, so there’s ideas for everything,

see, and make it a safe place, a good place to see it,

go-around, but I think now there could be some-

and sometimes you catch an idea you just fall in

that would be really beautiful.

thing like that. I don’t know for sure.

wood shop. I haven’t been in here for several years

How do you watch movies yourself? Do you

So it wouldn’t bother you if people want to

because of working on Twin Peaks.

have a big TV, or do you have a screening

exploit the show with figurines and so on?

room?

No, I would like to do the figurines myself. But

How is the music coming along?

Oh, I have both those things, but, you know, like

there’s fan sites that have lots of things up, I

Music’s coming along real good, but I haven’t been

if you’re looking at a little screen, like an iPad or

don’t know the legal things with that. But there’s

involved with music because of Twin Peaks either,

something, headphones are super important—and

a lot of things being made.

except for what’s in the film.

hold the iPad as close to your head as possible.

So you’re not involved in the music for the

You do that? Or is it something you

series?

recommend doing only if you have to?

I didn’t say that.

I recommend it if you have to do it.

Is there anything you can say about Twin

What sort of things do you watch?

You know, the doctor’s asked me not to think

Peaks, that you’d like to say?

I don’t watch anything—I’ve been working. I’m not a

about these kinds of things.

No, but it’s important that, like I said, it’s seen prop-

film buff, I don’t watch too much stuff, except lately

erly. All things these days are seen on machines

I’ve been watching the news, and some Velocity

Why not?

that have very bad picture and very bad sound,

channel, which is a car channel.

I don’t know. You’d have to talk to the doctor. ★

love with and away you go. I love working in the

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

Do you ever look at your own fan sites? No, I don’t. But people tell me about them. Are you ever curious about how people see you?

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ANNAPURNA PICTURES Anita Busch hails the spiritual successor to Miramax and Orion, as Megan Ellison’s company transforms itself into a powerful mini-major

IN ONLY A FEW SHORT YEARS MEGAN ELLISON—

Best Picture nominations in the same year, with

who started up Annapurna in 2011—has taken

Spike Jonze’s Her and David O. Russell’s American

a small, vibrant, indie production company and

Hustle both earning nods in 2014.

methodically turned it into an impressive mini-

It’s reminiscent of another company that

ended up going bankrupt. “Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” confirms one major player from that era. “They immediately started a company and started a

major. Those in town are comparing Annapurna

began disrupting Hollywood about three decades

marketing and distribution company that, by the

to the heyday of Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s

ago—the old Orion Pictures, which was run by

time they got it together, they were out of money.

Miramax, which dominated the ’90s, but a more

Mike Medavoy, Arthur Krim, Eric Pleskow, Bill

The overhead killed them.”

appropriate analogy might be Orion Pictures, the

Bernstein and Bob Benjamin. Initially a joint

prestige indie outfit of the ’80s.

venture with Warner Bros., Orion entered into

the company began getting in the groove again,

Ellison is financing, acquiring and producing

It wasn’t until towards the end of its run that

deals with great filmmakers and let them do what

with two back-to-back Best Picture wins—Kevin

high-quality fare with cutting-edge filmmakers.

they knew best, and it wasn’t long before the

Costner’s Dances with Wolves and Jonathan

Initially, Annapurna financed and produced films

company was on a roll both commercially and

Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs—but then it

and then distributed them through others, but

critically, garnering multiple Best Picture trophies.

found itself having to sell The Addams Family to

since hiring away executives from The Weinstein

When the executives broke off and ventured

Paramount for cost (about $17 million) because it

Company and Fox, Ellison has now built her own

out as a standalone outfit, they began putting

was so cash-strapped. The Addams Family would

marketing and distribution departments for her

together their own marketing and distribution

later become a big box-office success, spawning

slate. She also established her own TV division as

departments. The difference between Annapurna

a franchise with two sequels for Paramount.

well, hiring former HBO staff.

and Orion is that Orion Pictures had inherited

Megan Ellison’s father is Oracle billionaire Larry

While Orion Pictures is a cautionary tale for

a library—consisting of Filmways and AIP

Annapurna, the five year old company seems

Ellison, and with that comes deep—very deep—

titles—that it could draw on when it started its

to be moving much slower and steadier. “I think

pockets. “It’s good to have a dad who is a mega-bil-

distribution and marketing divisions. Also helping

she’s really smart and has done a good job

lionaire,” says one entrepreneur and producer. “She

to pump cash in was that Orion also owned the

in growing her business,” says producer Mike

certainly has the resources to stay in the game. She

first two or three years of Saturday Night Live and

Medavoy, co-founder of Orion and current

is doing the smart thing, unlike others around town,

was getting money out of syndication because of

producer of The Promise starring Christian Bale

by not building the marketing and distribution up

an early deal Orion TV made with Lorne Michaels.

and Oscar Isaac. And he should know.

before they had product. Many of these start-ups

Orion, at least initially, ended up garnering

The first movie that Annapurna will market

go too quickly so they can beat their chests and

more success, with more Academy Award

and distribute on its own will be from its Zero Dark

say, ‘Look what we have.’”

nominations than any other studio in town. It

Thirty team Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal—

was during this time in the mid 1980s that it

Detroit, about the city’s 1967 race riots—which

rocky (and unprofitable) string of movies at its

earned two Best Picture wins with Miloš Forman’s

drops on Aug. 4 this year.

start—Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, John

Amadeus and Oliver Stone’s Platoon. But after a

Hillcoat’s Lawless, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The

string of costly flops, Orion started to fail as the

make is that they immediately hire and put

Master—no one can argue with the sheer amount

company found itself having to continue to pay

together and marketing, distribution departments

of critical kudos Annapurna has gleaned. In fact,

out large salaries and overhead, whether it had

before they have movies to put into the market

over the past five years, the company can boast

product to take to market or not. At the end, it

place,” says producer Adam Fields, a former

32 Academy Award nominations, and Ellison is

tried to stay alive by signing up with Columbia

executive at Miramax. “So they have to feed the

one of only four honorees ever to receive two

Pictures for distribution, but it was no use. Orion

beast, and they then have to carry this massive

While there are naysayers pointing to a

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“I think the mistake that most independents

I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

Bram Vanhaeren

5/11/17 12:40 PM

overhead prematurely, which, in turn, forces them to make decisions and push through films they otherwise might not have.” But is Annapurna really like Miramax, as so many people around town say? “People compare them to Miramax, but [that company] didn’t make all of those movies,” says Fields. “Many of them initially were acquisitions, and Harvey being aggressive at Cannes and Sundance to get the product, which doesn’t require a massive amount of overhead. I give him a lot of credit.” Comparatively, New Line Cinema started to falter as they tried desperately to move out of niche genre films and into bigger-budgeted, more commercial films, like Peter Chelsom’s Town & Country and Renny Harlin’s The Long Kiss Goodnight. Lionsgate, on the other hand, grew slow and steady and have put in place a structure to offset risk to the point of (in some cases) regret from the top-ranking executives there. Annapurna is clearly employing a similar strategy to Orion with a priority on making deals with great filmmakers. It has just sealed a deal to bring Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner’s Plan B (Moonlight, 12 Years a Slave, The Big Short, World War Z) into the fold, which is a major coup. “I like my dealings with Annapurna,” says one top agent. “In general, Megan has been great for our business. When she started she was a real patron of the arts and had engaged filmmakers in a way that is creating original stories. I think that's very good for the art of film.” Annapurna has a number of filmmakerfriendly projects on its upcoming slate, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled new period film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Maria Semple’s book Where’d You Go, Bernadette. “I’m a fan of Megan’s,” says Charles Roven, one of the producers on their 10-time Academy Award nominated film American Hustle. “My experience with that company—which was several years ago—was very good. She’s a great partner and collaborator and has great taste. She comes from the right place, in terms of the decisions she makes, in that she’s always looking out for the best interests of the picture.” Roven believes that running a company that is interested in making all kinds of different movies—not just tent-poles—is essential to keeping the film industry relevant. “It allows new talent to express themselves and emerge,” he reasons. “It’s so important to have a venue for them to express themselves [in film]. There are so many other options these days besides theatrical, but I’m a producer who believes in the theatrical business—and it’s clear with Annapurna’s distribution expansion that they do, too.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

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ADAM MCKAY

The writer-director tells Mike Fleming Jr. about his comedic roots, and how they apply to his significant career turn

WITH HIS OSCAR-WINNING 2015 HIT The Big

through comedy, starting with doing stand-up

Robbie in a bubble bath to explain complex

Short—which took the prize for Best Adapted

comedy in Philly, improvisation with the Upright

subprime mortgage formulas in The Big Short,

Screenplay, along with four other nominations—

Citizens Brigade, Second City. I was lucky enough to

and got away with it. What makes you feel that

director and co-writer Adam McKay turned the

go through Chicago and the way they do comedy,

theaters, where people go to escape problems,

2008 financial crash into an entertaining and reve-

there’s always a point of view and political and

are the right places to tell the stories of Dick

latory comedy-drama, demonstrating a penchant

social edge. I built that into everything I did, and

Cheney and Elizabeth Holmes?

for political hot-button material, and making it its

then Saturday Night Live was a lot of political humor.

You just said it really well. There’s this economically

own genre as he sets up his next projects.

I’ve always been really interested in the history of

incentivized, partisan paintbrush out there. I think

our country, how our government works, corruption,

what people are craving is what really is going on. A

Carell recently coming aboard McKay’s Untitled

crazy stories. This combination caused the jump to

big part of movies has always been cutting through

Dick Cheney Project—an Annapurna/Plan B drama

more flagrantly going at these topics, as opposed

that crap and showing something that expresses a

about the polarizing and disturbingly impactful

to letting them exist under these comedies. It feels

human truth we all can connect with. What I was

vice president—the director also has Bad Blood

like the roof has been caving in. It’s one thing to be

really happy with about The Big Short is that those

following right behind, with which he continues his

making fun, silly jokes with a point of view. Once the

issues aren’t right wing or left wing. It was just

unique dissection of major national controversies.

weight-bearing beams of your house start falling

about corruption, which is really all I care about.

The drama will star Jennifer Lawrence as 19-year-

on you, it really gets to a point where it’s like, OK, it’s

With Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Steve

old prodigy Elizabeth Holmes—founder of bio-tech company Theranos—who saw her business rise

time to be a little more naked about it. I also felt there was a real challenge, too. In

Many people would call me a lefty and a democrat, but I actually don’t consider myself that. I’m just against corruption, and this was a true story

to an estimated value of $9 billion in a little over a

everything I had learned from doing the comedies,

that was riveting to me. I was really happy with the

decade, before becoming mired in controversy.

could I make these subjects come to life, and make

fact that we got a lot of support from what would,

them entertaining? I used everything I learned

traditionally, be considered the right wing. We had

At a time when studio movies are increasingly

to pump up a subject up like banking reform and

people like Bill O’Reilly and Greta Van Susteren and

formulaic escapism, you are plying a politically

banking fraud, something that usually makes a lot

a bunch of right-wingers who really liked the movie

and socially aware genre that we haven’t really

of people glaze over.

because they knew it was true.

seen since the films of the ’70s. You transi-

The excitement comes when you can take

tioned from Saturday Night Live to Will Ferrell

We have our first tweeting president, and you

these subjects and can cut through all the inten-

comedies that were escapist fun with subtle

can’t escape politics, with more subjective

tionally placed barb wire and rocks and garbage

subversion between the lines. What prompted

coverage that often doesn’t even try for objec-

that keeps people away from getting to the

you to reverse that formula?

tivity, telling a niche audience what it wants

essence of the subject. Once you really get to the

That’s a good question. I came at everything I do

to hear. You used clever devices like Margot

core, it can be amazingly entertaining. In general,

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Bram Vanhaeren

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5/11/17 12:40 PM

there’s a belief amongst a lot of people that our

our government and our culture, and people have

So, I really just look for just a giant shift in what

culture is lying to us in the way it is telling us what’s

been getting itchy about it and complaining. There

movies are, how movies are presented, and you’re

interesting and what’s not. What’s traditionally

have been upsetting flare-ups, and you’ve seen our

seeing it too. You noticed it, where audiences really

considered boring, that actually is where some of

system start to fall apart until that truck full of eels

get fatigued with the same old storyline; some of

the most exciting subjects are.

finally hit the wall, with Trump. But I think if it hadn’t

the big-budget superhero movies really take their

been Trump, it would have been someone else;

lumps on the fact that they settle into well-tested,

Is there a period or a touchstone film that

would there really have been a difference between

old storylines. People are demanding layers. People

informs where you are now going as a

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump?

storyteller?

Think of the most wackadoodle candidate you

are demanding unpredictability. They’re demanding some sort of challenge, shock, and surprise. By

I guess it’s universally accepted that the ’70s were

can think of, and that’s just always where it’s been

the way, as I say it aloud, I realize, that’s always what

a golden age for movies. There, you look at a movie

headed, with all this happening through informa-

movies have been about, but now the demand is just

like All the President’s Men. It’s a true story that’s so

tion war, and crafty usage of focus groups, market-

much more critical and stringent than it’s ever been.

artfully and masterfully told, and it elevated beyond

ing, advertising, messaging.

republican, democrat, right wing, left wing, because at

This is a very interesting time we live in. It’s not

Explain why Dick Cheney so captured your

its core, this was a story about great journalism. You

about boots on the ground and dropping bombs.

fancy, and why Christian Bale, when he

also had fictional movies with great core ideas, and

What we’re seeing Putin do, what’s happening here

doesn’t look like him at all.

there, Network is probably my all-time favorite movie,

in the United States, it’s about creating consensus

I’ll start just saying, I don’t know if there’s anyone like Christian Bale on the planet Earth. The man’s just

“This is a very interesting time we live in. It’s not about boots on the ground and dropping bombs. What we’re seeing Putin do, what’s happening here in the United States, it’s about creating consensus through information and advertising and misinformation and manipulation.”

amazing. My experience with him on The Big Short, I’ve never seen anything like it, how he becomes a person. What I wanted to avoid was, I didn’t just want someone to do an impression of Dick Cheney. What Christian Bale really does is he psychologically breaks someone apart and puts them back together again. I’ve never seen a process like it. I’ve never seen someone work so hard at it, and it is hard on him, but really amazing to watch. The second I thought of doing the movie, I knew right away, the most exciting person to play him is Christian. I’m not worried about him looking exactly like Dick Cheney, I’m worried about him getting into the essence of this guy who’s complicated—surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, depending

and certainly, one of the most important movies ever

through information and advertising and misin-

on your view of him. I wanted Christian Bale to play

made. You also had The Parallax View, Three Days of

formation and manipulation. I think we’re going to

him before I even started writing the script.

the Condor, these expressions of suspicion of consoli-

see a big change, with technology also changing.

dated power going on at that time that was very real,

I’m really excited to see this post-traditional genre

Cheney? It’s a giant chapter in U.S. history. I don’t

very connected to the world, and very exciting.

period that we’re headed to.

feel like it’s ever been fully examined. A lot of crazy

You also saw documentaries really get their legs

I just don’t think old genres are going to exist

The second part of your question, why Dick

stuff happened during those eight years, and this is

under them with the Maysles Brothers, and films

the way they did in the past. The movie Get Out is

a vital puzzle piece in what got us to this moment

like Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, USA. That spirit

prime example. That movie was so exciting. It was

with Donald Trump, with the world, as it is now, and

was picked up by Michael Moore in the ’80s with

a horror movie, it was a comedy, it was a satire.

Dick Cheney is at the center of it.

Roger & Me, which I still consider an all-time classic.

There are three different genres in there. They call

People forget that whole movie is about outsourc-

it a horror movie on the surface, but there was so

American history, and quietly had a bigger effect on

ing, which is not a right- or left-wing subject. Moore

much going on with that. You’re seeing that more

global events and the shape of the current world

called it before anyone was talking about it. For

and more. Get Out was high-level stuff.

than just about anyone around. At the same time,

comedies, the touchstones are Dr. Strangelove,

He was one of the most powerful leaders in

we treated him a little bit like a punchline, calling him

Idiocracy, and The Producers, which is really about

Feels like a forecast of cynical cinema.

Darth Vader. I felt like there’s an incredible story here

grand fraud. Those movies were hugely influential.

What Trump is the result of is really layered,

about American power, about manipulation, and at

nuanced, amazing, very skillful manipulation, and

the same time, about a real person, with real strug-

Some feel the election of President Trump

I think, as we come to grips with that, we’re going

gles with his wife and his family. The more I dug, the

will spawn these kinds of cautionary tales

to get more sophisticated. The American public

more I found. Our surface impression of Dick Cheney

you mentioned that came out of Vietnam

clearly is getting more sophisticated, from the

actually goes 15 stories down into the ground.

and Watergate. Acknowledging the Trump

days where you just saw a pretty picture of some

presidency has just begun, what kind of movie

soap and the line, “It keeps you clean,” and people

The Big Short was a cautionary tale. Is Cheney?

catalyst might he be?

would buy it, to nowadays. You look at the advertis-

There’s some of that, but this is different than The

We’ve been headed in this direction a long time,

ing that’s on, you look at the way that people talk;

Big Short, a film about a system that goes wrong.

where things have just been bending in the wrong

clearly, there’s a giant learning curve going on, but

The Dick Cheney story is about the effects of

direction. Big money really started to take over

right now, we’re not quite ahead of it.

power, on a person, on a family. It’s just something

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that we don’t talk about enough, the psychological effects of power—of consolidated power, a centralized power, and what does it to do you. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a quote from George W. Bush where he said, “You’ve got to be careful. It’s amazing what power will do you to you. Trust me, I’ve been in there. I’ve seen it happen.” He didn’t say he was talking about Dick Cheney, but I got the feeling he was. It’s a very astute comment for Bush to be that conscious of what power could do to people. I think for the average person, walking around, it’s almost impossible for us to understand what it’s like to be in that White House, and wield that kind of power, and what it does to the human psyche. That’s the cautionary tale part.

A24

Founded just five years ago, the upstart production, finance and distribution company is leading the charge in independent filmmaking

Having naturally appealing actors like Bale, Lawrence, Carell, and Adams bringing flawed, unlikeable characters to life, is that your secret sauce in being sure an audience will relate to them? One hundred percent. It was the trick we used with the Will Ferrell comedies—look at who he played. He was a pretty awful guy for the most part, in Talladega Nights. In Anchorman, he’s a downright pig. Step Brothers, completely selfish. That was always Will Ferrell’s magical power. He is such a decent guy, in real life that people would read these characters on the page and say, “He’s not likeable,” and I would say, “You haven’t seen Will Ferrell play him.” Christian, Jennifer Lawrence, these are great actors that people have a connection with through their body of work, and they appreciate the process they go though in becoming these characters. You had a comedy called Border Guards. Will and John C. Reilly, as these guys who see themselves as patriots, who are determined to keep Mexican immigrants from crossing the border and then find themselves on the wrong side of the border. You guys wrote this before Trump, but given all that’s happened, is it now too much on the nose to be funny? I don’t think so. Will and I really felt like that was one of the best things we’ve ever written. It’s up in the air, because we sent the Cheney script to Annapurna. It’s possible I will produce it and we’ll get another director, because we both feel like it’s a movie that has to get made. Is it possible you could have imagined the immigration crisis we now face, back when you wrote this? I’ve got to tell you, never did we imagine we’d be in this place. We knew Hillary wasn’t the best candidate in the world, and there were moments we said, “Can this guy really win?” But what has happened has been pretty crazy and no, we’re not sleeping on this project. ★

A24, THE COMPANY FOUNDED IN 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges, has been hitting the motherlode—for indie companies, anyway—with smart film choices and even smarter ways of bringing them to marketplace, particularly in their increasingly innovative—and, yes, disruptive—use of digital marketing. It not only has been working at the box office, but also at the Academy Awards, where the company defied expectations and watched their first in-house production, the $1.5 million budgeted Moonlight, take three Oscars, including a surprise Best Picture win, while grossing over $55 million worldwide. Last year they saw three of their films grab Oscars, including Brie Larson’s Best Actress statuette for Room (a Best Picture nominee), Amy for Best Documentary, and Ex Machina in a stunning upset for Best Visual Effects, the first non-major studio blockbuster-type movie to take that award. Much of what A24 does is skewed towards a younger demographic, and that is one reason why they buy very little television or newspaper advertising, preferring to spend money hyper-targeting consumers online, where their message can connect more directly with those most likely to respond. For the low-budget supernatural horror The Witch, the company had a 13-month window to craft a campaign with key social media and smart co-branding, resulting in a $40 million gross. They even picked up Gus Van Sant’s critically vilified 2015 Cannes disaster The Sea of Trees and turned it into a financial success, with their DirecTV deal and PPV strategy that bypassed theatrical in the U.S. Recently, they took another risk, world-premiering their upcoming horror title It Comes at Night at the new Overlook Film Festival in Mt. Hood, Oregon, on the site of the hotel used in The Shining. It got rave reviews from the handful of press there, and the company dropped their trailer the next day, which was amplified by the Overlook reaction and Shining comparison, in effect turning the online trailer-drop into something instantly buzzworthy. The executives at A24 don’t like to repeat themselves, so this year, they have financed the adult-skewing The Lovers; add to that their first foreign-language film, Menashe, a Brooklyn-set feature told in Hebrew. At Cannes, they are launching four new films, including two in official competition—Good Time, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer—as well as John Cameron Mitchell’s Out Of Competition entry How to Talk to Girls at Parties and midnight-screening selection A Prayer Before Dawn. —Pete Hammond

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JASON ROPELL Amazon’s Film Chief reflects on the company’s breakthrough year as it walks the tightrope between theatrical distribution and VOD, reports Diana Lodderhose

IT’S BEEN A GOOD YEAR FOR AMAZON Studios.

Not so long ago, the business was skeptical of

films globally and on a regional basis, it’s me and my

The company has proved its worth as a major

Amazon’s intentions, but now you’re coming

team and Chris [Bird] who are really driving that.

player in the independent film market thanks to

off of the back of a huge year. What’s changed

the critical and box office success of Manchester

in the last 12 months?

What will you do broaden your footprint in

by the Sea, which it picked up in Sundance last year

Things have changed in a few ways. We grew from

various countries?

for $10 million before steering it to Oscar success in

a program that was predicated on mainly acquisi-

I view our studio as a global studio. We’re kind of

the Best Actor and Screenplay categories. Amazon

tions—not because it was always going to be our

territory agnostic as we’ve been developing and

also nabbed a third statue with Asghar Farhadi’s

focus, but because you need to start somewhere.

acquiring film. Up to this point, we’ve been sell-

The Salesman, which went home with the Oscar for

But as we got traction we started to pull projects

ing international rights through a third party and

Best Foreign Language Film, the director’s second

into the pipeline that we could fully finance, and

licensing and retaining rights for our platform. In

time on the Academy’s stage.

that’s now becoming more and more a focus point.

lieu of those rights, we provided a rate card to a

We’re looking for the majority of our films to be fully

local distributor as it incentivises them based on

dance acquisition, paying $10 million for The Big

In January, Amazon made another big Sun-

financed, and that’s because we want to have more

box office and to also put P&A behind films, which

Sick, the Judd Apatow-produced comedy hit of

control and agency of the films that come through.

actually contributes to the value of the film. It also

the festival. The company is also firmly stepping

The plan is to really focus more on development

empowers local distributors to be more aggressive

into the original film space, having fully-financed a

going forward. We want to develop, produce and

in their bidding and often times those local distribu-

hotly anticipated Cannes competition title—Todd

finance the majority of our slate, and that means

tors are probably better suited to release our films.

Haynes’s Wonderstruck—as well as Beautiful Boy, a

getting through that period we fought through

This connects into why we’re moving more to fully

$40 million Steve Carell drama with Plan B produc-

where there was a lot of focus on acquisition. I don’t

financing because we started all of these [deals] so

ing. But behind the scenes (blink-and-you-would-

think we’ll abandon that space, we’re just evolving.

it allows us to feed the global service and using this

have-missed-it), it has also been quietly calculating

today, this strategy allows us to release the films

its global outreach, which was kick-started with the

What’s the decision-making process like

rollout of its new motoring show The Grand Tour

when it comes to acquiring films and content

across more than 200 countries in December on

amongst you, Bob, Ted and Roy Price?

or putting up P&A and then using a third-party

Amazon Prime.

As the head of the studio, Roy has the final say, but

distributor to release them in local territories, that’s

between him, myself and Bob and Ted, that’s how

TBD. But in terms of servicing our global platform

push for content and licensing is Jason Ropell,

those decisions get made. I think you can kind of

through the activities we’re doing on the original

Amazon Studios’ Worldwide Head of Motion

canvas broad support and start to make a consen-

film side for our studio, that continues to be part of

Pictures. The Toronto native—whose job is to

sus, but as a decision-making and greenlight com-

the strategy.

oversee production, distribution and marketing

mittee, we’re a pretty solid group of people who are

for all of Amazon’s original and acquired films, as

tightly aligned.

One of the main drivers behind this huge global

where we’re set up and in. Whether we’ll be releasing our own films, selling

In France, the window between theatrical and SVOD release is 36 months. How do you oper-

well as licensing content across the platform—has fast become one of the most well-respected and

Amazon’s international rollout happened

ate in that territory with that holdback?

well-liked execs in the independent film arena. He

quite quietly last year. How much have you

For those kinds of idiosyncrasies in other territories,

was at Netflix at its formative stage and now, after

been a driver behind that?

we’ll have an all-rights buyer. In France, it’s a little

five years at that company, he’s leading the charge

The scope of my role is global. I oversee all film

more complicated—that all-rights buyer will have a

to broaden Amazon’s imprint globally. Managing

content on all of our platforms worldwide, so I’m

deal in place and it won’t be us, but we’re no worse

a team of about 50, including Ted Hope and Bob

definitely a part of the content strategy as we

off than our competitors in France. But elsewhere,

Berney, Ropell is measured and modest when

rollout into new territories. Our leadership group

using that strategy where you’re selling to a local

reflecting on the company’s success and ambitious

consists of people who contribute from different

distributor works quite well because they value that

and intrepid for what lies ahead.

areas of expertise. In terms of how we think about

market, they’re incentivized to promote it and then

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PHOTOGRAPH BY

Michael Buckner

5/11/17 12:41 PM

we have the rights that we need for our platform to get them to our customers in our countries. Any local restrictions are dealt with by the local partner. The big comparison between you and Netflix is that you release theatrically. Will that always be your strategy—or will you ever start to put content straight onto your platform? This business is evolving so quickly that anybody who would say never would be truly foolish. But we’ve seen such positive returns on what we’re doing, and such positive customer response for bringing films to theatres first, that we have no data that would suggest it’s the wrong strategy or that we should change our strategy. We went in with the idea that in order to attract the filmmakers that make the kinds of films that resonate on the platform, you need to preserve the theatrical release. It serves as a validation that the film is truly cinematic. And that’s held true. What about premium VOD? There are multiple touchpoints for us in this topic because we’re a platform as well, so we’ll have discussions with major studios in the way that they’re talking about evolving their approach and we’ll discuss it internally as well. But there’s nothing motivating us to be on the leading edge of pushing that. We’ll evolve as the industry evolves. Amazon’s business has an enormous amount of data at their disposal. How much of their marketing data are you privy to? We abide by all of the proper playbook rules. We are not Big Brother in any way, but we do have a lot of data. We’re a data-centric company. So, we use all the data that we can that’s relevant to help inform our decisions We have lots of data about what kinds of movies people like on the service—so, certainly, anything that helps us make better decisions for what customers like, we use. What are your hopes going forward? I look at a film like Manchester by the Sea and it is an auteur’s film. It’s a great film, but it takes the audience on a harrowing journey. There’s no catharsis. Yet it made us $15 million. It’s not an arthouse title and it’s not a major Hollywood movie— it’s in the middle. It’s an auteur film that found an audience and in order to actually reach that box office, it has to start playing in those secondary markets and that means people in those secondary markets are coming out to see a movie like that. And the fact that they did is super encouraging and gives me hope that we can do it again. I want us to carve out those kinds of films that reach that kind of audience. If we can change that kind of cinemagoing culture where people are coming to the cinema to see new voices, that would be awesome. ★ DEADLINE.COM

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SPACE IS THE PLACE Dane DeHaan as Valerian in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

ReFrame’s Cathy Schulman (left) and Keri Putnam.

WOMEN LEADING THE CHARGE Diana Lodderhose meets the vanguard of women working hard to disrupt the film industry’s gender imbalance

LAST YEAR, ALL IT TOOK WAS A HASHTAG, #OscarsSoWhite, to re-energize an important conversation. Twelve months later, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins made history by becoming the first African-American filmmaker to be nominated for Best Director, Picture and Screenplay at the Academy Awards. And, as everyone knows, his film went on to take the Best Picture Oscar—literally—from the hands of the favorites, the makers of La La Land. Meanwhile, a similar conversation about the representation of women onscreen has been rolling on since the silent era, and in 2017, it seems crazy that the issue of gender parity in the entertainment business is still unresolved. But what’s exciting is that the playing field is looking bigger, and we’re seeing more female-driven vehicles geared towards both sexes hitting our screens, with Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider and Atomic Blonde invading the typically male blockbuster field. At the other end of the spectrum, the biggest deal coming out of Sundance (Mudbound, which Netflix snapped up for $12.5 million) was co-written and directed by a woman (Dee Rees). Is the lack of balance finally starting to shift? These are the women who we think are leading the charge in breaking the glass ceiling.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY

Dan Doperalski

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REFRAME

Cathy Schulman and Keri Putnam are the power duo with the know-how to persuade the male-dominated industry to turn talk of gender parity into action

NO TWO WOMEN IN THE BUSINESS ARE

established practices,” says Putnam. “We

it—that they want studios, financiers and

ACTIVELY DRIVING FORWARD the gender-

wanted to inspire people, tell them that there

networks to pledge to. The first is an evolved

parity agenda more for their contemporaries

was a way to take what we know about our

sponsorship-protégé program that will

in Hollywood more forcefully than Cathy

business and tackle the will to change.

identify and provide high-level endorsement

Schulman and Keri Putnam. Oscar-winning

The unique premise involves a peer-to-

for top women directors poised to advance

producer Schulman, who runs Welle

peer approach that will see these ReFrame

their careers. “We need them to provide

Entertainment and is president of Women in

ambassadors—which include the likes of

mid-career support,” says Schulman, who

Film, and Putnam, the Sundance Institute’s

actress/producer Maria Bello, Lionsgate’s

points to the enormous seven to 10-year gap

Executive Director, are the visionary architects

Erik Feig, Warner Bros.’ Sue Kroll, UTA’s Rena

in the careers of women who create content.

of ReFrame, a formal project that is carving

Ronson, WME partner Adriana Alberghetti

“That’s not sustainable. We have, maybe,

concrete change for opportunities for women

and producer Michael de Luca—meet with

10 working female directors in the system,

in the Hollywood system.

top execs and decision-makers at studios,

a fearful emerging class but no middle. This

networks and agencies and persuade them to

sponsorship will focus on mid-career women

President of Women in Film in 2011 I gave a

take an active three-sided pledge to enforce

and will be multi-dimensional.”

speech in that first year where I was talking

change in their companies. It’s effectively

about the flatline statistics in women in

connecting the supplier with the buyer and

customized Culture Change Toolkit, to offer

media. I thought it was pretty embarrassing

putting the gender issue right into the heart

resources, best practices and training to yield

to be President of an organization and change

of the business conversation.

more balanced hiring—a sort of road map of

Recalls Schulman, “When I became

absolutely nothing, so I said, ‘This has to get

“ReFrame is essentially a leverage delivery

Secondly, ReFrame is going to provide a

how to change the culture within a company.

changed and this has to happen while I’m

system,” explains Schulman. “I’ve been

And thirdly, the org will look to introduce

here—and I’m going to make it happen no

working in the system for almost 30 years,

accreditation for gender inclusiveness in

matter what.’”

and there’s a huge separation between

the form of a ReFrame Stamp certification

the decision-makers and anyone who has

(fashioned after the Human Rights

Sundance Film Festival is such a respected

So she enlisted Putnam, knowing that the

diversity in mind. We needed to bring together

Campaign’s equality sticker).

entry point for so many, and after four years

senior individuals who can speak to these

of research with USC that included finding

issues not in terms of activism but in terms

happens when it’s forced,” says Schulman.

out where the fallout points for women in the

of bottom line. We needed to find something

“We’re not into shaming people and we’re

business were in these stagnant statistics,

that would convince decision-makers that

not trying to embarrass people but in a

ReFrame—formerly known as the Systemic

their bottom line would be positively affected

certain way, change happens when not

Change Project—was born. The program,

and that ignoring the delivery system would

changing is problematic. We’re trying to hit

which Putnam says is an “expansion of

be damaging.”

them where it hurts.”

the work we are doing”, has gathered 50

“The reason we think it will work,” she

“Change sometimes only really

“I don’t think that anyone should kid

Hollywood bigwigs—ranging from studio

continues, “is that relationships will break

themselves that it’s easy to change a very

heads to agency partners to network

down and people are going to say we have

established system,” says Putnam. “But

executives—who are helping to move the

to do this because otherwise it is going to be

these are really concrete examples to change

needle on gender disparity.

embarrassing for those who are going to say

systemic problems by looking at the culture

no. It could be disruptive to their relationships

and the business through leadership and

on a senior level.”

incentivizing.” She adds: “It’s less about taking

“We gathered men and women in the business who we knew were interested in advancing the issues of perception and unconscious bias, this vicious cycle of

S2 - 0517 - Disruptors - Part 2.indd 67

They’ve identified three main missions—or three sides of the triangle, as Schulman puts

away the power from men and more about expanding the field we work in.”

5/11/17 12:42 PM

PATTY JENKINS

BRUNA PAPANDREA

The director of 2003 indie hit Monster returns to make history with the first $100 million-plus superhero movie helmed by a woman

After teaming up with Reese Witherspoon, the Australianborn producer is helping to create more starring roles for women

Since the first X-Men movie launched the superhero genre in 2000, the business has boomed: Marvel’s mutants spawned a 10-movie franchise by itself, while Spider-Man has been rebooted three times in less than a decade. It’s astounding, then, that it’s taken until 2017 for a woman to direct a superhero movie with a female lead, but at last Patty Jenkins has broken down that barrier. After decades of watching male characters from DC and Marvel hit screens every summer, a full-length feature for Wonder Woman—arguably the most kick-ass superhero gal of all time—is being released this summer via Warner Bros., and if attendees at a recent CinemaCon panel were anything to go by, audiences will be flocking to the cinema in droves. Fearless and forthright, Jenkins isn’t one to shy away from tough material. The last time she was in the director’s seat for a feature was for Monster in 2003, a gritty look at the life of Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in Florida for killing six men in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Jenkins also wrote the script for the film, which earned Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Called in by Warner Bros. for a general meeting the following year, Jenkins surprised everyone by announcing that she wanted to make Wonder Woman as her next project, and a script duly arrived a few years later. By that time, Jenkins was pregnant and unable to commit (“When I’m on a movie, I’m unavailable, every day for a year and a half,” she said. “You can’t do that with a little baby”). Since then, Jenkins’ career has been almost entirely in television, notably directing episodes of Entourage and The Killing, the latter of which earned her an Emmy nomination. Jenkins had her first brush with comic-book history several years ago, when she was brought in direct 2013’s Thor: The Dark World at star Natalie Portman’s request. She quit due to creative differences, but the experience, she says, helped her prep Wonder Woman in a way that had nothing to do with her gender. “I tried not to think about it,” Jenkins said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just making a superhero movie.’ I’m not looking at her as being any different than any other superhero. And that’s the victory. I think the reason that there wasn’t a woman superhero [movie] made for a long time is because people were assuming that it had to be a different kind of thing. Or more rarefied.” Under Jenkins’ watch, Wonder Woman will more than hold her own against the guys. “There’s nothing different,” she said. “There’s Batman, there’s Superman, there’s Wonder Woman. She’s the full-blown real deal.”

When Bruna Papandrea met Reese Witherspoon in 2012 they found they shared a very specific aim. “All we ever wanted to do,” she said, “was put women at the center of films.” They very quickly cornered the market: co-founding LA-based production company Pacific Standard, the two saw potential in solid stories with female characters in the driver’s seat, knowing that if a story was strong enough, their projects’ bankability and attractiveness to men and women alike would follow. Papandrea saw the wide potential of two female-centric novels and has had great success in bringing them to market. When she and Witherspoon optioned Gillian Flynn’s best-selling thriller Gone Girl, it became one of the hottest projects in the studio space, with 20th Century Fox closing in on a seven-figure deal for a title that eventually amassed $369.3 million at the global box office. Then there was Wild, based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir about a woman’s 1,100-mile solo hike through the wilderness, which brought Oscar nominations for Witherspoon and co-star Laura Dern. More recently, the company produced Big Little Lies, a darkly comic tale of murder based on Liane Moriarty’s book of the same name, which was one of the hottest miniseries on HBO earlier this year, with a stellar cast including Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz. Papandrea has since left the company, but will continue to produce with Witherspoon in partnership on titles they acquired together. “I want to keep putting women at the center of stories and giving our daughters examples of what women can be,” Papandrea said last year. “Maybe I’ll make a movie about a female president for instance, just to let the world know it’s still possible.”

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DEE REES

The director of this year’s Sundance breakout hit Mudbound talks race, equality and the importance of femaleempowerment “Until there’s a resilient, consistent critical mass of women creators and producers with greenlight authority, the industry will continue to struggle to produce so-called female-driven vehicles,” says filmmaker Dee Rees. The Nashville director came one step closer to seeing her dream realized when her WWII southern drama Mudbound—the story of two families pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy—premiered to rave reviews in Sundance earlier this year, before being picked up by Netflix for the U.S. and other territories in a splashy $12.5 million deal. The real battle with gender parity and racial inequality, says Rees, lies in the demographics of major guild and union membership, which she believes are far more reflective of where the business is actually moving on the equality issue. “I’d wager that the membership of those organizations is still predominantly white and predominantly male,” she says. “And I mention race here because the two are inextricable, in a way. You can’t either/or sexist and racism, you have to address them jointly.” On Mudbound, the cinematographer, editor, line producer, composer, sound recordist and make-up department head were all women, and Rees says she would have had even more female department heads had she not lost one to another production. It’s also about paying it forward, and she tries to do that through internships on set to give newcomers access to an environment previously off-limits. “I plan to keep that going,” she says. Rees, an openly gay African-American woman, says that her stories, like any artist’s, reflect her own point of view. Whether it be her 2007 feature debut Pariah, about a young Brooklyn African-American teenager coming to grips with her identity as a lesbian, her 2015 HBO film Bessie, about the 1920s legendary blues singer Bessie Smith, or the divide between a white family and a black family in Mississippi-set Mudbound. “It’s just not a choice. So, in that way, I think how women’s voices and representation and narratives show up in my work happens organically.” But she cautions that cataloguing movies based on who stars in them, or the creators who made them, can be restrictive, and that can only limit a film’s reach. “I think there are only human-interest movies,” she says. Rees is rightly frustrated by the industry’s tendency to treat films starring women and people of color as if they’ve been produced in a vacuum, with no comparables. “It’s a perpetual shock to the industry when the next film by or starring women and people of color succeeds,” she says. “And that’s why I think longevity and sustainability is key. If I burn myself out too soon [and] cease to exist, then I’m not there to hold a space for someone else.”

I L L U S T RAT I O N S BY

Graham Smith

5/11/17 12:42 PM

MONUMENTAL ELIZABETH PICTURES KARLSEN

Led by Debra Hayward and Alison Owen, the trailblazing UK company is charting the female landscape with films made for, by and starring women

Prolific UK producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward have a passionate interest in bringing female-driven vehicles to the big and small screen. The producers have long been interested in material that examines the richness of female characters, even before they formed their company, Monumental Pictures, in 2014. “The complexity of the female landscape has always interested us,” says Owen. “It’s because it’s what we are interested in and it’s what we’ve always liked to watch.” Owen established Ruby Films in 1998, which birthed projects such as Sylvia, Brick Lane and Jane Eyre, and in 2015 she produced Suffragette, about the early feminist movement. Hayward was formerly head of films at Working Title, where she had creative responsibility for the company’s feature film slate, including the Bridget Jones franchise and Atonement. “Up until recently it was always harder to sell a female project,” Owen insists. “Just like with a project about people of color, the assumption was that there wasn’t the audience, and also that it was a male-dominated culture. Those have always been the arguments, which have been disproven quite dramatically in the last few years. Maybe it’s to do with the slightly tenuous position the movie industry finds itself in at the moment that it’s been forced to take note of these opportunities.” Indeed, the film and television businesses have been shaken up dramatically in the last few years, with the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Hulu flexing their muscle in the financing and distribution arena and tapping into fare that studios and other major buyers have been more risk-averse to in recent years. Hulu was the company that saw the potential in Monumental’s recent TV series Harlots, a British period drama that centers around the lives of London prostitutes. “The question is whether the moment has staying power and whether the moment is going to convert to change in the business or if it’s just this year’s soup du jour,” says Owen. “We want it to be the norm and just the way things are. This change in the business has to be sustained. Misogyny is very pernicious—you just have to go through it.” The duo have a strong lineup on their development slate, including an untitled Ada Lovelace project, about the Victorian mathematician (and daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron) who wrote what is recognized as the first algorithm. Then there’s a big-screen version of Roe v. Wade, about the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for women to have safe abortions, as well as a trilogy based on Jackie Collins’ 10-novel Santangelo series with Universal Pictures and Working Title.

From teen vampires and old maids to striking car workers, the UK producer is busy putting women’s stories on the screen

UK producer Elizabeth Karlsen is one of the most respected figures in the European indie world. She’s coming off of the back of a banner year after producing last year’s Oscar-nominated period love story Carol (a project that took her more than a decade to bring to the big screen), and her upcoming slate includes an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel On Chesil Beach, starring Saoirse Ronan, as well as Colette, which sees Keira Knightley play the French novelist who wrote Gigi and Cheri. One half of Number 9 Films—the production banner she set up in 2002 with her producer husband Stephen Woolley, an industry fixture since the ’80s—Karlsen has enjoyed a long career that has seen her bring a wealth of female voices to the screen. And now, she says, it does finally feel that there’s been a progression in the way female-driven narratives are being received. “It sort of seems to be two steps forward and one step back,” she admits, “but the laws of physics dictate that we’re slowly progressing forward in the business.” She credits the progression of women becoming increasingly represented in all lines of work—not just the movie business—as helping female-represented stories become more prevalent. “I do think there’s a forward motion as women gain traction in the workplace—politics, medicine and all of those other professions,” she says. “It’s the representations of women across the gamut of professional fields that is going to be what changes things long term. And when the financial return on female-driven narratives isn’t ignored any longer, then, yes, inevitably we will get closer to that 50/50 representation. Definitely.” Karlsen’s sheer list of credits at Number 9 speaks for itself in terms of her and her company’s view on telling female stories: it’s part of their DNA. Since it was formed, there’s been Ladies in Lavender (2004), a period drama pairing Judi Dench and Maggie Smith; Made In Dagenham (2010), based on the 1968 strike at a Ford car plant by female workers, and 2012’s femalevampire horror Byzantium. “For me,” says Karlsen, “it’s really simple as to why I’m drawn to these stories: I’m a woman of a certain age, I like storytelling that represents women, I have three daughters and those are the stories that resonate with me. I’m a feminist and women’s stories should be told.”

LYNN HARRIS

The LA-based producer who's shaking up the expectations of a female-driven story with comedy, horror and action When Lynn Harris left the executive suites at Warner Bros. a few years ago to launch her own company—Weimaraner Republic Pictures—with her husband Matti Leshem, one of the reasons she wanted to become entirely independent was the freedom to drive her own female-facing vehicles. She recalls, “We saw this moment in time in the business, which is now becoming the future of the business, that understands that female-facing movies have enormous value in the marketplace. As studios are driving narrower and narrower reins, we wanted to have the freedom to go elsewhere, and driving female-led movies has really been a gigantic focus of our business.” Since its inception, the couple’s company has produced shark-vs-girl thriller The Shallows, starring Blake Lively, which was picked up by Sony and generated $119 million worldwide, and sold female action thriller Highway One to DreamWorks on a spec script in a near seven-figure deal. They also are in development on Keeper of the Diary, the story of Anne Frank’s father, which sold to Fox Searchlight on spec, as well as female-driven action spec Ruthless for Amblin. “For us,” she explains, “it was purely a business decision as much as a socially responsible move. I’m a woman and I do feel a sense of responsibility, but also it’s purely mercenary—women are the easiest to market to and will come out with their kids, husbands, moms, sisters and friends to get out of the house and have a movie experience.” Harris says the types of female-led projects that are hitting a sweet spot in the marketplace don’t match the stereotypes that marketers have placed upon them for years. “One of the places we’ve had real success so far is in the low- to mid-range budgeted elevated genre titles,” she notes, pointing to Highway One and The Shallows. “We know that women like to go to the movie theatre and they can go with their boyfriends and be scared together—just look at Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train—those are collective-experience movies.” The other genre, she says, is comedy, which really sits across genders. Indeed, STX’s R-rated Bad Moms earned a whopping $113.3 million domestically last year. “We still have this conversation, and it still feels like an anomaly when a female-driven or female audience appeal movie succeeds in the marketplace,” she says. “It’s pretty shocking. If one female-driven movie doesn’t work, it gets pointed as the reason not to make these kinds of movies. So we have to root for each and every one, until the playing field has leveled and studio heads and financiers and marketers realize that women are the easiest to target and to market to.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

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OLIVER STONE The legendary writer/director is adding to a sideline interviewing world leaders, writes Mike Fleming Jr.

LAST YEAR, THREE-TIME OSCAR WINNER

It’s not a documentary in the sense that there, we

Oliver Stone made his 20th directorial outing with

examine the whole situation from two different

Snowden—a look at the life of former NSA consultant

points of view. No. It’s told from his point of view,

and whistleblower Edward Snowden. The film took

which allows us to hear him in, I think, a pretty

Stone on numerous trips to Russia, where Snowden

interesting way. For example, now you never see him

has lived in exile since 2013, which then led to a series

on American television. Well, he did an interview

of interviews with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The

with Charlie Rose for his show. It wasn’t bad, but it

format is something Stone has used to great effect

was short, and they dubbed him with an American

before in his documentaries about controversial poli-

interpreter who was a tough guy, almost like a base-

ticians such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.

ball announcer. So everything [Putin] was saying in Russian, the dubber was making the words harsh,

I can’t think of too many of your peers who

as opposed to the way he actually speaks. Putin

would do something like travel to Russia to

speaks very clearly, very evenly. Doesn’t raise his

conduct interviews with Putin. How much of

voice. There’s a big difference already in the inter-

this came from the time you spent there with

pretation of what you’re getting. If you’re a guy who’s

Edward Snowden?

dubbed, and he’s talking like a Russian is supposed

I met Mr. P. over there, during one of those trips. I

to talk, it’s quite a difference. That’s one example.

was introduced to him, and one of the earliest con-

One thing you have to remember is that he’s

versations we had was about Edward Snowden—

popular in many countries, and not just Russia.

because obviously, I’m fascinated by what hap-

He’s very popular in Germany, France, among many

pened, from his point of view. And sure enough, he

people—and he’s one of the most admired men—

was very forthright and honest, the way he speaks.

and for that matter, in a lot of Africa, a lot of Turkey,

As we talked, he told me the Snowden story from

Syria, the Middle East. So you’re talking about a

his point of view, which is in the film.

world figure here who we are constantly demeaning, treating him like he’s a con man and a murderer.

In the western media view we get of Putin,

As a character out of The Godfather, because

he comes off like a Bond villain. Why was all

maybe we like The Godfather.

this important to you?

We like that concept of villains, but it’s a very

I think in the film, we did him the justice of put-

dangerous caricature when you’re dealing with

ting his comments into a narrative that can

world peace and the nuclear power that we have.

explain his point of view, in the hopes that it would prevent continued misunderstanding

It’s reminiscent of when the Bush administra-

between the countries, and trust, lack of trust,

tion lumped every world leader that ran afoul

and—I fear—a near state of war, on the brink of

of U.S. policy into that axis of evil, which meant

war. That’s what I’m worried about, and that’s

no dialogue was necessary. Are you trying to

why I returned. We did four different visits after

demystify Putin as you tried to do with Castro

Snowden to get this on film. On every situation he

and Chávez, with simple dialogue?

talks about in the film, you’ll see there’s a differ-

Very well said. Absolutely. And it’s important to do

ent point of view than what we’ve been told.

so. We are really creating a fear and a situation in the American mind that is very dangerous. All of

Is this a documentary like the ones you made

a sudden, it’s conveniently shifting to, “Oh, forget

with Castro or Chávez?

about the war on terror. He’s the bad guy.”

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5/11/17 12:42 PM

Sean Penn went a long way through the

and known as a reasonable man and a rational

jungles to interview El Chapo, trying to human-

man, the way he talks. So sometimes you wonder,

ize a villainized cartel leader, and Penn himself

“Is there going to be any emotion in this thing?”

was criticized for being in over his head. How

You have the opposite of the Castro problem. So

do you come at these figures, knowing that if

I’m dealing more with behavior. When you talk to a

you allow them to come off too sympathetic,

man or woman over a certain period of time, you

you’ll be the one who’s vilified for it?

do get behavior. And we got some very interest-

Well, I don’t think like that. I don’t. If they come

ing body language. We walk, we talk, we’re in the

off too sympathetic, that’s really a manipulation.

woods, we’re in offices, we’re riding together in cars.

My intention is to get to the bottom. First of all, I

There’s all kinds of scenes, which you’ll see.

prepare as well as I can, try to research as much as I can. I know what I’m talking about. They’ll pick up

When President Obama gave a break to Chelsea

on it if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Manning, who leaked the documents to Julian

That’s the problem with some television interviews.

Assange, did you think that maybe Snowden

The anchor is so busy running from one show to

should’ve been dealt with in a similar way? Do

the other, he doesn’t really prepare. I got some

you have an idea of what will happen to him?

“My intention is to get to the bottom. First of all, I prepare as well as I can, try to research as much as I can. I know what I’m talking about. They’ll pick up on it if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” good information, and I think he respected the fact

No, I thought Snowden did a lot of interviews. He

that I knew my subject. And that I was talking to

was very smart. I think he made his case transpar-

him with a genuine sense of curiosity.

ent, to me. Everything he said about the journalists, and what he wanted to do, is what came across

Did Putin know your work as a director? Does

in the [documentary], in my film too. I think he’s

he have a favorite Oliver Stone film?

very clear. I think certain people just didn’t ever pay

Well, he knew I was doing the Snowden movie, and

attention to what he said. But you asked earlier

he knew I was very interested in it. He had seen

about Sean Penn, and El Chapo. As I remember,

some sections of my work. I never asked him what

that was not an interview, was it?

he liked, what he didn’t like, and so forth. Certainly in Russia, they admire the war movies, because they’ve

It almost seemed like an Apocalypse Now-

been through a lot of war. I’m sure he saw Platoon

style journey into the jungle—something Penn

and Born on the Fourth of July. But I don’t know what

called "experiential journalism”.

he’s seen. I know that Untold History of the United

Oh, I get it. It wasn’t at all what I’m doing. I’m

States, which took five years, was very popular in

filmed, I’m with a crew. From the beginning, it’s an

Russia. It had a very strong view of World War II and

official interview.

the Cold War. And I think it did a very good job of demystifying that. I think he was aware of that.

The reason I brought that up was because it didn’t work out the way Penn hoped it would.

Donald Trump recently said that he would meet

He was trying to look for common threads to

Kim Jong-un in the right circumstances. Would

someone who was viewed as a villain to all of

one of these lengthy interview sit-downs with

us, but his questions seemed soft, on paper.

the North Korean leader appeal to you?

He might’ve protected himself by bringing a camera

Frankly, I don’t do this for a living. You know, I rarely

in that case, is what I want to say.

do this. The last time I did it was 2009, with Mr. Chávez. It’s not a living, it’s a curiosity. Also I think

This is for Deadline's Cannes issue. There was

with the Korean leader, you have a danger there.

talk of taking Snowden being there last year.

Does he communicate at all? I don’t even know

How much did that cost you, not going?

him, so I can’t say. Mr. Putin worried me. He’s stoic,

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Road decision to bring [the release date forward]

spectrum on a very low-budget film. I never really had

to September, and I think that was a mistake.

a Hollywood base. My best deal I ever had for a few

They did a good job, but I think we would’ve

years was at Warner Bros. It’s where I made a few

had a lot more heat at Cannes because European

films, because Terry [Semel] and Bob [Daly] were

critics ended up liking the film the most. In the U.S.,

more sympathetic to my views than anyone. But I

we had mixed reviews, the usual mess.

make one film here, one film there. I’ve never had a

But we always knew that the U.S. would be

home beyond Warner Bros. for that brief period of

more hostile to Snowden.

time. Platoon was rejected everywhere, and Salvador was too—it would never have been made now.

Your Wall Street sequel premiered at Cannes

My first studio film, as a writer, I connected with

before its fall release, and seemed to suffer for it.

Midnight Express, and even that was very low-budget.

They should have released the film at the same

Scarface was not well-reviewed, and didn’t do that

time. That’s what Fox said, and I agree that they

well. It was always tough for me to get films made in

should have rolled it out then. But that was a differ-

that system, but it was easier then than it is now. If

ent film, a different place. Snowden’s time was in

you wrote the most brilliant film with real characters,

Europe. He was most popular there. That’s where

it would not be made, probably because it would be

you go—you go where the heat is.

considered to have not enough action. So it’s never easy. I’ve never looked to them for a solution, and

It feels like what studios want are either giant,

thankfully I’m still working. I’m 70 years old.

global tentpoles, or micro-budget genre films. How different is it for you than when you came

What fuels you now?

in the door years ago with a movie that sought

I feel like I have my own life on the side. And I feel

to challenge audiences?

very strongly about war and the path to war. I think

Well, those days are over, I think we all know that.

that there’s an internal war in the United States

Listen, Snowden was financed out of Europe. And

right now. There’s a very small peace party, and a

basically this Putin documentary was financed

very large war party. I’m very worried about it. I do

out of Fernando Sulichin and his South American

not want to have our lives ended or shattered in

connections, as well as Europe. So it seems that I’m

any way by this constant belligerence we bring to

going to be working out of Europe for a while. I really

the world, whether it’s Korea, whether it’s China,

believe in making good movies, and you have to

whether it’s Russia. We keep making statements like

piece together every one.

we’re in charge and we’re the bully. We have to realize that other countries want

The changing landscape has brought about

their sovereignty. We can’t be like this. We really are

alternative outlets like Netflix, Amazon and

no longer a uni-polar power—we cannot act like it.

Showtime, where your Putin interviews will

[We were] the top boss, that was brief, and that

be released. What changes excite you as a

was in the 1990s, and we blew it by attacking Iraq

filmmaker?

twice. We think we run the world. As a young man,

You just become a TV film. And there’s a thousand of

I was very conservative; I grew up that way. But

them, it seems all the time. It is a very crowded mar-

Vietnam and the other wars have taught me that

ket, and I think you have to take your chances. But at

we can’t run the world this way.

MEN OF STONE Aside from The Putin Interviews, Stone’s work has documented the real lives of several famous (and infamous) politicians

ASSASSINATED: THE LAST DAYS OF KING & KENNEDY (1998) Stone was EP on this doc, which used archive footage to explore the murders of two political giants, MLK and JFK.

COMANDANTE (2003, above) Stone went to Cuba for a tete-a-tete with Fidel Castro for this doc, which premiered at Sundance. However, after Castro executed three hijackers, HBO withdrew from the film. Stone continued to pursue the subject with Looking for Fidel (2003) and Castro in Winter (2012).

PERSONA NON GRATA (2003) As part of HBO’s America Undercover series, Stone discussed the IsraeliPalestinian conflict with Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu.

least you get to film; hopefully you get to make what you want to. If you’re ending up working for some

What would be the alternative?

place where you’re just doing something you don’t

The alternative is a multi-polar world, taking into

even care about, my god, what suffering you’re going

the account the interest of other countries and

through. I don’t know what I’m going to do, after

the sovereignty of other countries. That includes

this. But it’s always tough. I don’t even know who the

Iran, China and Syria. These countries are legiti-

studio chiefs are anymore. They don’t even know me.

mate countries, with sovereignty of their own.

Probably, they’ve forgotten who I was. They don’t

And Iraq, too. We undermined Iraq’s sovereignty.

have good memories beyond a year or two.

It’s a wreck now. And Libya too, don’t forget Libya. We’re responsible for that. We brought chaos to

Then again, how easy would it have been

this world, in the Middle East especially, and it’s

for you to make Platoon if you hadn’t distin-

engulfed us. All these refugees, that’s our fault. I’m

SOUTH OF THE BORDER (2009, above)

guished yourself as a writer of commercial

sorry, don’t get me going here.

Stone directed this road-trip style doc interviewing South American presidents, including Hugo Chávez, Raúl Castro and Rafael Correa.

dramas? How tough was that movie to get financed back in the day?

Is there a project on your bucket list?

Don’t forget, it was passed on by every studio. It was

Yes. Something I’ve been writing over a period of

made by a British independent filmmaker called John

time, that I very much care for and hope I can do

Daly. Don’t ever forget that. I won’t. And Salvador

one day. I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s a drama.

too. So I got into this business at the low end of the

It’s personal. ★

THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE UNITES STATES (2012-13) Stone directed, exec-produced and narrated this TV doc series examining U.S. history from World War II to 9/11.

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LISA TABACK

Matt Grobar meets the Oscar-divining awards strategist whose recent slate included the last two Best Picture Academy Award winners

the Dolby Theatre twists and turns. Like a number of her contemporaries—including Cynthia Swartz, Tony Angellotti and Karen Fried—Lisa Taback emerged from the Miramax Films school of Oscar campaigning in the 1990s, where, under Harvey Weinstein, the outside-the-box thinking that now defines the race first gestated. Taback continued to work with Weinstein after establishing LTLA in 1999, as an outside consultant for Miramax and The Weinstein Company. But following an acrimonious split in 2014, she now chooses to work with the upstart distributors who have challenged Weinstein’s dominance in recent years: the likes of A24, Open Road and Netflix. As the Weinstein-trained elite of awards consultancy went their separate ways and turned strategic campaigning into a cottage industry—all of them applying their own approaches to their campaigns—the races became ever more competitive. All of Taback’s contemporaries are disruptive forces in the new landscape of awards campaigning, though her hand in Moonlight and Spotlight— not to mention last year’s other big frontrunner, La La Land—is why she has made our list this year. “I’m super-competitive about a movie doing well,” Taback says, “but I’m not super-competitive about beating someone. Am I a ruthless tiger about kicking someone out of the way? No. My strategy has never been that. There are great people out there who are ruthless, but I think my strategy has been to be tireless. I’ll take clever over nasty any day of the week. But we all have different ways of getting to the finish line.” It’s a good thing, she believes, that one company no longer dominates the Oscar race. “It means that more films get seen and can become a part of the rhythm of the campaign.” And with the rise of broadband and social media, campaigns aren’t as costly as they once were. “You’re able to [easily] launch trailers and

“THE FORMULAS DON’T WORK,” says Lisa

momentum alive. The other key films that year, The

behind-the-scenes footage. You’re even able to

Taback, reflecting on the two most recent Acad-

Revenant and The Big Short, had much, much big-

send links for your movies. You’re able to do a lot

emy Award Best Picture winners, Spotlight and

ger budgets. They dwarfed us. And we didn’t have a

more that costs a lot less.”

Moonlight, which felt like longshots for the Oscar

lot of access to talent. The real reporters were rock

stage when they first started their journeys.

stars to us—they were the heroes—but try booking

magic bullet. She retired from the Moonlight cam-

reporters as your talent; not easy.”

paign in phase two to focus on La La Land, when it

There are no easy paths to awards glory, she insists. “It really comes down to the individual film

Instead, Taback and her team leaned into the

Taback cautions that she doesn’t believe in a

became clear that she could no longer adequately

and filmmaker. The fun part is to venture in and

story behind the movie. “We had to be respectful of

fly the flag for both of last year’s eventual Best

figure out what the narrative is going to be, and

the truth and never exploit it. We let the words be

Picture frontrunners. “I don’t think a year ago,

to stick with that even as the world spins and you

our star.” With Moonlight, that story was very differ-

anybody was feeling as though a $1.5 million indie

have to shift your campaign.”

ent, but Taback’s strategy still favored a focus on the

film that took place in Liberty City, Florida, and a

heart and meaning behind Barry Jenkins’ ode to the

musical that started on a freeway off-ramp in LA,

are amongst the leading lights of awards-season

resilience of love. “Both films had great stories,” she

were really going to be the films that were going to

publicity, and they had worked on the campaigns

says, simply. “There’s a lot of integrity in both of them

be duking it out for Best Picture.”

for both films, transforming them from indie festival

and they’re wonderful movies, but they’ve also both

Nevertheless, she says, “Being in this business

darlings into Best Picture triumphs. “A movie like

been films you’re cheering for—there’s a rooting fac-

for as long as I have has helped me think about all

Spotlight could easily have been lost,” Taback

tor. I think that is part of the DNA of a Best Picture.”

the possible outcomes. Sometimes there are out-

Taback and her team at LTLA Communications

admits. “I can’t do what I do without starting with a great movie, but the hardest thing is keeping the

In 2017, awards consultants sit at the coalface of strategy and communication as the long road to

comes that aren’t obvious, and you have to think beyond what’s on the table.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

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DAMIEN CHAZELLE Fresh from his Best Director Oscar win, Joe Utichi reports on the helmer ready for another challenge, with a project close to his heart

out there, travelling with the movie and opening it in the U.S. and in places around the world. That said, I think I’m also very kind of glad and relieved to be back to my more normal work. The day-today work of trying to make stuff. I think I always feel more comfortable in those shoes than I do talking about stuff I’ve made. It helped for sure to have a project or two to be working on during that period. It sort of helped keep me sane. But at a certain point it does become kind of all-consuming, and you have to just go with it. It can’t be possible to go through an awards run alongside the other frontrunner, Moonlight, and not form something of a bond with that film’s director, Barry Jenkins. Barry and I first met right at the beginning of Telluride, before we had seen each other’s films. But we knew each other’s earlier films, so I wanted to talk to him about Medicine for Melancholy, and he wanted to talk to me about Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. I’m really glad for that, in a way, because then we got to see each other’s films that were opening and we wound up, somewhat to our surprise, riding this whole wave together after that. No matter what sort of hopes you might have for your film, it winds up being a longer and more intensive season than you ever think it will be, for better or for worse. And it was really, really nice—I can’t emphasise how nice it was—to have a friendly face during that whole season. You both appear on our disruptors list this year. How important do you think disruption is to the evolution of this industry? That’s a big question [lauyghs] Personally, I feel like the best art comes from periods of time where the industry is in some sort of upheaval. The more you hear, “The sky is falling,” the more good work seems to come. You look at the experimentation with sound in the ’30s, or when television came through in the ’50s, and then the end of the studio system in the ’60s and how that led to the New Hollywood of the ’70s. The optimist in me likes to think that the period we’re living through now in Hollywood, because of questions about exhibition and windows and streaming versus film, rather than being all doom

DAMIEN CHAZELLE HAS NEVER BEEN ONE

had his eyes fixed forward, diving back into devel-

and gloom, it’s actually kind of fertile terrain for

to take the path of least resistance. That was

opment on First Man, based on the Neil Armstrong

new, original and exciting work.

certainly the case when he was mounting La La

biography by James Hansen. As a fellow free spirit,

Land, his ode to the musical’s golden age. At every

who himself shot for the stars with La La Land—

One theme that has emerged from your fel-

turn he was told that a project like that, on the

and Whiplash before it—it’s not hard to see why

low disruptors has been the notion that the

scale he wanted, would be an impossible sell. And

Chazelle was smitten with Armstrong’s story.

rewards of achieving something are all the

How do you reflect on the last nine months of

that what you’re doing is impossible. That

your life?

was certainly true of La La Land.

Director Oscar in February when, at just 32, he

It’s been crazy. It’s been kind of wonderful, for

I had this conversation with Nicholas Britell, the

was crowned for La La Land. But Chazelle already

sure—the whole experience of getting the movie

composer who did the music for Moonlight and put

movie that captured the hearts of all who saw it. He was the youngest ever winner of the Best

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C HR I S C HA P M AN

greater when you’ve been told to begin with

yet he persevered, delivering to the fall festivals a

Michael Buckner

5/11/17 1:25 PM

up the money for the Whiplash short. We talked about this idea that the more something seems like it doesn’t make sense, and the more it scares you for that reason, the more there’s a reason to do it. It’s obviously the exact opposite mentality the business normally has, for obvious reasons. But maybe, right now, there’s perhaps a little extra motivation to take those kinds of risks, simply because you need to go that extra mile to convince people to go to a theater. We’re unable to rely on those old formulas; we have to think outside the box. Necessity is the mother of invention. You can breed creativity out of this need to try different approaches to get people to pay

BARRY JENKINS Fresh from that Oscar surprise, the director of Moonlight is ready to turn his attentions to new and original stories

attention, because the old approaches just aren’t working anymore. The more you prove—to yourself and to others—that this is a viable way to make movies, do you have to be careful that you’re not losing that fear? The good thing for me is that I’m always scared. There’s always the prospect of failure looming large; it’s sort of baked into me. I’ve just tried to figure out what my next project is going to be while I’m working on the current project. And what is that? Shortly before beginning prep on La La Land, I started working on this movie about Neil Armstrong and the moon landing, First Man. In fact, the first time I met Ryan [Gosling] it was to talk to him about First Man and not La La Land. It meant that, as soon as La La was done, I could go back into that. What was it about this material that made you want to do it? I think it was just how, in some ways, crazy and dangerous the entire enterprise was. You grow up seeing the gilded history of the moon landings, and I thought it would be interesting to strip that away and look at what it took to actually pull this off. What kind of toll was taken on those people who were actually in the cockpit, risking their lives to pull it off. Do you see some kind of common ground there with what you were just talking about? I think in that kind of willingness to take risks. It’s a very different world from the risk-taking of making movies, because there you’re talking about creative risks. In this case, actual lives were at stake, C HR I S C HA P M AN

and it was a messier and more complex story than the streamlined success story that most people are familiar with. We’re still finding our way with it. We start shooting at the end of the year, and I’m excited to be digging in full-fledged now. ★

AS BARRY JENKINS SITS DOWN to discuss disruption, on the eve of his first trip to Cannes a newly-minted Oscar winner, there’s a knock on his front door. A courier has arrived with a very special package. “You’re my best friend, bro,” Jenkins tells the courier. “I have just—finally—received the card that says, ‘Best Picture: Moonlight.’” The fabled card. The one held aloft on Oscar night by La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, to announce to the world that Moonlight had, in fact, been the Academy’s chosen best picture. “I have been hunting this down and I’ve finally got it,” Jenkins says. In the confusion that followed, the card accidentally went home with Warren Beatty, who presented the award with Faye Dunaway. Jenkins wasn’t a producer on the project, so he didn’t get a Best Picture statuette—just the Adapted Screenplay prize. “But I wanted the fucking card,” he laughs. “Warren has sent it over, with a handwritten note. My goodness.” But Barry Jenkins has been one of this industry’s most important disruptors since before Moonlight’s Oscar drama. Alongside producers Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy, with whom he formed the production company Pastel, Jenkins is on a mission to bring us characters and stories that have never before made it onto cinema and television screens. How important is this idea of positive disruption for you? I think it’s absolutely vital to the health of the medium. It’s really easy for things to become homogenous, both in tone and form, and in theme, even without anybody’s attention. Whenever we can expand the box of what’s possible in cinema and media, whether through the form or the characters or the actual story, I think it inherently keeps things fresh and makes them vital. The interesting thing for me—or I should say for us; I’ll speak of myself and Adele Romanski and everybody at Pastel—is that the stories that we’re telling just aren’t stories that are being told very often. I think it’s not that we’re trying to tell them because they’re not told very often, it’s just these are the stories that we seek to tell, and if that causes a disruption, so be it. Why do you think nobody has been telling these stories? It’s just that there is a lack of certain narratives and a lack of certain characters. The infusion of those characters and narratives, it causes a disruption. But in the case of Moonlight, I have to say because of what happened with the Oscars, the movie was taken from the margins of a conversation and placed in the center of it, which is wonderful. It would be beautiful if we could get to a time when the word “disruption” was unnecessary because the breadth and sweep of the work being done was so diverse and wide-ranging,

but that isn’t the case for now, so we will keep doing what we do. You’re about to work with Amazon on a show based on Colson Whitehead’s book The Underground Railroad. It’s one of those things where I read the book, even before Moonlight premiered, and it wasn’t a very Hollywood thing. I’m an Amazon Prime subscriber, and they delivered this book a day before it released, as a Prime perk, and I just devoured it. I fell in love with the main character. It wasn’t that I was looking to go into television. My hope as a kid was to be that director who just makes a movie every year or every other year that opens on the biggest screen possible, with a very discerning audience. But talking about disruptors, this is a book that I read, and as a visual storyteller, it felt like it wanted to be six to eight hours. You want to go on this journey with this character. Not the possibility of continuing series, or 40 hours, but just eight hours. I think we live in a time right now where the market will create the format that is right and proper for each story. The idea of hierarchy to these art forms is disappearing. New forms are emerging and we’re learning how best to use these many forms to tell stories. That’s a very good point. I know Damien [Chazelle] also announced a TV project recently. I’m going to be at Cannes for the last week of the festival, and I’ve read the uproar about Netflix and the arrival of television at Cannes, but it’s right. I think a story is a story, and right now, the screens at our homes are getting just as big as some of the screens I saw some of my favorite movies on at theaters. Eventually, those lines become non-distinct to the point that they’re not lines at all. You had this tremendous success with Moonlight. Everyone is now anticipating the next Barry Jenkins picture. How do you move forward, without being tempted to look back? First, I have to trust myself and be very aware that Moonlight is the same film it was before anybody else saw it. The fact that it receives these accolades doesn’t change the actual film, or who the filmmaker was that made it. I want to make decisions going forward in the same way that I made decisions about that film, both on set and in regard to my career. And it’s the power of “no”, and being much more aware of when to say no, how to say no, and why to say no. There are a lot more opportunities. In the past, it was easy to make decisions because there weren’t as many choices. But now, going forward, that is the only thing that has changed. There are just many more choices, and so you have to be much more discerning about when to say yes and when to say no. —Joe Utichi

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JASON BLUM The low-budget horror king reveals to Mike Fleming Jr. the secrets of producing genre hit after genre hit

BLUMHOUSE PRINCIPAL JASON BLUM HAS

How can you touch a ton of people? In a way, I sup-

Layton. “I was running a company that was acquisi-

turned low-cost, high-gross genre films into such

pose it’s a reaction to what I grew up with.”

tion-based, and we needed to own content. I knew

a reliable hit formula that Universal staked him to

If dealing in art is sifting through the detritus to

Jason, from my Miramax days, and I found him to

a decade-long deal to serve as a silo offsetting the

find gems, Blum’s job is similar. His first big find?

studio’s blockbusters and Illumination Entertain-

“Paranormal Activity, 100 percent,” he says. “I was

ment family films. The payoff: since last fall, the

doing studio stuff, some independent, a foot in

footage movies like Paranormal that dominated

blockbusters Get Out, Split, The Purge: Election Year

each, and Paranormal just fused everything. It was a

the genre, and Blum and Layton continued to hone

and a Ouija sequel, which collectively grossed $664

totally independently-made movie distributed by a

what became the Blumhouse foundation—even if

million worldwide on a budget of $27.5 million.

very traditional studio, and after that huge success,

the atom-splitting moment when they found the

the only person who approached me and said,

formula wasn’t the kind of historic moment that

‘Maybe you can do that again,’ is sitting right here.”

would be indelibly stamped in their memories.

Even though the first indelible image in Blum’s office is a pile of chopped logs topped by a severed

be appealing and trustworthy. I’m not joking.” Insidious moved them beyond the found-

leg, with an axe buried in a tree stump next to it—

That would be Charles Layton, who ran Alliance

the appendage from a screenwriter who botched

when he first worked with Blum on Paranormal and

“Do you remember that? In a conference, sitting

a draft, he jokes—Blum didn’t initially set out to

subsequent genre hits, and now Blum’s sole voice

with a director who had just left the room, and you

become a modern-day Roger Corman. While the

of encouragement is Blumhouse president.

said, ‘If this works, it’s going to reinvent low-budget

display might qualify as art now to Blum, his mother

“We had this big hit, and Paramount’s response

“We were at Paramount,” Blum reminds Layton.

filmmaking.’ Do you remember that meeting?”

is an art professor and his father a successful art

was to throw us off the lot,” Blum recalls. “Ellen

dealer, and Blum was once on a course to join them

Goldsmith-Vein was kind enough to give me a cou-

in the highbrow family business.

ple of offices. You think if you get a big hit it opens

“Paramount ended my deal; we were there making

“Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s when my dad

“No,” replies Layton. “A little conference room,” Blum continues.

every door, but no door opened, except Charles’s,

Paranormal Activity sequels. We were sitting with

had an art gallery, one of the things that frustrated

who said, ‘You might be onto something here; why

this filmmaker, I don’t remember who, but we said,

me was the world seemed so tiny, and to appreci-

don’t you do five movies for us, for a million bucks?’

‘If we pull this off, it’s really going to change stuff.’”

ate contemporary art, you needed a history of art, a

And that’s how all this started. Oren [Peli], Steven

OK, so it’s not as dramatic as the invention of

formal education,” Blum says. “I was more inter-

[Schneider] and I had a short-lived company, and

the telephone, but both men believed it. “What I

ested in the people, and that’s why I went into the

we did Insidious with Charles, Sinister, The Bay, The

remember is that the process, which is now semi-

movie business in the first place. I think the scary

Babymakers, a Rob Zombie movie, and Dark Skies.”

institutionalized, of how we incentivized people with

movie part of the business is connected to that.

“It looked like low-risk movie-making,” says

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box-office bonuses and other things, we invented PHOTOGRAPH BY

Michael Buckner

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gross), and that led to Split ($9 million budget, $275 million worldwide gross). Shyamalan

that everybody responded to, that wasn’t evident

financed most of the latter movie himself, but

on the page. It wasn’t clear there was going to be

Blumhouse and Universal got behind it. It is

that borderline stuff. It was a wacky movie you’d

easy to marginalize genre, but it is also possible

never read before that was clearly a scary movie,

that Peele could be in the awards mix for his

but was completely different. But it wasn’t clear it

Get Out script, and James McAvoy, for playing a

was going to be funny. That was all Jordan. Nobody

character with 23 personalities in Split.

steered him. This was what he said he wanted to

“You mentioned Get Out, and honestly, no one else wanted to make that movie,” Blum says. “It’s

BEDTIME STORY Nocturnal goings-on in Paranormal Activity.

Says Layton, “The humor you see in Get Out

do, and he did it.” Which is not to say that Blumhouse hasn’t

the great thing about the movie business. Most

learned hard lessons when it veered from the

of the successful movies we’ve done, no one else

formula—as with Jem and the Holograms, which

wanted to do. Nobody wanted to make The Purge,

ranks right up there for the worst-ever wide release

which was floating around three years. No one

opening. And then there is Stretch, the Joe Carna-

wanted to make The Gift, when it was a script

han film that came in on the $5 million budget line but didn’t work, and never got a theatrical release.

“What I tell the directors who take scale is that the only way Blumhouse makes money is if the movies go wide. If they don’t, we don’t take a fee, and you’re not going to make more than scale and residuals. We’re not getting paid at all, but the movie will be seen.”

Trouble was, it had been dated way in advance,

gradually,” Layton says. “It came out over two, three,

called Weirdo. Nobody wanted Paranormal Activity,

relationship with Universal was young, and I made

four movies in that period. That’s where how we

even after it was finished. Almost all our success

a mistake and got too far out over my skis. We

share with them, and what the upside looks like,

stories are like that.”

shouldn’t have done it, and we’ll never do it again.

The core of the formula remains intact: direc-

Here, they will take some credit, seeing past the reservations others had about Jordan Peele’s

still haunts Blumhouse—that flops are disappeared. “One of the fundamental things we came up with in the model, which I can’t imagine we would change, is that with low-budget originals, not sequels, we make the movie without a release date,” Blum says. “We finish the movie, we screen it, and then we decide what lane the movie’s taking. Is it a Universal wide release, a BH Tilt movie, CryptTV, Netflix? We dated that movie before we saw it; the

We were crucified for it by the media.” Blum says that filmmakers understand going in

tors and talent get scale upfront, and creative

provocative Black Lives Matter-tinged thriller Get

that he and Layton have a business to run. “That

control if they come in on micro-budgets around

Out. Peele’s identity as a performer and writer was

is why it is a low-risk model, so when the movies

$5 million for originals, more for sequels. Blum-

squarely tied to comedy, even though he is a genre

don’t go wide, and live the life of an independent

house will give notes to guide filmmakers toward

freak with an encyclopedic knowledge of horror

film, they break even, or we might lose a couple

more commercially appealing results, but the

films. “It had to do with his comedy track record,

bucks, but it’s not significant. Now, what I tell the

filmmaker has final say, incentivized by profiting in

but also that the script was so unordinary, and so

directors who take scale is that the only way Blum-

success and sequels.

out of the box,” Blum explains.

house makes money is if the movies go wide. If they

Some $2.8 billion in Blumhouse box office

“I love scary movies and respect the filmmak-

don’t, we don’t take a fee, and you’re not going to

grosses, TV studio and book imprint later, Blum-

ers of scary movies, and it’s just as hard to make a

make more than scale and residuals. We’re not

house has soared as it learned hard lessons that

great scary movie as it is to make a great comedy

getting paid at all, but the movie will be seen, and

mostly went unnoticed because they were acquir-

or drama or anything else. You shoot yourself in

that’s that. Mockingbird, Stretch, The Bay, those

ing films nobody else wanted, and risking so little

the foot when you think, ‘We have to get a good

are movies [that] didn’t make us anything. Luckily,

in the grand scheme. The hits ranged from James

scary movie director to do a script by another scary

whether we financed them or someone else did, no

DeMonaco’s The Purge, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, M.

movie writer.’ Jordan was clearly talented, and we

one loses too much. Charles did The Bay at Alliance.

Night Shyamalan’s Split, and Joel Edgerton’s The

thought he would be a good director, and it wasn’t

Did you come up short?”

Gift. Also Whiplash, the film that launched Oscar-

as much of a leap for us to have him do a scary

winning La La Land director Damien Chazelle.

movie as it would have been at other places.”

There have been other low-cost films that

Why? “We said, ‘Boom, we’re making it,’

“We broke even,” says Layton, “because of how we sold it. Of the six movies Alliance did with Jason, we only lost money on one, and that was

disappeared quietly because the finished product

because there wasn’t a huge amount of risk

didn’t warrant big P&A spends, a decision Blum-

involved. That allows us not to have to choose

house makes upon seeing the finished film. The

movies by using comps, which is a great thing.

doesn’t get a wide release, you can come close to

low-cost discipline behind the model allowed them

People complain about Hollywood movies being

making it up on VOD and streaming. That’s why you

to take on many projects nobody else wanted

similar. That goes right down to the fundamental

can take risks and someone like Jordan can make

when originally envisioned at higher budgets. Even

greenlight process, because the process involves

Get Out for $4.5 million.”

an established filmmaker like The Sixth Sense

having to compare it to three other movies. It’s not

director M. Night Shyamalan stayed on point with

because we’re geniuses, but because we do low-

a feathered fish, you could find a way to get about

The Visit ($5 million budget, $98 million worldwide

budget movies, we can use the opposite process.”

$4.5 million back,” Blum says.

Dark Skies.” “A wide release,” Blum notes. “The whole point of the budget number is if it

“Because if the movie came out too much like

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

and how does that all work, was invented.”

missed that date, and created a suspicion—which

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Both agree that the low budget permitted the casting decisions that wouldn’t be possible if the films cost $15 million and required stars. So what went wrong with Jem and the Holo-

Blumhouse got it, because Blum won the allegiance of creator Scott Cawthon.

Says Layton: “Well, you’re going to get backend, but it’s not going to be a big deal.”

“Scott is a super smart guy I’ve gotten to know

Blumhouse expanded its grasp into TV when

really well,” he recalls, “ who created a universe out

ITV spent $80 million for a 45% stake in a TV

grams? “Jon Chu made a terrific movie,” says Blum,

of nothing and is connected to the DNA of that.

studio that starts with a series version of The Purge

“and we had a brand, but we made a fatal mistake.

He’s the lead creative force on this movie, and that,

and a limited series for Showtime by Spotlight

The creator of Jem and the Holograms had a real

to me, is the only way we will succeed, and has a lot

director Tom McCarthy that focuses on Roger

relationship with its fans, and wasn’t involved in the

to do with how we got the movie. Another lesson

Ailes, who built the billion-dollar Fox News empire

movie. From day one, we got off to the wrong start.”

learned the hard way.”

and was recently toppled because of sordid sexual

Blum had learned the lesson when approached

The model allows for big paydays in success,

harassment allegations. While that and Whiplash

to do a new version of John Carpenter’s Halloween,

but the real money comes with repeat success.

seem like anomalies to branded Blumhouse fare,

as revered a horror film as you can find. “I said I’d love to, but I’m not doing Hallow-

“It depends on the quote of the creator,” Blum

Blum says that there is a clear connection. “It is

says. “If they’ve never done the job before, it’s a

about things that scare you, and scary is a broad

een without John,” Blum recalls. “I was told that

small piece. If they’re established, it can be a very

umbrella. The Roger Ailes story is extremely scary,

legally, that didn’t have to be the case, but I said, ‘It

big piece. One of the misconceptions people

so it falls under the umbrella.”

doesn’t matter. The fans have a connection to John

walk in the door with is, Blumhouse makes a lot

Carpenter, and he has to be invested in what we’re

of money, so when I make a movie with them,

respect from the parents who wanted him to follow

doing, or we shouldn’t do it.’ And he is.”

I’m going to make a lot of money. If you are Ethan

in the family footsteps. They might not spark to the

Hawke, and you have a $3 million quote and are

‘put another leg on the fire’ exhibit that is the signa-

at Freddy’s, when the movie rights to the video

taking $10,000, and you make Sinister or The Purge

ture display in his office, but they respect the path

game—featuring a security guard in a Chuck

and it succeeds, you’re going to have a big partici-

their son has carved. “That was a big turning point

E. Cheese-like venue battling the animatronic

pation. But if you have people, or an actor, who has

in establishing that sentiment for them,” he says.

robots that come to life—was put in turnaround

never made more than scale, you’re not going to

“That was our version of the Sundance indepen-

by New Line. Every genre filmmaker wanted it, but

get backend on one of our movies.”

dent scary movie.” ★

Blum’s insistence on this got him Five Nights

Same with Whiplash, a film that won Blum

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN After a series of expensive failures, the king of the twist

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

put himself back in the game with a leftfield horror hit

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK—M. Night Shyamalan is just doing what he does best. When his last two blockbusters, The Last Airbender and After Earth, tanked with critics and audiences respectively, the Philadelphia-based director knew instinctively what to do. “I felt like I wanted to ignite the danger switch in me,” he recalls. “I wanted to tell myself, ‘You have no safety net.’” The result was The Visit, a found-footage horror in which two teenagers drop in on their folksy grandparents, only to find their lives in jeopardy. “I had the story of The Visit in my journal of ideas,” says Shyamalan. “I kind of guarded it as my creative secret weapon that I had. I was waiting to do it, because I knew I could do it very small. It was always burning a hole in my journal.” As he worked out from his 1999 calling-card movie The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan’s strongest suit is surprise. “Part of what excites me as an artist is doing something different,” he says. “That’s what motivates me, but it’s also something that would draw someone to the movie theater. Their reasons are very distinct, and one of them is to see something they’ve never seen before. If they see the trailer, and they feel like, ‘I don’t know what this is, this is something new’—then that’s a weapon.” After handling budgets north of $100 million, Shyamalan allowed himself just $5 million for The Visit. “I really didn’t ask anybody,” he says. “I just went and did it. There was no one to really dissuade me—I was already making the movie.” Would he recommend the DIY route to everyone? “Well,” he muses, “certainly it’s not wise to spend your own money. I wouldn’t recommend that to everybody—mortgaging your house—but it was done by my heroes. They put their money where their mouth was when they believed in something that was creatively outside the system.” Shyamalan also believes that being comparatively broke was the palate-cleanser he needed. “When you’re paying for it yourself,” he says, “when you’ve left the system and you have very limited resources, the ideas and the solutions come from that. Your energy’s going exactly where it should be going. Let’s say you’re making a big studio movie. You need a location, so you decide to build a giant set, when really the answer was, ‘Don’t build it. Spend three more weeks location-scouting and find it.’ You would never take that option, because you had the resources to build it. The gun wasn’t to

your head. But if it had been, you might have found something better. “When you fail,” he reasons, “you better be frickin’ honest with yourself that it didn’t work, figure out why and fix it. It’s just that black and white.” Working by himself, Shymalan was able to develop his own voice before taking the film to market. He explains, “What I’ve found is, because I like to do multiple genres in a movie, I need to experiment with them until I get the balance right—and until I do, you can’t see it. It feels clunky. When we first screened The Visit, the combination of humor and scares felt ridiculous. People would say, ‘What is this? Was I supposed to be scared or laughing?’ I was like, ‘Both.’ They were like, ‘Well, you can’t be laughing and be scared.’ But I think you can.” That feeling of— dark comedy terror? I don’t know what the word is for it. But I believed in it, and it took a while to get it right. I was very lucky that Universal saw it that way as well.” Luckily, Universal were also onside when Shyamalan delivered his follow-up, the multiple-personality thriller Split, starring James McAvoy. The film went on to make $275 million worldwide, which surprised even Shyamalan. “If I said to you, ‘I’m going to pitch you a movie, OK? It’s a movie about abduction, child molestation, there’s cannibalism, some very dark things happen,’ and then I said, ‘and it’s going to be a box-office phenomenon,’ you’d just be like, ‘What? That’s not possible.’ But taking that risk is what it’s about. I’m saying, ‘I’m going to dig very deep, we’re going to go very dark, and then we’re going to come out of it. And after going that deep, and that dark, coming out again will feel like a rocket ship to people, emotionally.’” As teased by the film’s playful coda, which saw the return of a familiar face from the director’s back catalogue, Shyamalan’s next film, Glass, will merge the world of Split with that of his 2000 hit Unbreakable. “I’m going to approach it the same way I approached The Visit and Split,” he promises, “with the same kind of philosophy—that this is the budget, I’m going to fund it, and we’re going to make it for that number. If we can’t afford it, then I can’t use that person, or I have to rewrite that scene. Just put those limits on myself and for a reason—to come up with a type of film that, in its genetics, feels like it is ideas-driven and not money-driven.” —Damon Wise DEADLINE.COM

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JORDAN PEELE Mike Fleming Jr. meets the Key & Peele star, who this year made waves with his feature directorial debut, the socially conscious horror smash Get Out

“I’M OBSESSED WITH GIVING THE AUDIENCE

Peele continued to devour genre movies, and is

Douglas’s slick married philanderer was spared a

something they don’t see coming,” Jordan Peele

encyclopedic about the way horror evolved from a

life sentence only because test audiences hated

says of the ambition of his breakout feature direc-

“stalkercam” POV—with unkillable villains stalking

the ending and wanted to see Close’s character

torial debut, Get Out. That declaration certainly

promiscuous teens—to the “torture porn” wave

killed in a final clash.

encompasses Peele’s emergence as a sought-

that followed 9/11, which served a certain help-

after filmmaker.

less feeling in audiences. He then spent five years

the DVD coming out soon, but I will give you the

outlining and writing his first film, one that filtered

exclusive scoop,” he says. “Chris ends up in prison.”

While his long career was defined by a progression through improv troupes and MADtv to becoming half of the Emmy-winning sketch show duo Key & Peele,

his life and sensibilities. Besides delivering on the obligatory grounded

“I won’t go too deep into it because it will be on

Turns out, Peele changed his mind partly because of how audiences responded, but also

everything changed with Get Out, the socially con-

horror and twists of the genre, there was humor,

scious horror movie best described as Stepford Wives

social awareness, and a subtle undercurrent of the

with a Black Lives Matter undercurrent.

prejudice a black protagonist might feel when going

came out of my frustration with living in the Obama

to meet the white parents of his girlfriend.

era and this sentiment that because we have a

The film cost $4.5 million to make, and grossed over $189 million worldwide, to trail only The Exor-

That last part reflects Peele’s reality, but not—

because of the political climate in the Trump era. “I wrote several endings, but the first one I shot

black president, racism is over,” he explains. “You

cist in highest-grossing R-rated genre films. It was a

he says emphatically—his own experience (Peele’s

know, we don’t need to talk about it, or deal with

true sleeper that built on word of mouth, fueled by

wife, comedian and actress Chelsea Peretti, is

it. I wrote that before Trayvon Martin, and Black

rave reviews and a 99 percent score on the review

white). Without giving too much away, the week-

Lives Matter, before this ‘woke-ness’ conversation

aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

end portrayed in Get Out includes moments that

started. In that original ending, he doesn’t get shot,

pull the rug out from under the viewer in satisfying

but it [was] this idea that for me, the movie was an

hinged on his industry persona as an affable writer

So while the industry expectation of Peele

ways, akin to scenes in his touchstone films—from

allegory for this prison industrial system that is an

and performer of socially relevant sketch com-

The Sixth Sense to Rosemary’s Baby and Night of

abduction of black people, black men, and specifi-

edy, he had different dreams forged in childhood,

the Living Dead. By the end of the weekend, pro-

cally our ability to neglect the fact that we were

despite the lack of black directors. “I wanted to

tagonist Chris Washington is running for his life.

locking up black men for the majority of their lives

be Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick,

But here comes the SPOILER ALERT part, to

for possessing less drugs than I was smoking while I

David Cronenberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron

explain how Peele veered from a clever polemic

and Hitchcock,” he says. “I’d wanted to be a direc-

climax and instead chose to please the audience

tor since 13, and horror and the suspense thriller

as the best genre filmmakers do. After Chris gets

call the system out and say, ‘Look, you guys know

were the most powerful genres to me. They always

through his ghoulish nightmare experience, he is

as much as I do, that when the cops show up at

scared everything out of me, but it wasn’t until

met with flashing police lights amidst the carnage

the end of a horror movie, it’s usually a good thing.’

then that I got mature enough to mentally separate

of his girlfriend’s demented family. The end-

Here, it is not, and we all know why, and I brought it

myself, and look at these films as powerful artistry.

ing he chose was uplifting, but it wasn’t the one

around to [Chris in prison].”

“And then, I found comedy and performing,

Peele originally shot. That one was more like the

and it took me by the hand on this amazing ride,”

original, abandoned, conclusion of Fatal Attrac-

the scrapped Fatal Attraction climax, with Doug-

the writer-director continues. “And I thought, ‘OK,

tion, in which the fingerprints of Michael Doug-

las’s character squirming on the hook. “He was a

maybe directing these kinds of movies was just

las’s character were found on the suicide knife

real antihero,” he says, “and he should get what is

never meant to be.’”

of Glenn Close’s bunny-boiling stalker/mistress.

coming to him.” But he came around to feeling that

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was writing this movie. “So the original purpose of the movie was to

Peele notes he would have preferred to see

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Dan Doperalski

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his hit directing debut. “It felt like the last embrace you would ever need,” he says, “to the point of, where do we go from here? I mean, [Obama] is a guy who not only did we feel like he brought the country a sense of stability and compassion and wisdom that we had been lacking [for] a long time. I don’t want to speak for everybody, but he brought the African-American community something that, just like the idea of BLACK COMEDY Betty Gabriel (left) and Daniel Kaluuya in Jordan Peele’s Get Out.

me making this movie, I didn’t think was possible.” And when his presidency did seem possible? “I was amongst the ones who were like, I want this, it’s important but I can’t get my hopes up— and then it happened and changed every possibility. For Keegan and I, being biracial and discussing

“I wrote several endings, but the first one I shot came out of my frustration with living in the Obama era and this sentiment that because we have a black president, racism is over. You know, we don’t need to talk about it, or deal with it.”

what a biracial identity meant, and with this sketch, giving the President a voice he knew he couldn’t do, and having the President tell Jimmy Fallon, ‘You know, those guys are pretty good; those things Luther says, that’s pretty much what I’m feeling.’ We loved getting the Emmy for our show, but, holy crap!” As for his own movie future, Peele believes he’ll stay in the genre lane, directing scripts he writes himself, at modest budgets. When I tell him that while watching Get Out it occurred to me that his deft mix of thrills and laughter to lighten tension is exactly what was missing in most of the DC tent-

Chris deserved better, and so did the audience—

also, the moment the cop car comes up, I realized

pole superhero films, he smiles like it’s not the first

white and black—rooting for him.

that the audience has done all the work for me.

time he has heard that. He won’t talk about the

They jumped to the conclusion that that was the

films he is being offered, but acknowledged, “That’s

way the movie should end.’ So we had this other

first ending, and I realized the second that hap-

where I am right now, that’s the question. But my

[ending], and by the time we finished the movie,

pened, the whole first ending was null and moot.”

general feeling is, the big tentpole superhero mov-

So how does Peele use his newfound currency

ies and all that ultimately won’t fulfill me. Those are

conversation I was looking for had started, and

at a moment when major studios are dangling

movies that are going to get made, and get made

it was a painful time. It still is for many of us, but

tentpole pictures before him after everybody but

well, with or without me.”

by the time we tested it, white people and black

Blumhouse and producer Sean McKittrick spurned

people alike, nobody liked the ending, and I got it.

his script, partly fearing his comic instincts would

merely to cash in, but only if he can pull a James

People didn’t need a wake-up call anymore. They

be to turn the film into a Scary Movie-like spoof?

Cameron—“His sequels were always better”—and

needed a hero, and they needed an escape.”

He is moving at the same deliberate pace he has

will likely try to replicate the situation he had with

his whole career, a steady climb that included

Blumhouse and his producer, Sean McKittrick.

right choice. “[The original ending] would have

auditioning for and getting the offer to play Barack

McKittrick, says Peele, was the first person who

been much less successful,” he says, and he

Obama on Saturday Night Live, when rival late-night

embraced his genre vision, as others didn’t under-

also leaned on genre rules to leave the audience

show MADtv was on its way out. Fox, which still had

stand the subtext. Peele didn’t initially intend to

upbeat, even if he also admired one of the most

him under contract, wouldn’t let Peele go.

direct, but realized while writing that only he under-

He believes, in hindsight, that he made the

shocking endings in horror—in George Romero’s

“It was considered me going to the enemy,” he

Peele says he won’t make a Get Out sequel

stood the balance between scares and polemics,

original Night of the Living Dead, when the black

recalls. “It was soul-crushing at the time, but now I

and Blum and McKittrick quickly agreed, promising

protagonist is mistaken for a zombie and coldly

look back at it as the best thing that ever happened

him full creative control as long as he came in on

shot in the head and burned.

to me.” Post-MADtv, Peele peeled off with cast-

budget—which he did.

“I wanted to give the audience what they want,”

mate Keegan-Michael Key for the Comedy Central

“The best thing I can do with this new trust from

he says. “I didn’t want to be their antagonist. I

sketch show Key & Peele. In a recurring skit, Peele

the industry for me is to retain a sense of the con-

wanted to challenge them, show them something

played Obama delivering genteel, politically correct

trol that I had here,” he says, “because the movie

different, bigger and deeper.” He wasn’t the only

rhetoric, with an agitated and animated Key play-

benefitted from having a fresh perspective and a

one who felt it. “Jason Blum said to me, ‘Buddy, you

ing Luther, who provides the “anger translation”

fresh face. So I wouldn’t want to jump to something

got to change the ending,’ and he was right. You

of what Obama really means. The skit’s truthful

so big that all of a sudden I’m having to argue my

test, and then you talk to 20 or 30 of the audience

undercurrent resonated with the President himself,

way out of notes I don’t agree with. I want to keep

members. Both black and white audiences said,

and became a viral sensation. Being recognized

that autonomy, and just be able to continue to

‘Why would you do that to us?’ It clearly felt to

that way by Obama himself meant as much to

push forward in this genre, and represent my values

them that I was pushing my agenda on them. And

Peele as any validation he ever received, including

within this genre.” ★

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RE M I N I : M I CH A E L BUCK N E R

we tested it in a post-Black Lives Matter era. The

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

“Too many people said, ‘I don’t think that is the

LEAH REMINI

The actress and producer explored her own painful history to deliver Scientology and the Aftermath, writes Matt Grobar

LONG BEFORE SHE BECAME FAMOUS teaming with Kevin James and Jerry Stiller on The King of Queens, Leah Remini was a teen from Brooklyn who followed her mother into Scientology. After finally leaving

MICAH GREEN The former CAA agent joins forces with Texan billionaire Dan Friedkin in a mysterious new venture

the organization in 2013, and publishing a controversial memoir Troublemaker a couple of years later, she has become a true thorn in the side of the controversial religion, through the A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Armed with her wit and a street-tough Brooklyn charm, Remini describes in nine episodes her own long experience with a religion she lost faith in. With ex-Scientology international

RE M I N I : M I CH A E L BUCK N E R

RE X /S H U TT ERSTO CK

spokesman-turned pariah Mike Rinder as AFTER CO-HEADING THE CAA Film Finance and Sales Group with Roeg Sutherland for over a decade, Micah Green shocked the indie film community by leaving to form a venture with Texas-based billionaire Dan Friedkin, backer of producer/financier Imperative Entertainment. Long considered one of the brightest agents piecing together independent films, Green joined Friedkin in a business that so far doesn’t have a name or a stated structure. Even though the new venture is still somewhat mysterious, Green certainty qualifies as a disruptor, because he’d never have stopped being a top-tier agent if there wasn’t something groundbreaking and entrepreneurial in the works. In broad strokes, the new venture is expected to invest capital in film and television projects, but also in companies finding seams in the fast-changing technological landscape reshaping the entertainment business. Friedkin has the funds—his businesses range from Gulf States Toyota to Auberge Resorts to a luxury safari business in Tanzania—while Green has the know-how: among the films he helped make possible during his time at CAA were American Hustle, Her, Looper, Sicario, John Wick and Brooklyn. He was also key to raising the financing for the upstart indie distribution label Neon launched by Tom Quinn and Tim League. The new venture quickly hired Green’s former longtime CAA colleague Dan Steinman, who left Black Bear Pictures to run the unnamed company’s New York office. Green and Steinman came up in the business together, spending eight years in the indie film space at CAA, and before that, working together in New York while Steinman was a lawyer at Sloss Law and Green was at John Sloss’s Cinetic Media. —Mike Fleming Jr.

her wingman, Remini collected shocking testimony from ex-members who lost their families because of Scientology’s restrictive covenants, which ostracize members who question authority. Former members and higher-ups in the faith’s elite Sea Org arm made startling allegations of mental and physical hardship, and chief executive David Miscavige’s own father was among those telling stories about essentially being forced to escape from a bunker-like compound to find their freedom. A binge-watcher’s dream, the show became A&E’s highest rated series, and was renewed for a second season. While Scientology has called Remini a “spoiled, entitled diva” and accused her of discriminating against and making a living off a worthy faith, Remini has, in turn, aired every allegation against her in the series. Our read? Remini invested 35 years of her

audience in the hopes others will not repeat

life, including millions of dollars in donations,

what she and many ex-Scientologists

to become a figurehead for a religion that, at

consider the worst mistake of their lives.

the end, left her empty and feeling betrayed.

“This is not about religious beliefs,” she

Enough that she is hell-bent on delivering

says. “This is about a doctrine that calls to

her side of the story to the widest possible

destroy people’s lives once they speak out.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

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WOODY HARRELSON For his first feature, the actor ripped up the movie rulebook. Joe Utichi probes him about the challenge of mounting a live, one-take feature film on the streets of London

YOUR AVERAGE DEBUT DIRECTOR STARTS

forget it, but I kept thinking about it and pondering

How did you set about making it?

small. A few characters, limited settings, achievable

it—thinking, you know, there’s something to this.

It was years before I really got serious about it.

challenges. Ridley Scott’s first film was a short fol-

Aside from me getting arrested and going to jail, I

Really, I didn’t get too serious about it until probably

lowing his brother on a bicycle, made in 1963 on a

had some stuff go down between me and my wife,

about a year and a half ago. I’d been going from

pittance. It’d take him years to rack up the skill and

Laura. All of it together amounted to something

project to project, and I thought if I was ever going

ambition necessary to attempt the likes of Alien,

really interesting. It was a story about someone

to do this, I would have to carve out the time. So

Blade Runner and Gladiator.

who kind of has it all, and is almost going to lose it

I got a hold of my buddy, Ken Kao, who produced

all, and then has a shot at redemption.

Rampart, and once I had a decent draft I sent it to

But even the most pie-in-the-sky first-timers would have balked at the challenge Woody Harrel-

him. He liked it, and he co-produced it with me.

son set for himself with his debut feature film. Lost

When did you actually start writing it down?

Since I first had the idea, there have been [single-

In London isn’t just a one-night tale of misadven-

For a long time I just tried to forget it. Then at some

take films such as] Russian Ark and Victoria, which

ture on the streets and in the clubs of the English

point after the fact I wrote down a rough draft.

I consider like a truly great movie. But, in the begin-

capital. It’s also shot in a single take, with Harrelson

Then I think I just threw it in a drawer and didn’t

ning, I hadn’t intended to use a single camera. That

playing the lead role alongside Owen Wilson and

read it again for a couple of years. Then I picked it

idea came from the DP, Nigel Willoughby, who I

Willie Nelson. And he did it in real time, live, beam-

out, looked at it, hated it, thought it was terrible,

really wanted to work with, and he tried to convince

ing the footage into theaters in London and the

threw it back in the drawer, and didn’t look at it

me three times, because I just couldn’t see how

U.S., in the full expectation that it could all collapse

again for two years. It was that kind of slow prog-

to do it. There were just too many problems with

around him at any moment.

ress. In the end, I guess I just kept tinkering with

it. But the third time he convinced me. I literally

it, slowly trying to make it better and reworking it.

sat down with the script and figured out how to

He has nearly 40 years of acting experience under

Structurally it always stayed the same, because it

reconcile the images I had with the single camera.

his belt, and you don’t spend four decades in front

was always about what happened that night.

And now I can’t imagine it not being single camera. I

Granted, Harrelson doesn’t come from nowhere.

of the camera without developing something of a grasp of what goes on behind it. But what could be more disruptive than

think it would really be a bit jarring if I’d done it with Was it always going to be a one-take movie?

more cameras.

That developed over time. Years ago, before it was

attempting something nobody had tried before?

even possible, when all we ever shot on was film, I

It’s your first movie. You’re shooting it in one

Sure, there are a handful of one-take wonders

had this image of doing something in one take. Not

take, with multiple locations, and screening it

floating around, especially now that digital technol-

necessarily on one camera, but in one take. I love

through a simultaneous live feed. You couldn’t

ogy has vastly expanded the amount of time a

theater, and I thought it’d be so cool to capture

have been any more ambitious with it.

camera can run without a break. But to shoot and

something in one take.

Yeah, I’d have to agree with you. But I can’t give

screen live? That takes a fearlessness most mor-

myself so much credit for that. I didn’t realize how When did you realize that you were going to

ambitious it actually was. I thought it was going to be

make it as a film?

a little easier than it was, but it was actually about as

relson in 2002, involving nightclubs, broken ashtrays

I’d written another screenplay before this. It’s called

hard as I could imagine. It was very challenging and

and police chases. “Too much of this is true,” a title

The Misadventures of Lester Fitz, it takes place

stressful. There were just so many things that could

card on the film announces. And he plays himself,

entirely in Ireland and there’s a lot of slapstick. I had

go wrong—technical things, like sound, and the live

too, though he stresses the film has heightened his

always intended to do that first, but then I started

feed. Just the general choreography of it. We had

misadventures for comic effect.

thinking that maybe it was more appropriate to do

50 RF receivers, 160 radios for crew communication

Lost in London first. And I started thinking this could

stuff. We condensed, like, two to six months of prep

Where did the original idea for Lost in London

work into that concept of capturing it in real time. I

into six weeks. We had 300 crew, 300 extras, 25

come from?

had the idea of merging theater and film—captur-

cast, 14 locations, we had to negotiate with buildings

It was one drunken night I had in London [in 2002].

ing the moment. That was the concept I had in my

and locations over two square miles so that it could

A lot of bad stuff went down, and I really wanted to

head.

all go smoothly—and not everything could be tightly

tals can’t conceive. The film is based on a real night out for Har-

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5/11/17 1:27 PM

conscious of a mistake that happened, and it kind of took me a minute to just, y’know, chill out and enjoy the moment. Once I realized that it wasn’t as glaring as thought it was, then it was OK. It just took a minute or two before I got to that state. Man, I got to say, I just felt like partying. Do people notice the mistakes? I’ve asked about that in the Q&As I’ve done for the film. I’ve asked people, and they didn’t know. Well, actually, they would kind of shout out about a few things that were intentional and I was like, “Oh, damn.” It got a bit embarrassing. The “big” mistake is not as obvious as it felt to me at the time, but with it being a single-camera movie, I couldn’t really see what I could do about that. You’re not going to cut into a movie like that without it being pretty obvious. But a lot of people said they forgot that it was a single camera. They just got into the story, which is really what I’d hoped. After all the stress and all the sleepless nights, was it worth it? Yeah, it was really worth it. I had a great experience with it. I didn’t even know if it was possible, I just kept believing that it could be done. It was hard, but in the end, a lot of the people who I’ve worked controlled. It kept me up at night, many nights. I

or even as a writer, that I wasn’t really accomplish-

with, they feel like family now. I really feel so lucky

had a real struggle with insomnia, which is funny—in

ing what I needed to as an actor. Finally, on the

to have been a part of this thing with all these great

spite of all the sinning I’ve done in life, I seem to

night that we were shooting it, just before we shot

collaborators. I really liked how it turned out. An

somehow usually get a good night’s sleep. But this

it, Nigel said to me, “OK, you’re just the actor now,

imperfect gem, y’know? It was quite cathartic to

one challenged me in that regard.

so stop thinking of the other stuff.” And he was

finally do it. I feel like it shifted something in me, to

right. It was good advice, because, it’s very hard to

finally tell this story. It’s like a weird love letter to my

Given that you’re also the star of the film, in

not think about what’s going on and what could

wife. A very strange love letter, and also a comedy,

the moment of doing it did you also have to let

be better. Or, “Why is this happening?” Man, oh,

but she really likes it—that’s the main thing.

go of everything else that was going on around

man. I’ll never forget it. It was quite an exciting

you and just focus on the performance?

undertaking.

While I was rehearsing it, I never could let go of just

Would you consider doing it again? I can’t see doing the exact same thing again, but

looking at everything as a director. I couldn’t. I’d

How would you describe the moment when

I would do something like this maybe with one or

look round and I’d say, “Oh, OK, the camera can’t be

the camera finally shut off and the whole

two locations and maybe a handful of actors. I

there,” or, “This shouldn’t be done like this.” I was so

endeavor was over?

could see doing it that way. But even that would

busy thinking of it from a directorial vantage point,

My God. Well, at the very end I was still a little

have to be awhile in the future. ★

PHOTOGRAPH BY

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Michael Buckner

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5/11/17 1:27 PM

BREXIT Diana Lodderhose reports on the impact of the referendum result that divided a country and sent shockwaves around the world

things seem to be sort of neutral in our business. But there are certainly things in the offing that we have to keep an eye on, and the way to counter that is efficiency. We have already had to become more efficient in our business—and if we aren’t efficient, we become less competitive.” Equally, uncertainty around the issue of free movement of labor around the continent “could be a disaster” for companies long term, says Number 9 Films producer Stephen Woolley. “With a successful U.K. television and film industry that is growing and

IT’S BEEN NEARLY A YEAR SINCE BRITAIN

The exchange-rate decline as a result of the vote

strengthening,” he says, “we need to be able to sup-

made the shock decision to leave the European

has become an increasingly attractive incentive

plement that with European talent.” One of Wool-

Union in a 52 percent to 48 percent public vote, a

for international businesses. this, coupled with the

ley’s recent productions, The Limehouse Golem, was

move that kicked off a major surge of anti-estab-

U.K.’s attractive tax relief, means 2017 looks set to

able to pool grips from Rome. “We are continuing

lishment and right-wing sentiment that rippled

accelerate demand.

to do that with films that travel,” he says. “Shooting

through much of the western world. After Prime

“It depends which end of the telescope you’re

in the U.K. is increasingly becoming a more regional

Minister Theresa May began the process in March—

looking through,” says Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film

activity—just look at [BBC TV series] Broadchurch,

by triggering Article 50 of The Lisbon Treaty—the

London and the British Film Commission. “In terms

which is shot in the [U.K.’s] West Country—there-

country now has just two years to negotiate the

of attracting international business, it’s phenomenal.

fore travel and putting people in hotels becomes

tangled divorce proceedings with the EU. And while

It’s like having a permanent Christmas and fire sale

the norm. Freedom of movement is vital to us, and

the British public—and, indeed, the government—

at the moment. Obviously, we don’t know how long

we have to have it. It’s not even a joke. We have to

still don’t know what the end result will mean,

it is going to go on for, but if you’re spending your

have to be able to tap into the huge pool of crew.”

Brexit is still very much disrupting the conversation

money in dollars, the U.K. got between 15-30 per-

across the industry in the U.K. and Europe, raising

cent cheaper for people to make television and film.”

of non-British EU nationals living in the U.K., which

London’s world-class VFX business has become

poses further problems—Framestore, for example,

major questions about how the business will cope. On the surface, inward investment into the

It’s still unclear what will happen to the status

an even more attractive destination as well, thanks

says that around 30 percent of its workforce is

country has never been better. According to statis-

to the devalued pound. The flip side of this, points

from mainland Europe. “We’re an industry where

tics from the British Film Institute, inward invest-

out Framestore CEO William Sargent, is that the

there is a shortage of talent,” says Sargent, who

ment spend was up almost 18 percent to £1.35

basic laws of economics dictate that this will trans-

has encouraged his employers to apply for U.K.

billion ($1.68 billion) in 2016, with major Hollywood

late into higher inflation. Indeed, in February 2017

residency, which EU nationals are currently entitled

titles such as Disney’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi,

inflation rose to 2.3 percent in the U.K.

to do if they have lived in the U.K. for five years or

Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and Ridley

“Our product is cheaper, but, as we’re expect-

Scott’s Alien: Covenant all tapping into the coun-

ing inflation to come in 2018 or 2019, our costs in

try’s studio facilities and booming VFX companies.

general will drift up,” says Sargent. “At the moment,

more—and with final Brexit negotiations years away from being settled, that buys them time. As a producer, says Woolley, the sheer cost of engineering Brexit has proven a hard pill to swallow. Estimates, which have only surfaced recently, have put the cost of Brexit at anywhere from £15 billion

HOW THE FILM & TV INDUSTRY SAW IT IN OUT J.K. ROWLING “I’m the mongrel product of this European continent and I’m an internationalist … My values are not contained or proscribed by borders. The absence of a visa when I cross the channel has symbolic value to me. I might not be in my house, but I’m still in my hometown.”

MICHAEL FASSBENDER “For the next generation, the idea that if I had a son or a nephew they could easily go and work abroad like that, the ease of movement through Europe—that alone was worth staying in the EU for.”

HELEN MIRREN “No one really thought that Great Britain would leave the European Union, but it did. And this was not only a hit to our economy but to our humanity. Because this was a vote cast in fear rather than hope.”

PATRICK STEWART “The vote only went the way it did because people were lied to and misled. It is a calamitous mistake.”

MICHAEL CAINE “I voted for Brexit. What it is with me, I’d rather be a poor master than a rich servant … It wasn’t about the racism, immigrants or anything, it was about freedom.”

LIZ HURLEY “Knock yourselves out calling us [Brexiters] ill-educated Neanderthals and spit a bit more venom and vitriol our way … Note: you attract flies with honey, not vinegar; small wonder the majority of the country flew in the opposite direction.”

JULIAN FELLOWES “I believe we should be out. It’s about philosophy, it’s about democracy, it’s about democracy versus autocracy, all of those issues.”

JOHN CLEESE “If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I’d vote to stay in. But there isn’t. Sad.”

($18.7 billion) and £52 billion ($64.9 billion). “What is so frustrating is that no one had knowledge of what the cost of Brexit would be before the vote,” says Woolley. “You’d never buy a car without knowing how much it costs.” More long-term questions include whether Britain would still have access to the EU-funded Creative Europe MEDIA Program, which has funneled more than €100 million into the U.K. audiovisual industry since 2010, backing films as diverse as Todd Haynes’s Carol, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise and Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning doc Amy, as well as legislation issues for Brit-Euro co-productions. One thing is certain: the industry is unified in lobbying government to protect the business. “We cannot allow the change in political circumstances to change our creative business,” says Wootton. Adds Sargent, “The very nature of this business is that quite often it starts raining and you have to react. We all had better get out there and start hustling.” ★

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I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

Sébastien Thibault

5/11/17 1:27 PM

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5/11/17 1:28 PM

SHANE SALERNO A screenwriter who makes gigantic publishing and movie deals for authors? WTF? Mike Fleming Jr. investigates

SHANE SALERNO WAS AN ESTABLISHED

authors on the side? I’ve never heard of it. Winslow

authors. When Salerno took on author Steve

screenwriter and documentary filmmaker when

has become a multimillionaire since joining Salerno

Hamilton, he confronted St. Martin’s Press on its

a conversation with novelist Don Winslow several

and is coming off the biggest success of his career

lack of advertising/marketing plans for Hamilton’s

years ago first spawned a now-substantial business,

with The Cartel—the continuation of the 2005 drug

book The Secret Life of Nick Mason. “Steve had a

brokering book and movie deals for authors.

war thriller The Power of the Dog. That sequel was

four-book deal for a significant amount of money

Salerno’s idea, one which Winslow says he resisted

from St. Martin’s Press in the U.S. and 100 days

says, “and one day he told me, ‘I’ve had it, I’m tired

so hard that would hang up whenever Salerno

out, I was asking, ‘Where are the ads? What’s the

of writing these books that get all this acclaim, and

mentioned it. Bestseller The Cartel was sold in a $6

marketing plan?’”

no sales, no marketing, no promotion, no support

million movie deal to Fox and Ridley Scott’s Scott

When the publisher announced they had no

from my publisher. So, I quit.’ I said, ‘Really? What

Free. Studio and producer then paid seven figures

plans to give the book any additional push, Salerno

are you going to do?’ ‘I’m going back to being a

for The Force, Winslow’s new epic tale of a crooked

got on the phone with the head of the company,

safari guide,’ he said.”

top New York cop that reads like a Sidney Lumet

who said if they wanted out of the contract they’d

film.

have to pay a quarter of a million dollars cash.

“Don and I had been friends for years,” Salerno

Winslow, who’d written well-respected books including The Winter of Frankie Machine, The Power

“I can’t possibly overstate the effect Shane

Salerno told him, “Fine, I’ll wire you the money

of the Dog, and A Cool Breeze On The Underground,

has had on my life, since we started this on a

today,” then sent over his own cash, ending

met Salerno when they were writing for a TV show

handshake years ago,” Winslow says. “My career

Hamilton’s 17-year run at St. Martin’s Press. Within

years back, and in between such side gigs as private

had flat-lined, I was barely making it and working

days, Publishers Weekly had picked it as one of the

detective, he’d been a guide in Kenya, and also in

as a consultant to a law firm. I’d get great reviews,

year’s most anticipated books, and the publisher

China, where he led expeditions to spot pandas.

then watch the books fall off the edge of the earth.

claimed it had dropped Hamilton. Salerno said

“I said, ‘Don, we can get a lot of people to be

When Shane got involved, it was like, ‘boom!’

every publisher read it that night, and the author

safari guides, but only you can write the books you

I wrote 14 pages of this out-of the-box book

had 10 offers and a Putnam deal shortly after.

do.’” Winslow was clearly frustrated, and Salerno

Savages, sent it to him and said, ‘Either I’m crazy,

finally told him, “I’ll do it, I’ll represent you.” Two

or onto something.’ He said, ‘Drop everything and

and Lionsgate bought the film rights, with The

minutes later Salerno was copied on an email

do this.’ A year and-a-half later, Oliver Stone was

Equalizer scribe Richard Wenk adapting. “Steve

Winslow sent, discharging his agent immediately. “I

directing the movie.”

was pretty terrified for about 24 hours,” Salerno

said, ‘Ok, I guess I am really doing this.’”

Why would a publishing industry newcomer be

The book became Hamilton’s first bestseller,

recalls. “He had two kids going into college and

That birthed The Story Factory, a business

able to make such a difference? “He’s ferocious

had been with the publisher his entire career.

Salerno has kept on the down low and which has

about getting the book out there, with the right

That was a sleepless night, but we were fortunate

grown mostly from referrals. It now has a stable

cover and marketing,” Winslow says. “And great

the book was as well-received at it was, and it

of authors, including Steve Hamilton, Blake Bailey,

ideas like writing an editorial on the drug war in

became less daunting when we had 10 offers the

Lou Berney, Bill Beverly, Reed Farrel Coleman, Meg

the Washington Post as an ad, which got a lot

next day.”

Gardiner, John Katzenbach, Marcus Sakey and

of attention. I think he’s revolutionizing the way

Michael Mann, whom Salerno set into a multi-

authors can be represented. A writer who doesn’t

a lawyer paper the deals, and makes many of

million dollar book imprint deal.

need the money gains power, and is dangerous in a

the films subsequent book-to-movie deals with

negotiation.

a CAA co-agent. The Story Factory negotiates

Simultaneously, Salerno has remained a busy screenwriter, adapting Winslow’s The Cartel for a

“The only thing I can think of to liken it to is

The lessons came quickly for Salerno. He has

all deals for its small author stable, including

film that Ridley Scott will direct next year, helping

United Artists, where those actors got tired of being

foreign publishers. Salerno also insists on cover

James Cameron write four Avatar sequels, and

screwed, and banded together to form a studio to

approval. “It’s extremely rare that someone’s a

turning the Microsoft game Gears of War into a live

get paid fairly and be taken seriously.”

great writer and a great businessman,” he says.

action tent pole. Is there is a comparable example of a successful screenwriter who brokers book and movie deals for

Salerno says he learned how to negotiate

“The unfortunate result of that is they get into

when he made his first documentary at age

dramatically underpaying deals because they’re

19. He’s also put up his own money to back his

just happy to have a deal. I couldn’t reach one

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5/11/17 1:28 PM

author in the evening and he finally leveled with

The New York Times bestseller lists and there is

enormous respect for authors, and some of the

me. He said, ‘Mate, I drive an Uber at night, making

more awareness, attention, better placement in the

greatest movies started with a book.”

airport runs.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ When

book stores.” And that hustling has made massive

we broke down what he was being paid, it was

change in the authors’ lives. “We’ve been fortunate

can be. “I talk to the authors as a writer, and if they

literally below minimum wage, and he had won all

to have the first five books brokered by The Story

have a story problem, they can call me,” he says.

these awards. The first thing I did when he signed

Factory make the NYT bestseller list,” Salerno says,

“But I can also talk to them as a representative.

was to tell his publisher, ‘We’re not publishing with

“and we have been able to help those authors

Every one of these negotiations is a fight, and real

you anymore.’ They said, ‘Wait, we’ll pay more,’ but

break out.”

hand-to-hand combat is involved to change the

I said, ‘You knew this guy’s situation, that he has kids and that he’s driving an Uber at night.’” The alternative to battling publishers is

How does such a hands-on approach leave time

He’s also a creative partner, in a way few execs

way authors are perceived, handled, and paid. Most

for Salerno’s day job of screenwriting? He’s hiring

agents talk to author clients every few weeks, but I

staff to share the load, but is disciplined about

talk to the majority of them every day.”

watching books disappear from shelves. “If Barnes

his schedule. “I have a business day for The Story

& Noble buys 2000 books and sells 1000 because

Factory that generally ends at seven in the evening,”

Meg Gardiner dedicated her new book Unsub—

there is no promotion, the next time they order

he says. “I take a short break and write most of the

which just sold to CBS for series—to Salerno,

600,” he says. “And that keeps going down. The

night. It works out because there are no phones or

while Winslow dedicated The Kings of Cool to him.

Second Life of Nick Mason sold eight times in a few

e-mails at night.”

Hamilton did the same on The Second Life of Nick

months what Steve Hamilton’s previous books sold in three years. You hustle, promote and make I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

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Bram Vanhaeren

To Salerno it makes sense to be a writer representing writers. “I love books, and have

Those authors certainly seem appreciative.

Mason, writing, “To Shane, who saw a better life, even when I couldn’t.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

5/11/17 1:28 PM

FEDE ALVAREZ Following the huge, unexpected success of Don’t Breathe, the writer-director continues to follow his own path. Mike Fleming Jr. catches up with him

WHICH OF DEADLINE’S DISRUPTORS HAS taken more advantage of shifts in the movie business than Uruguayan writer/director Fede Alvarez? By doing his second film on spec, he has managed to own a majority stake in Don’t Breathe, a horror film that cost $7 million and grossed $157 million worldwide. That brought him a payday well into eight-figures, making him wealthy similar to the circumstance that left George Lucas the owner of his Star Wars creation. And this happened after his first break, which came when he put his five-minute $300-budgeted short film Panic Attack! on YouTube, creating a viral sensation and weeks later closing a million dollar deal to make his directing debut on a remake of Evil Dead, the film that established one of his genre idols, Sam Raimi. He parlayed these successes into directing The Girl in the Spider’s Web at Sony, which he’ll follow with a sequel to Jim Henson’s cult favorite Labyrinth. But damn if Alvarez realized he was taking a disruptors path to the A-list. His story is worth repeating, because low budget genre films have become the point of entry for many new filmmakers; the fastest way for them to make an indelible mark and springboard to the A-list. “I wish I could tell you I had this strategy to take over the world,” Alvarez admits. “But the reality is that, like most things I do, I did all this because it felt right. My motive has always been to do right things for the right reasons. And the reason for Panic Attack! was, I made a short that I had no money to make, and this seemed the only way to get it seen.” The short depicts giant robots and spaceships massing in the Uruguayan capital city, and then fusing to create an apocalyptic explosion. The impact in Hollywood was similar. “YouTube had just launched their HD format, and before that, it looked so bad that if something we made looked like shit, we’d say it looked like YouTube. That changed, and though I knew I wouldn’t be there to shake hands with the audience or stand in front of the screen with no ego satisfaction, why not put it there and see if millions of people might enjoy it? I woke up to literally hundreds

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I L L U S T RAT I O N BY

Bram Vanhaeren

5/11/17 1:28 PM

of emails from Hollywood, which of course I thought

huge movies were given to directors that made one

was some kind of joke. Every agent, lots of managers,

small movie, and while at first I thought that was a

every major studio, all singing the same song. ‘We

good thing, I realized it was kind of a trap. Studios

love your short, we want to meet you.’”

know they will have more control over that young

One of those meets was with Nathan Kahane,

director who just made an indie drama than they will

who put him on the phone with his Ghost House

over a James Cameron-type, or someone who does

Pictures partner, Raimi, while Alvarez used his Holly-

those films all the time. I felt like it wasn’t coming

wood trip to turn down numerous offers to direct big

from the right place, that it was coming from a desire

budget films he saw he’d have little control over. “You

to control, and that’s not going to be good for me. I’m

have to understand, I had emails that said, ‘Spielberg

not talking about any studio in particular, but it hap-

saw the short and he’s crazy about it,’ so it was hard

pens that young directors get chewed up and spat

to impress me just by name, because I was already so

out when they go to do a big movie. When it doesn’t

impressed. But it all came down to the call with Sam.”

work, it’s bad for you. I felt I didn’t need to go into

The young indie kings placing a

that big gamble at that point.”

necessary spotlight on foreign talent,

Alvarez had cut his teeth on genre, and to him it made the most sense to start there, as he did with

It is unlikely he would have gotten paid better

an exuberantly bloody and profitable remake of Evil

than he will for Don’t Breathe; the film was con-

Dead. “I came of age in the late ’80s, when VHS was

structed as an indie but got studio distribution after

the best thing in the world,” he says. “You went to

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions bought the

the video store and got a movie every weekend; I

film, and it was distributed by Sony’s Screen Gems.

bled every section of the video store dry. I noticed

Alvarez was left with a majority ownership stake.

genre was the way many filmmakers did their first

“I was able on my second movie to own the

films. Just like Blumhouse provides opportunities

majority, because the reaction when we sent it out

now, Roger Corman launched Oliver Stone, Francis

for deals was, ‘This is a crazy movie that probably no

Coppola, James Cameron, and they all started doing

one will see, so let him keep the majority of the back

small horror films.”

end of nothing.’ I was pushy; I said, ‘This is my movie;

After Evil Dead, Alvarez kept turning down the big

I’ll write it, produce it, direct it. And I’ll own it.’ They

offers—even a Marvel superhero movie—preferring to

believed in the story, but I think nobody, not even me,

stay in his lane. While he developed some video game

imagined the potential of what would end up hap-

adaptations with studios, he and scripting partner

pening at the box office. We created a precedent.”

Rodo Sayagues co-wrote Don’t Breathe, a small tale

Alvarez realizes that, while he now has a template

about three Detroit teens who try to rob a blind war

for his movie creations, he won’t own the big studio

veteran who has received a $300,000 windfall for an

jobs that keep coming his way. But even there, he

accident that claimed his young daughter’s life. Turns

feels in a better place than back when he was turning

out, the soldier is more than he seems, and the teens

everything down.

are left trying to escape his house of horrors. Alvarez

“If you haven’t created that perception, getting

wound up owning the majority of his film, a rarity for a

away with what you want to do in a bigger movie

sophomore filmmaker.

would be harder,” he says. “Because look, the whole

He says it was easier to turn down offers because

creative process in making any film is, who has

he and his wife consciously lived a Spartan life. “A

the bigger bluff? This is not a science, and nobody

lot of decisions are made in this business because

knows if you cast this guy, he’s going to be better

people have huge mortgages and financial pres-

than someone else. Or if the scene plays out this way,

sures. I tried to avoid that. Until a month ago, I had

it will be better. And if the movie has this finish, it’s

the same small apartment, because that put less

going to be a bigger hit. We play pretend that we do,

financial pressure on me. My wife and I decided, we

but nobody knows, and we see that every weekend

don’t need all this shit. We were happy living the way

when a movie we think is going to succeed fails, and

we lived, and thinking that just living in LA was pretty

vice versa. So what backs your bluff, and what makes

beautiful. When I was offered the bad movie, the

people really buy into your pitch of, ‘If the movie goes

wrong movie or the big movie I felt wasn’t for me—

down this way it’s going to be better’?”

which was the case most often after the success of

Alvarez has his answer: “When the guy from the

Evil Dead—the question was, do I want to do that?

studio looks you in the eye, it’s him and his logic

No. Can I wait? Yes, I can wait, because they paid me

wondering if you know what you’re talking about. If

enough money on the first movie that I didn’t have to

I’m there based on a short that kind of worked, he’s

jump at the next film.”

going to go, ‘His guess is as good as mine.’ But when

That included the Marvel movie. Alvarez won’t say

I have two movies, the first costing $10 million and

which one it was, but admits, “I didn’t feel making a

making $100 million, and the next costing $7 million

Marvel movie was the place for me at that point. I

and making $150 million, and neither was terrible?

didn’t think any of those big jobs were the place for

When you put that against my bluff, he’s likely to say,

me, mostly because I thought I was never going to

‘I’ll give it to him; for some reason, what he does is

survive. There was this moment in 2010 when these

working, so let’s give it a shot.’” ★

XYZ FILMS and risky projects worth the venture IT’S BEEN LESS THAN 10 YEARS since plucky entrepreneurs and UCLA grads Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer and Aram Tertzakian co-founded XYZ Films at the ripe old age of 25, and since then, the three have built the integrated production and sales outfit into one of the premiere destinations for undiscovered international talent. Based in Los Angeles, XYZ has demonstrated the gumption to look beyond its home turf in search of new voices, never shying away from local language product and building its early foundations in the (mostly) genre space. After acquiring Todd Brown’s genre site Twitch (now Screen Anarchy) in 2009, XYZ boarded sales on Indonesian action title Merantau, from Welsh director Gareth Evans. Spotting talent in Evans, they helped him develop his $1 million follow-up The Raid: Redemption, which quickly achieved cult status and won the Midnight Madness audience award in Toronto in 2011, earning more than $15 million globally. The company’s 2015 SXSW thriller The Invitation was released day and date in limited theaters and SVOD platforms, a risk that proved to the company that new models of distribution could work, economically. And the bets keep paying off: this year, the XYZ-produced I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, directed by Macon Blair and starring Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, took home the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance, while horror thriller Under the Shadow—the debut feature from AngloIranian director Babak Anvari—won a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut. One of the company’s newest productions, Bushwick, directed by Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott, imagines a second U.S. civil war, and is playing in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section this year, hot on the heels of its Sundance premiere. “We have always given our unwavering commitment to filmmakers to ensure that they have every tool possible to make great films,” says Bolotin. “These qualities have afforded us the opportunity to become a hub for undiscovered talent, as well as a viable alternative for proven filmmakers.” XYZ is currently producing period revenge thriller Apostle, Gareth Evans’ latest film, as a Netflix Original, starring Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen and Lucy Boynton. Its production Sweet Virginia, starring Jon Bernthal, Christopher Abbott and Imogen Poots, opened to rave reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. The company is also repping international sales rights on Baltasar Kormákur’s new psychological thriller, The Oath. “We continue to maintain a global perspective when it comes to content, talent and distribution,” comments Bolotin. “As emerging markets have matured, we’ve been there on the ground, ready to capitalize. We’re also not afraid to take risks with content, which means we often see opportunities that other companies perhaps do not.” —Diana Lodderhose DEADLINE.COM

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5/11/17 1:28 PM

AGENCY DISRUPTORS Mike Fleming Jr. meets the agents who are navigating the blurring lines between film and television to bolster projects the studios aren’t supporting

country and has been verified,” Sutherland says. “Our entire business has been the Wild West, but that means great opportunity, in everything from the digital space to the financing of television, in the same way that film has been financed. There is an opportunity to get into local production. There is more money out there than there is IP in the world right now.” That doesn’t mean the game is any easier.

ROEG SUTHERLAND CAA

“You look at films like Jackie or Hacksaw Ridge, which go out under a studio logo, but people truly suffer to get these movies done,” Sutherland says. “Birdman, the entire town passed, and 12 Years a Slave same thing, and so was The Revenant, The Imitation Game and Lost City of Z, the movie that has James Gray in line to direct Ad Astra with Brad Pitt.

For the first time in a dozen years, Roeg Sutherland is leading CAA’s Film Finance and Sales Group

That was seven years of hell.” An easier time was had on George Clooney’s

GRAHAM TAYLOR & CHRIS RICE WME GLOBAL

without wingman Micah Green, who formed a

Suburbicon—slightly. “The market responded

company with financier Dan Friedkin. Sutherland,

strongly in Berlin, but studios don’t want to make

whose division set a personal best $56 million in

these films, and what we end up doing is packaging

WME Global head Graham Taylor and his core

2016 Cannes deals, has movies in the blood. He’s

the entire film, raising the financing, and then going

team members, Mark Ankner, Liesl Copland and

the son of actor Donald Sutherland and brother of

back to the studios again. Then it’s a hot ticket in

Alexis Garcia (now focused on China), have been

Kiefer, but Roeg found his place constructing films

Berlin, and we were really able to do something

fixtures at Cannes and other festivals for years,

way before they shoot.

with it. And we’re looking to make the right deal for

brokering massive deals for packages and finished

companies so investors feel incentivized to keep

films.

He has led the packaging and financing of films including Birdman, The Imitation Game, 12 Years a Slave, The Hurt Locker and Black Swan. He makes

investing in our business.” Sutherland says that has long been a core com-

That continues, but Taylor, who was head of Endeavor’s department and took the reins of

big deals, mindful matching films with the right

ponent of his department. “We started representing

WME Global after the agencies merged, says one

distributors and preserving the health of the fragile

financiers [partly] because we wanted to build a

of the biggest changes in the core business has

indie ecosystem that crashed in 2008.

healthy ecosystem when the studios started mak-

been the blurring of the lines between film and

ing less movies,” he says. “I think that still very much

television.

His current concerns: nurturing foreign distributors in a time of voracious streaming service appe-

lives on in all the deals we make. We want everybody

So while WME Global, in one way or another,

tites for world rights, and showing patience to allow

to feel good about it, and not put so much pressure

helped facilitate Best Picture nominations for such

China to find its natural place in the ecosystem after

on any given party that it could lead to failure for

films as Fences, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea,

a hasty deal surge and pullback. The region will still

everybody involved.”

and Hell or High Water, the uptick in TV activity

be an important part of financing equations for indie films, he feels. “There’ll be major deals at Cannes, some from Chinese sources with money that has left the

DEADLINE.COM

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The division puts 50 films in production annually,

from artists best known in the feature world has

with budgets ranging from $300,000 to $100 mil-

boosted the division’s business and become a

lion. “When you throw in third-party sales, we prob-

greater concentration.

ably make about 90 to 95 films a year,” he notes.

“We wanted to build in television what we’d I L L U S T RAT I O N S BY

Graham Smith

5/11/17 1:28 PM

ONCE UPON A TIME, THE MAJOR TALENT AGENCIES—CAA, WMA & Endeavor (now WME) and UTA—started indie film departments. Once marginalized as operations designed to service clients by getting their passion—some called them vanity— projects made, these departments are now prolific and disruptive forces propping up the mid-budget segment of films for grownups, the ones orphaned by studios whose staples have become global tent poles and micro-budget genre movies. An entire ecosystem swims around these agencies, as they marry financiers to scripts and packages, building movies from the ground floor and selling them to distributors at script stage, when partially shot, or after they’ve been finished. While these departments are competitive, they often broker the deals in tandem when clients from multiple agencies are involved. The result is a lifeline for the foreign sales companies and distributors that don’t develop, and are already shut out of studio-generated product. These companies now have a rougher road, with the product hungry likes of Netflix and Amazon Studios paying big money for world rights. While every Hollywood studio wants its logo on Oscar films, developing and paying for those pictures is another matter. It is often up to these agencies to find the money, and replace funds that fall through, in all of the films that competed this past Oscar season. “Without the work that CAA, WME and UTA does, I don’t think that business exists without us,” says Roeg Sutherland, head of the CAA Film Finance and Sales Group. “The middle would be dead. Studios are obviously not in that business; even if they’re still acquiring domestic rights to those movies, they’re not financing them.”

built in film, and ultimately we see it all now just

offers for studio option deals,” she says. “But here

simply as content, period,” Taylor says. “It can be

was a way [for] Lenny Abrahamson and Element

two hours, three or eight. From that perspective,

and our client Emma to do something different.

our group now raises money and greenlights 75

Emma got to be a producer and have ownership

to 100 movies, TV shows and documentaries a

of the film, and they made the film exactly the way

year. We’re not just funding movies, we’re building

they wanted to. People want to participate in the

companies, and we’ve effectively become a

backend and the upside.”

studio, in the level of content that we pump out.

The department served a similar role on the big

And we represent more content financiers than

Sundance sales title The Big Sick, which required

before.”

nurturing when it left Universal. “We sat with Judd

Chris Rice, who handles long-form television properties with Taylor and his team, will be at Cannes brokering deals for Top of the Lake and its seven-episode second season, written by Oscarwinning filmmaker Jane Campion.

RENA RONSON UTA

“That is an example of a whole wave of content

Apatow and Barry Mendel. They had an incredible script, but it wasn’t a typical star-driven film,” Ronson says. “We shared it with a few sales agents to see what it would be worth internationally. That led us to FilmNation’s Glen Basner, who said, ‘I love it, and I want to make it.’ And then it became about

that’s now being made that is author-driven and

When UTA Independent head Rena Ronson looks

doing it for a price, and FilmNation doing minimal

doesn’t fit a two-and-a-half hour film format,”

back at her origins selling indie movies at WMA,

presales. He was able to bank and fund the rest.”

Rice says. “We put together six hours of The Night

she marvels how different the job is now: she’s

Manager with director Susanne Bier, and The

gone from selling the vehicles to working under

Netflix and Amazon have shaken up the foreign

Young Pope, with Paolo Sorrentino writing and

the hood with filmmakers building vehicles that

sales landscape, their appetite for documentaries

directing the whole thing, and shooting it like a

include radically different Best Picture nominees

has created a new and potentially lucrative sand-

movie. The world has changed.

Room and Hidden Figures.

box. “There has been a big surge in the documen-

“What’s the difference between seeing Big

“Ten years ago, many studios had independent

Eyeing the landscape, Ronson notes that while

tary world, and we largely have them to thank for

Little Lies on HBO or HBO Go, versus a Netflix

divisions,” she says. “You had a better chance at

that,” she says. “This mixes into the TV and film

original movie that lives on that platform? It has

getting these films made at studios. Hidden Figures

worlds, because many of these documentaries are

shaken up the way TV shows can be made, and

ended up a studio film, but the cross-departmental

translating to docu-series and narrative remakes

it is a more interesting business to be in because

work within the agency was vital, starting in our

for film and television. That’s something we did

of the opportunity in finance and ownership,” he

book department.”

with Hot Girls, originally a feature documentary that

continues. “Part of what Graham and I have built

The team helped arrange a development

was turned into an episodic at Netflix. We are also

deal with financier Levantine, “And when it came

setting up limited or full run series in the same way

on the television side is about creating this

back to us, we brought in Ted Melfi, who made

we’ve done independent films, and there has been

platform where our actors, directors, writers and

St. Vincent with Chernin Entertainment, and that

a definite crossover of our TV and independent film

producers can actually own, control and operate

led to Fox,” Ronson explains. “It was flipped to a

departments. There are so many opportunities.”

television shows around the world. IMG is going

studio because that was the right place for it. That

to be a big part of that; we’ve got a few hundred

film has grossed over $230 million, but it started

certainly been good for her department, which

sales guys in 25 countries, the best platform

with an idea, and sometimes the biggest thing is

now has around 10 employees. “Our hands touched

outside the studios of getting the TV shows sold

not letting that die.”

around 87 films last year, in various capacities that

into every single window, in every single global territory.”

Room was different. “We could have sold the rights to Emma Donoghue’s book; we had multiple

By Ronson’s estimate, the commerce has

range from early stage development to financing, packaging, and selling distribution rights.” ★ DEADLINE.COM

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5/11/17 1:29 PM

For 70 years, the Cannes Film Festival has been the scene of landmark disruption in the industry

regard, as, in March the next year,

festival has since changed its rules to

Marty went on to win four Oscars,

accommodate this, starting in 2018,

including Best Picture. Cannes has

but the seed has been sown—such a

sported many Best Pic nominees

move by Cannes already promises to

since, but, to this day, Marty remains

disrupt the order of things for French

the only film to win both.

theatrical distribution, and perhaps the rest of the industry.

IN AN ISSUE BEING PUBLISHED on the occasion of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, and dedicated to those people or entities that have disrupted the normal show business order, it occurred to me that it would be entirely appropriate to label the festival itself as a key annual disruptor on the industry calendar.

Because where Cannes goes

Of course, France itself has used its premier film showcase to make its own mark on world cinema in a

first, others follow, and the festival

big way. A good example is Jacques

has served as a springboard in these

Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,

past 70 years to do so much that

which took the top prize in 1964

has had a significant impact in and

and continues to enchant the film

out of theaters. As the granddaddy

world to this day, having famously

of all film festivals, Cannes is the one

inspired director Damien Chazelle

that has the ability to set the table

to make his Oscar-winning 2017

took the unexpected decision to

for the entire year—including the all-

musical La La Land. Then there

moment that turns things on their

allow TV into the Official Selection—

important awards season.

was 1966’s quintessential French

head, causes controversy, or signals

with Showtime’s Twin Peaks and

a new wave in the movie business. It is the nature of Cannes itself each

Each year, it seems there is some sort of significant Cannes-related

This year is no different: Cannes

The idea of Cannes as a pos-

movie smash A Man and a Woman—

Sundance TV/BBC’s Top of the Lake:

sible key influencer and launch pad

Claude Lelouch’s love story took the

China Girl screening as 70th anniver-

for Oscar success was established

Palme d’Or and went on to win two

May to stir the cinematic waters and

sary events—and has selected two

early on in the festival’s life—in May

Academy Awards, still the only film

encourage the new, the bold, the

Netflix titles—Okja and The Mey-

of 1955, when Delbert Mann’s Marty

in history to win the Best Foreign

exciting, and those who just might

erowitz Stories for competition. The

took the first officially labeled Palme

Language Film Oscar and combine

want to use this worldwide platform

French exhibition community was

d’Or, the festival’s top prize. It proved

it with a screenplay Oscar win.

up in arms, believing only theatrical

Cannes could be a real player in this

to do a little disrupting of their own.

In 2012, A Man and a Woman star

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

DISRUPTING CANNES

releases should be allowed in. The

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the Brazilian cast and crew of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s competition entry Aquarius used the worldwide platform of a Cannes gala premiere to criticize their country’s presidential election. Each held up protest signs at the top of the Palais steps before going inside, where they did it again before debuting their movie. Cannes has also never been shy of addressing the topic of war: the legacy of Vietnam was examined in 1978 when the jury awarded Jon Voight Best Actor for his portrayal of a Vietnam War veteran in Hal Ashby’s Coming Home. The following year, Francis Ford Coppola took the

MAKING HEADLINES Left: The cast and crew of Aquarius use their gala premiere to protest Brazil’s presidential election. Clockwise from above: Bruce Dern, Jane Fonda and Jon Voight premiere Coming Home; Michael Moore demonstrates in Cannes; a member of the Aquarius team shows support for Brazil’s impeached president; Pulp Fiction’s John Travolta with Quentin Tarantino.

Palme d’Or (in an ex-aequo tie with Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum) for Apocalypse Now, which made its first big splash at the festival. And does cinema get any more controversial than Michael Moore, who received a record 25-minute standing ovation when he premiered his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004? The doc went on to win the Palme d’Or—the first non-fiction film to do so since Louis Malle and Jacques Cous-

Jean-Louis Trintignant returned to

Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never

fact, Cannes always seems to pro-

teau’s The Silent World in 1956—

Cannes in Michael Haneke’s Amour,

Really Here, and Todd Haynes’

gram roughly one succès de scandale

and Cannes gave it such a liftoff,

alongside French film icon Emmanu-

Wonderstruck.

a year, such as David Cronenberg’s

it grossed well over $100 million

Crash (1996), Lars Von Trier’s Anti-

when it opened in the U.S., becom-

elle Riva. Haneke’s film took the Palme d’Or and went on to win five

many independent movies that

christ or John Cameron Mitchell’s

ing the most successful, disruptive

Oscar nominations, including Best

have exploded at Cannes. Consider

Shortbus (both 2006).

doc of all time.

Picture, after its emotional victory at

some of the most controversial

Cannes, securing the prize for Best

films the festival has gifted cinema-

festival made a loud statement in

served as disruptors in the film

Foreign Language Film.

goers. The 2013 lesbian romance

favor of women behind the camera,

business—like 1969’s Easy Rider,

Since the ’50s, Hollywood has

In a less edgy moment, the

Such landmark movies that also

Blue is the Warmest Color not only

when in 1993 it awarded Jane Cam-

from Dennis Hopper and Peter

often used the festival to act as

presented ratings problems and lots

pion the first (and unfortunately,

Fonda, Robert Altman’s 1970 feature

a send-off for their awards hope-

of talk for its extremely graphic sex

still only) Palme d’Or for a female

M*A*S*H, Martin Scorsese’s seminal

fuls, but because of the distance

scenes; it also managed to swing

director for the film The Piano.

Taxi Driver in 1976, and Quentin

between this late-spring festival

the Palme d’Or from a jury headed

Campion parlayed that success into

Tarantino’s 1994 game-changer Pulp

and the Oscar campaign season

by Steven Spielberg.

an Oscar nomination for directing

Fiction, among countless others—all

and an Oscar win for her screenplay,

owe Cannes a debt of gratitude for

itself, it is sometimes considered

RE X /S H U T T ERSTOC K

Over the years, there have been

Cannes made this kind of explicit

risky business. In fact, this year, not

content acceptable the world over

opening a dialogue about giving

bringing them into the world before

a single major studio is in the official

with that move. Of course, there

more women the opportunities to

anyone else, and changing the face

competition, leaving much of that

have been many other movies on

succeed. The festival has frequently

of cinema in their times. The latter

glory to indie upstarts like A24, with

display in Cannes over the years

been criticized for neglecting films

three all took the Palme d’Or.

four films on display, and streaming

that seemed intent to shock. Con-

directed by women, but this year it

services like the aforementioned

sider Gaspar Noé’s Love (2015), a

will show 12—an improvement on

years of Cannes? Who knows, but

Netflix—as well as Amazon, which

pornographic film, presented in 3D,

nine in 2016 and zero in 2012.

you can bet it will continue to be a

had five films in Cannes last year

in which a young man ejaculates

and this time around has two

straight into the audience. It didn’t

form for politics and personal state-

status quo, and keep on disrupting