Deadline Hollywood - Oscar Preview/Directors and Writers - 12/07/16

PRESENTS

DECEMBER 7, 2016 OSCAR PREVIEW/ DIRECTORS & WRITERS

LOST IN LA LA LAND EMMA STONE, RYAN GOSLING AND DAMIEN CHAZELLE GO BEHIND THE SCENES OF THIS YEAR’S ROMANTIC RETURN TO CLASSIC MUSICALS.

+ MICHAEL KEATON JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AVA DUVERNAY PABLO LARRAÍN KENNETH LONERGAN DEADLINE.COM/AWARDSLINE

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P U B L I S H ER

Stacey Farish EDI TOR

Joe Utichi C R EAT I V E DIR ECTO R

Craig Edwards

AS S I STA N T E D ITO R

Matt Grobar

DEA DL I NE CO - E D ITO R- IN- CHIE FS

Nellie Andreeva Mike Fleming Jr.

EX EC U T I V E E D ITO R

Michael Cieply

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 Lisa de Moraes Patrick Hipes David Lieberman Ross Lincoln Diana Lodderhose Amanda N’Duka Dominic Patten Erik Pedersen Denise Petski David Robb Nancy Tartaglione V I DEO P ROD UCE R

Scott Warren

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

S EN I OR V I C E PR ES ID E NT, B U S I NES S D EV E LO PM E NT

Craig Perreault

G EN ERA L CO UNS E L & S .V. P. , HU MA N R ES O URCES

Todd Greene

CONTENTS

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

DEC EMBER 7, 201 6 OSCAR P REVIEW / DIRECTO RS & W R I T E RS

Ken DelAlcazar

V I C E P R ES ID E NT, T V ENT ERTA INM E NT SA LES

Laura Lubrano

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

Carra Fenton

ACCOU N T EXECUTIV ES , FILM & TV

Brianna Hamburger Tiffany Windju

A D SA L ES CO O R D INATO RS

​Kristina Mazzeo Malik Simmons

P RODU CT I ON D IR ECTO R

Natalie Longman

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

Michael Petre

A DV ERT I S I N G INQ UIR IES

Stacey Farish 310-484-2553 sfarish@pmc.com

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Justin Timberlake; previewing the Animated Feature race; Screenplay spotlight

The star of The Founder opens up about his career and newest role

Three of this year’s production design hopefuls share their work

FIRST TAKE

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MICHAEL KEATON

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THE DIALOGUE:

COVER STORY

DIRECTORS/WRITERS

Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle weigh in on La La Land

Ava DuVernay Pablo Larraín Kenneth Lonergan Taylor Sheridan

CRAFT SERVICES

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ON THE COVER Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling photographed for Deadline by Chris Chapman THIS PAGE Taylor Sheridan and David Mackenzie photographed for Deadline by Gabriel Goldberg

FLASH MOB

Deadline Presents AwardsLine Screening Series

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NOCTURNAL ANIMALS SCORE p. 8 | ANIMATION RACE p. 10

SCREENPLAY CONTENDERS p. 14

TROLL SOUL

Justin Timberlake’s summer hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” leads the upbeat Trolls soundtrack.

BY JO E U T I C H I

IF YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE COME WITHIN EARSHOT of a speaker over the last six months, there’s a fair chance you’ll have heard Justin Timberlake’s joyous summer song, “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”, which must surely be one of the most regularly-played tracks of the year. It’s the flagship anthem on the soundtrack to DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, in which Timberlake plays Branch, a curmudgeonly paranoiac for whom the upbeat happiness of his fellow Trolls is anathema.

Timberlake is also the movie’s executive music producer, responsible for leading a multi-hyphenated cast, including Anna Kendrick and Gwen Stefani, in new renditions of classic hits like “True Colors” and “The Sound of Silence”.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY

Michael Buckner

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“

WILDLY IMAGINATIVE! IT’S ALL GREAT, CLEVER, WHIMSICAL FUN.”

For Your Consideration In All Categories Including

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Produced By

CHRIS MELEDANDRI p.g.a.

JANET HEALY p.g.a.

BEST DIRECTOR CHRIS RENAUD

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY CINCO PAUL & KEN DAURIO and BRIAN LYNCH

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

universalpicturesawards.com

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scene where it’s like, there’s one thing that we can all find relative, and that can make us feel things.

Music has always been referred to as a universal language, and it is. I felt like, why don’t we write a song about music making you feel good? It’s something pure, that you can always count on. With that scene at the end of the movie, everyone had to come together to capture that feeling. Everyone kept talking about the “feeling” of it, and so I was like, “Well, clearly there’s something sitting right in front of us that we can’t deny.”

Then Max [Martin] and [Karl] Johan [Schuster] and I just started from there. We were referencing songs that just made you feel good.

DANCE STUDIO Recording the music for Trolls, co-director Walt Dohrn, Timberlake, Anna Kendrick and director Mike Mitchell.

Bee Gees records, Bill Withers; things like that. And it was important to be able to say that there’s nothing

Trolls is a film that preaches happiness and inclusivity above

a whole new generation to these classic songs.

all else. A tonic for our times?

The advantageous thing was, I

wrong with that feeling.

was seeing and feeling the whole

It’s got such an unabashed

world while I was working on the

energy to it and I remember play-

It’s something that’s come up

Were you always prepared to

character. I’ve been asked to work

ing it for my friends and everybody

recently with the filmmakers at a

be so heavily involved with the

on music for movies before, and you

was like, “Put this out now.” We just

couple of Q&As I’ve done. It’s sort

music? You’ve played voices in

always feel a little removed because

thought it would be a fun exercise for

of what we were trying to accom-

animated movies before, but this

you only get so much of a sense of

the movie. So we did two different

plish, but we didn’t know it was

level of involvement was more

what the movie is, and what that

versions: the version in the movie,

going to be so prescient. It’s ironic

than a few days in a vocal booth.

makes it sound like. There were so

and then the version we released as

the movie’s called Trolls, because

My relationship with Jeffrey Katzen-

many different kinds of songs as well,

a record. But it wasn’t until we were

those are angry, weird people who

berg dates back to Shrek the Third

so to find a way to help them live on

about halfway through the process

sit behind computers, nowadays.

and he always said, “We’ve got to

their own, but also sound cohesive

of writing and recording the song

find an animated movie that you can

by bringing in the same players to

that we realized we had something…

What struck you about it?

do the music for.” He’s always had

work on them, that helped.

that it had a little carbonation to it.

I’d be withholding the whole truth

that in my brain, so it got me thinking

if I didn’t say that having my own

differently about it. And I don’t know

Amongst all these classics,

Has the process of being involved

child has made me look at the world

if it was planned this way, but this

“Can’t Stop the Feeling!” fits

in the movie so fully changed

completely differently. I liked the

movie has become a swansong for

right in at the heart of the movie.

your relationship with music?

movie’s message, that you don’t

him at DreamWorks. He called my

It’s such a spirited ode to the

Has it impacted the way you’ve

need all these things to be happy.

manager and was like, “I got it. I got

power of music.

been writing your new album?

As well as my son, I have two

the thing; come in and get the pitch;

It really all sprung out of that final

Well, I don’t know specifically. Soni-

and there’s a character as well.”

scene. My manager had said, “That

cally, everything I’ve been working on

version of ‘True Colors’ that you do

so far for the new record—which is

goddaughters, and so it felt nice to have a female hero that didn’t represent the status quo for what

How did the job wind up working?

with Anna; if that came out before

always subject to change—doesn’t

young females growing up so often

You get to take so much time

the movie, and I didn’t have a rela-

sound anything like “Can’t Stop the

feel like they need to look like. She’s

because it’s not live action, and you

tionship with the movie, it would still

Feeling!”. But I have this thing that

oddly-shaped, bright pink and short.

can pitch all these ideas, so I found

be intriguing to me.” It got me think-

happens to me in the studio when

So many girls grow up with their own

the whole thing really advantageous.

ing about the soundtracks that I love.

I’m writing a song and it’s like I want

body dysmorphia, and shame that

I would go to the DreamWorks

Saturday Night Fever was something

to take a detour and write almost

campus and do a day of voice work

I kept talking about with the direc-

the antithesis of that song. You kind

for the character, and then two days

tors. This is a trippy movie, and it felt

of keep going at it in that way. I wish

cornered the animated market in

later I would have studio time lined

to me like watching an ABBA video

I could be a little more concrete in

taking something retro and mak-

up to start working on the arrange-

under the influence of something

what I’m telling you, but I just don’t

ing it feel modern. And there are

ments. Some were already in place,

crazy. It got me thinking about disco

know exactly what it is I have yet. I

always things there for adults, too.

but I would beef them up, add

again, which I think is a highly under-

can tell you that what we’re working

One of the things that became

thicker drums, and then work on the

rated genre of music.

on doesn’t sound like “Can’t Stop

very valuable to me was the music,

main task, which was “Can’t Stop

they may not look a certain way.

DreamWorks has also always

and the ability we had to introduce

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the Feeling!”.

That’s what really spawned “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”. It was that

the Feeling!” though. That was specific to Trolls. ★

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

BEST PICTURE BEST DIRECTOR JEFF NICHOLS

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY JEFF NICHOLS

RICHARD Do you like it?

MILDRED Like what?

“

++++.”

Ann Hornaday, THE WASHINGTON POST

“A landmark film. Astonishing.”

THE NEW YORKER

“There’s no one like Jeff Nichols working in independent film.

He tells heartfelt stories from the American heartland, and ‘Loving’ is the best so far.”

Joe Morgenstern, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

RICHARD Right here. This spot.

MILDRED You mean this field?

RICHARD Yeah.

MILDRED Yes. I like it.

Richard breaks away and faces the lower field again.

RICHARD I’d put the kitchen back here.

MILDRED Richard stop this. I don’t know what you’re sayin’.

RICHARD I bought it. This whole acre. I’m gonna build you a house right here.

Our house.

Mildred is speechless. Her eyes wander over the ground as if seeing it for the first time.

Written and Directed by JEFF NICHOLS © 2016 BIG BEACH, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ARTWORK: © 2016 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

For more on this film, go to www.FocusFeaturesGuilds2016.com

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CHARTED TERRITORY

Gold Derby’s Oscar Odds

Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark ABEL KORZENIOWSKI ON THE SCORE FOR TOM FORD’S NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.

WHEN IT CAME TO SCORING the story of

points, the composer says, “The sense is to have

an unhappy, well-to-do divorced woman, who

the music indicate that something is coming, like a

experiences her regret through her ex-husband’s

Hitchcock moment, without making it cartoonish

cathartic tome of fiction in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal

and going too far.”

Animals, Polish-born composer Abel Korzeniowski

The opening theme, “Wayward Sisters,”

decided to filter the music through the eyes of

establishes Susan’s steely L.A. art sphere. We

Amy Adams’ Susan Morrow.

hear her happiness on the surface while she’s

Based on Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan,

at her art show, but at home in her concrete

the flashbacks in Nocturnal Animals are nail-biting

domicile, we begin to hear her unhappiness, and

as we watch Jake Gyllenhaal’s doppelganger Tony

descent into self-loathing as she reads the book

Hastings, who is driven off the highway by sav-

by her ex, Edward Sheffield (also Gyllenhaal). As

age hicks, who then snatch his wife and teenage

we cut to the tragic scenes on the desert road,

daughter away, ultimately raping and killing them.

it’s not a western guitar string tune we hear, but

Korzeniowski delivers a lush, sweeping string

the nervous sound of a buzzing violin-infused

score; one of the more classical scores of the year.

70-piece orchestra, underplayed by a haunting

And when layered on top of Ford’s gritty thriller, it

rhythmic cello.

easily brings to mind the aural, cinematic, operatic

In regards to maintaining the music’s classic

sounds of Angelo Badalamenti’s work with David

style between both worlds in Nocturnal Animals,

Lynch on titles like Blue Velvet, and of course,

Korzeniowski explains, “The film isn’t an objective

Bernard Herrmann’s piercing strings on Alfred

story, but it’s filtered through Susan’s imagination

Hitchcock’s Psycho. Much like those reference

and emotions.”

At press time, here is how Gold Derby’s experts ranked the Oscar chances in the Director and Screenplay races.

Get up-to-date rankings and make your own predictions at GoldDerby.com BEST DIRECTOR

ODDS

1

Damien Chazelle La La Land

17/10

2

Kenneth Lonergan Manchester by the Sea

7/2

3

Barry Jenkins Moonlight

5/1

4

Denzel Washington Fences

11/1

5

Martin Scorsese Silence

12/1

6

Jeff Nichols Loving

40/1

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ODDS

1

Manchester by the Sea

2/1

2

Moonlight

7/2

3

La La Land

4/1

4

Jackie

12/1

5

Loving

14/1

6

Hell or High Water

14/1

ABOVE AND BEYOND

MAKEUP ARTIST JOEL HARLOW REVISITS STAR TREK. A CONNOISSEUR OF SPECIAL MAKEUP EFFECTS and an admitted Trekkie, makeup artist Joel Harlow signed on to return for Star Trek Beyond—after working on the 2009 reboot—without any hesitation. Boasting a blockbuster resume three decades long, it’s in the Star Trek films specifically that Harlow finds “the opportunity for creativity”.

Certainly, little work was reused— with the exception of Spock’s pointy ears, all special effects makeup work on Beyond was original to the new film.

There was no show bible, no look book, and yet Harlow and his team capably

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designed for some 56 unique alien races appearing in the film.

“That sort of reference archive comes from nature,” Harlow says.

“We’ve got our aquatic characters, we’ve got our reptilian characters. It’s really just some of the weirdest life forms on this planet that nobody is really aware of.”

In makeup of this sort, seconds of screen time can translate to months of preparation, from sculpture, to design, to pre-painting; and in makeup, each prosthetic can only be worn once, requiring multitudes of copies to be produced for each character.

PREMIERE Harlow with Star Trek: Beyond costume designer Sanja Hays.

With that epic challenge behind him, Harlow’s next project to hit theaters will be Logan, the next installment in the X-Men franchise.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ODDS

1

Fences

2/1

2

Arrival

5/1

3

Silence

5/1

4

Lion

7/1

5

Nocturnal Animals

11/1

6

Hidden Figures

14/1

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F O R YO U R C O N S I D E RAT I O N I N AL L CATE G O R I E S I N C LU D I N G

B E ST P I CTU R E B E S T D I R E C TO R TOM FORD

B E S T A D A P T E D S C R E E N P L AY

ANNE Don’t do this. You’ll regret it and you’ll only hurt Edward in the end.

What you love about him now, you’ll hate about him in a few years. You may not realize it but you and I are a lot more alike than you think.

Screenplay by TOM FORD Based Upon the Novel “TONY AND SUSAN” by AUSTIN WRIGHT

SUSAN You’re wrong. You and I are nothing alike.

ANNE Really? Just wait. We all eventually turn into our mothers.

Anne turns away from Susan and takes a sip of her martini.

“AS A SCREENWRITER, FORD HAS MADE SOME BRAVE CHOICES IN A DIFFICULT, COMPLEX ADAPTATION.” Fionnuala Halligan, SCREEN DAILY

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ANI MATI ON SPOTLI G HT

KEY FRAMES Clockwise from top left: Moana, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Little Prince and Sing.

ANIMATION STATIONS

27 films will compete for five Oscar slots in the Best Animated Feature category. BY M AT T G RO BA R

explains. “It’s not New York City. It’s not

newcomer Auli’i Cravalho, the film is

London. It’s not Tokyo. It’s aspects of

set some 2000 years ago, following a

what we know about cities, but the way

young princess who sets out in search

animals would do it.”

of a fabled island, using only the stars to find her way.

Finding Dory

When producer Osnat Shurer

Pixar’s big play of the year, this sequel

appeared at Deadline’s Contenders

WE’RE JUST TWO MONTHS OUT

DreamWorks, GKIDS and Sony Pictures

to Andrew Stanton’s 2003 hit Finding

event, an inevitable point of discussion

from Oscar voting, and whoever the

Classics, read on.

Nemo almost didn’t happen. “[Andrew]

was the film’s soundtrack, featur-

felt resolved about Nemo,” producer

ing original songs from newly-minted

an embarrassment of riches repre-

Zootopia

Lindsey Collins shares. “He was in the

Broadway legend Lin-Manuel Miranda,

sented at the Dolby Theatre in 2017,

One of two 2016 Disney films gross-

press actively saying there wouldn’t be

of Hamilton fame. Miranda had been

nowhere more than in the category of

ing over $1 billion worldwide, this

a sequel.”

working on Moana before Hamilton

Best Animated Feature. This year, 27

3D computer-animated buddy cop

films will compete for those five cov-

comedy came with a message for

and got back behind the wheel, further

eted spots, and while a few frontrun-

people of all ages, addressing issues of

exploring the Nemo universe through

ners have emerged, it’s anyone’s guess

prejudice in palatable fashion. Directed

the perspective of Dory, the beloved and

Kubo and the Two Strings

who the winner will be.

by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, and

confused blue tang fish voiced by Ellen

The fourth film produced by Travis

inspired by walking-talking animated

DeGeneres. “He was like, ‘Wow, I’m really

Knight’s reinvigorated Laika Studios,

force this year—with Zootopia, Find-

animal films like Robin Hood, this story

worried about Dory! I think she could get

Kubo and the Two Strings is a stunning,

ing Dory and the highly-anticipated

of a small-town bunny on a mission

lost again tomorrow,’” Collins explains.

elaborate stop-motion picture. As with

Moan­a—coming off a win for critics’

to join the Zootopia police force was

favorite Inside Out. In fact, Disney has

produced with specialized, innova-

O’Neill, Albert Brooks, and Ellen DeGe-

endurance, and a staggering techni-

taken the prize for the past four years.

tive technology, allowing the directors

neres, the sequel was well-received by

cal achievement. For this production,

One possible disruptor of the pattern

to capture animals, and animal fur, in

critics and audiences alike.

Knight’s team created a folklore-based

is Travis Knight’s brilliant Kubo and

stunning detail.

nominees may be, there is certain to be

Disney returns to the fold with

the Two Strings. Meanwhile, between

Chock-full of animal puns, Zootopia

Fortunately, Stanton came around

Featuring a voice cast including Ed

became a sensation. “Talk about lucky, right?” Shurer exclaimed.

all stop-motion, Kubo was also a feat of

Skeleton Demon, standing at some 16 Moana

feet tall, which could only operate via a special rig that was built for the film.

the record-breaking The Secret Life of

is also visually elegant, with the titular

Disney looks poised for another smash

Pets and December’s Sing, Illumina-

cityscape designed from an animal

with the release of Moana, a film from

tion Entertainment looks to be a major

perspective. “When we talked about,

Disney legends Ron Clements and John

ture—with influences ranging from Akira

player.

‘Well, how would the animals build the

Musker (Aladdin, The Little Mermaid).

Kurosawa to Kyoshi Saito—Kubo is

For a look at 2016 in anima-

city? Let’s not think like humans,’ it just

Featuring a cast of real Pacific Island-

Knight’s feature directorial debut, led by

tion, including contributions from

created a whole sense of flavor,” Moore

ers, including Dwayne Johnson and

a voice cast including Charlize Theron,

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A film that revels in Japanese cul-

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS INCLUDING

best animated feature best director travis knight • best writing marc haimes, chris butler

“AN ANIMATED MASTERPIECE. COMPLETELY TRANSCENDENT. While magical is a word that gets thrown around a lot about the movies, few actually deserve to be called that. ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ does, and in spades. A stunning achievement. ++++.”

DAV I D F E A R , R O L L I N G S T O N E

lovingly handcrafted in the u.s.

from the makers of and , comes “laika’s best film yet.”

NPR

The 11-foot-tall Garden of Eyes puppet was fully motion-controlled. The animators worked from a remote interface consisting of an array of encoders as well as a track ball made from computer mice and a bowling ball. It took a total of 42 independent channels and motors to produce each frame of animation.

for your consideration in all categories

For more on this extraordinary film, go to www.FocusFeaturesGuilds2016.com

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©2016 FOCUS FEATURES LLC AND TWO STRINGS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

11/30/16 4:35 PM

ANI MATI ON SPOTLI G HT Sausage Party

to the fold, along with newcomer Bryan

A surprising addition to the list of

Cranston.

would-be nominees is Sausage Party,

Though Panda is a 3D animated film,

a raunchy, only-for-adults animation

it also features an elegantly designed

from Sony Pictures.

sequence in conventional 2D. “[2D ani-

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan

mation] is a gorgeous art form,” Nelson

Goldberg, and directed by Conrad

says, echoing a number of this year’s

Vernon and Greg Tiernan—with a cast

animated feature directors. “You can do

of Rogen’s regular collaborators filling

things in it that you just can’t do in CGI,

in the voice parts—Sausage Party tells

or it’s certainly harder to do in CGI.”

the story of vivified food products, who

GOOD HAIR DAY DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls.

Ralph Fiennes, and Matthew McConaughey. Emerging from Knight’s long-

theater.

With an amazing 65 songs cleared

are horrified to receive the knowledge

Trolls

of what will happen to them outside the

Also released by DreamWorks

grocery store.

Animation this year was Trolls, a film

Of course, the film is replete with

constructed out of the toy franchise

sex and bad language, but in Rogen’s

of the same name. Directed by Mike

mind, its controversial nature is part

Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, the colorful,

of what makes it cutting-edge film-

musical film is led by a felt-skinned

making. “I think overall, we just viewed

cast of trolls—voiced by some of

held desire to create a “stop-motion

for use in the film, the music budget

animation as a medium, not a genre,”

Hollywood’s greatest musical tal-

samurai film,” the family-oriented story

was staggering. “I can tell you this,”

the actor explains. “The idea of CG, 3D

ents—who face off against the nasty,

centers on a young boy, Kubo, who

says Melendandri, “the overall music

animation is that it’s for children. It just

gargantuan bergens in a well-orches-

quests after a magical suit of armor,

budget is three to four times larger than

seems like too much fun to leave it just

trated fight for their lives.

coming into conflict with a vengeful

the largest music budget I’ve ever had

to kids—there’s too much opportunity

spirit of the past.

previously.”

to not have it expand into other genres.”

With pop sensation Justin Timberlake in the lead role, and serving as an Executive Music Producer on the film,

Of the music in the film, the IllumiThe Secret Life of Pets

nation CEO says, “One of the things

My Life as a Zucchini

it’s really no wonder the music stands

From Christopher Meledandri’s Illumi-

you’ll see in the film is that many of the

Stop-motion film My Life as a Zucchini,

out. In fact, Timberlake originally wrote

nation Entertainment, and directed by

songs have unique interpretations, and

from first-time feature director Claude

his ubiquitous, catchy chart topper

Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney, The

all our cast did their singing.”

Barras and GKIDS, tells the story of a

“Can’t Stop the Feeling!”—a possible

young boy facing the unexpected death

contender for Best Song—for the

Secret Life of Pets answers a question as old as time: what do our pets do

The Red Turtle

of his mother, life in a foster home,

picture. “Justin was always there to

when we’re not around to watch them?

From Sony Pictures Classics, The Red

and the prospect of a future he had

record the music with [the cast], and

Pets follows terrier Duke, whose quiet,

Turtle marks Michael Dudok de Wit’s

never anticipated. Featuring a cast of

they were all brought together to do

satisfying life is upended when his

directorial debut, though you wouldn’t

puppets initially molded from clay with

the music,” Mitchell says. “It was just

owner takes in a stray named Max.

know it from looking at the beautiful,

an arts-and-crafts appearance, the

really cool; something I haven’t really

80-minute silent film.

French-Swiss film won the Audience

experienced too much.”

In terms of casting, Pets is a comedians’ film—the A-list voice cast

Produced by Studio Ghibli and

Award at the Annecy International

includes Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, and

surreal in nature, The Red Turtle follows

Animated Film Festival and was warmly

The Little Prince

Dana Carvey, among others. “You know,

a lone man who tries repeatedly to

received in Cannes.

And then we come to Netflix, which

Louis does some material on his own

escape from a deserted island, and

act about his experiences with his pets,

finds himself confronted in the process

scenes and conversations not usually

Prince, following a near-$100 million run

particularly dogs,” Renaud says. “And

by a giant sea turtle. Created in hand-

depicted in films about children, and

worldwide. An adaptation of Antoine

I think even in Louis’ mind, he thought

drawn, 2D animation, and supported by

while it feels totally original, certain vivid

de Saint-Exupery’s 1943 literary classic,

of it as really pushing the animal’s

strong sound design, the film is one to

comparisons spring to mind. “They

the stop-motion film tells the story of

perspective, almost like a Woody Allen-

watch this season.

often told me that I was doing a colored

an unlikely friendship between a young

Tim Burton style,” Barras admits. “I have

girl and an old Aviator, who teaches the

aspects of the film is its observation of

a lots of reference of brutalist art, as

girl a few life lessons through the telling

animals and the space they inhabit, and

well. Then, African primitive art.”

of tall tales.

esque film, except from the perspective of a dog.”

One of the most remarkable

Zucchini’s tone is serious, with

picked up Mark Osborne’s The Little

Sing

though Dudok de Wit didn’t animate

Another Illumination film, based on

the film himself, he had his hand in

Kung Fu Panda 3

Bridges, Rachel McAdams and James

an original idea from Meledandri and

a thorough research process, even

Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and

Franco, The Little Prince is visually singu-

directed by Garth Jennings, Sing is the

researching the movement of crabs

Alessandro Carloni, Kung Fu Panda

lar among this year’s bunch. Osborne’s

animated film set to shake up Decem-

on YouTube. “It’s not about animals

3 picks up the thread on the story of

collaborators “came up with this idea

ber. Featuring the voices of Matthew

that are really human beings, but with

young panda Po, who faces off against

that we could use paper for everything

McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and

animal bodies. It’s about real animals,”

supernatural forces to protect his own.

you see in the movie,” he explains. “Any-

Scarlett Johansson, Sing follows show-

he explains. “My brief to the animators

In this continuation of the beloved

thing that the light touches is paper,

biz koala Buster Moon in his efforts to

was to stay close to real life and add

DreamWorks franchise, distributed by

so you get this very visceral and very

create a live singing competition, in

lots of footage sampled from all kinds

20th Century Fox, Jack Black, Dustin

familiar and very textural feeling from

hopes of bringing new life to his ailing

of different sources.”

Hoffman, Seth Rogen and others return

the stop motion.” ★

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With a voice cast including Jeff

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F O R

Y O U R BEST DIRECTOR

C O N S I D E R A T I O N

JOHN MADDEN

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

JONATHAN PERERA

ESME At dinner that night, you asked me if I’d go public if it was the difference between victory and defeat. What if I’d said no? Would you still have done it?

SLOANE Probably. I was hired to win and I have a responsibility to use whatever resource I have. The press we’re gonna get from this is practically a dereliction of duty not to use it—

ESME That’s it? I’m a resource?

SLOANE Professionally, yes. I understand you have feelings and a life, but I have no duty to them. I have a duty to the cause, and if the two conflict, there will only ever be one winner.

© 2016 EUROPACORP – FRANCE 2 CINEMA

Untitled-1 1

11/29/16 7:37 PM

PET E HAMMOND

AUTEURS Clockwise from top left: writer-directors Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Jeff Nichols (Loving) and Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea).

THE STORYTELLERS

Controversy, true stories and personal movies dot the landscape of the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories.

BY P E T E H A M M O N D

well, with the latter from the Original

juncture in the race is Barry Jenkins

category going on to collect Best Pic-

and his extremely well-received

ture—its only other win. The last time

and personal coming-of-age drama

that happened was in 1952, when

Moonlight, which has won not only

The Greatest Show on Earth managed

widespread critical acclaim, but is also

the feat of taking the top prize and

doing well at the box office—especially

the now-defunct writing category,

for a small indie—and that always

Motion Picture Story. It proves that,

helps. It is a shoo-in for a nomination.

AS USUAL, THERE IS A BROAD FIELD of possibili-

even if a Picture winner takes nothing

So, too, is Damien Chazelle’s

ties across both the Original and Adapted Screenplay

else but that category and one other,

contemporary musical La La Land,

categories this year, with a strong correlation remaining

the most important correlation to

which also wins points for being a

between the five likely nominees in each and their Best

look for comes with the writing.

valentine to the golden era of MGM

Picture chances.

Although sometimes quirky scripts power through to a

This year, like 2015, it is the Original

musicals, as well as those of French

Screenplay group that seems stron-

director Jacques Demy. The unique

nomination from the more liberal—and adventurous—writ-

gest on the Best Picture front. It is

trick of making a movie that works

ing branch without a corresponding nod in the big category,

likely that the key frontrunners here

on both levels pretty much guaran-

more often than not the two go together. Last year’s writing winners, The Big

are favorites to win a Best Picture

tees a nomination here for Chazelle,

Short and Spotlight, were both major Best Picture and Director nominees as

nods also. Leading the field at this

who was in the hunt in the Adapted

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new episodes every tuesday listen now at deadline.com

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PET E HAMMOND Komarnicki’s complex truth-telling in the story behind the story of Sully Sullenberger’s heroic emergency landing of a plane on the Hudson, Sully; Luke Davies’ incredibly moving and astounding Lion, about one man’s search for the family he was separated from as a child in India; and Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan’s stunning story of the WWII hero Desmond Doss, who became the first conscientious objector to be given the Medal of Honor, in Hacksaw Ridge.

Outside of the true stories, count on the cerebral sci-fi alien communication drama Arrival, written

by Eric Heisserer, and Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese’s 17th Century Jesuit priest epic Silence to be be players here for Paramount. And speaking of that studio, a real front-runner could be a posthumous nomination for August Wilson, who adapted his Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences many years before it finally made its way onto screen, thanks to director/star Denzel Washington and producer Scott Rudin.

Tom Ford proved his first film A Single Man was no fluke, and could find himself nominated for the com-

THE WRITE STUFF Clockwise from above: Rules Don’t Apply, Captain Fantastic and Zootopia.

plex thriller Nocturnal Animals. More surprising, but no less deserving, might be a nod for Justin Marks and his retelling for Disney of the Kipling classic The Jungle Book; a hugely admired film from earlier this year.

Adapting Jane Austen is always a plus, so that could put previous nomi-

category (on a technicality, since

also seems a sure bet here, along

several times in the past, and should

nee Whit Stillman back in the running

he adapted his own short film) for

with Jeff Nichols’ touching interra-

never be counted out.

for Love & Friendship. Longer shots

Whiplash just two years ago.

cial marriage true story Loving. Both

Other possibilities include Mike

could be a pair of notoriously hard-

The other heavyweight at the

could earn their writers a first ticket

Mills for 20 Century Women, Nicho-

to-adapt Philip Roth novels: Indigna-

top of the field is definitely Kenneth

to the Oscars. And since animation

las Martin for Florence Foster Jenkins,

tion from James Schamus and Ameri-

Lonergan’s Sundance sensation

is often welcomed in this category,

Noah Oppenheim for Jackie, Maren

can Pastoral from John Romano. But

Manchester by the Sea, which sports

look for the timely and provocative

Ade for the hilarious German Foreign

both films will need a push from their

the most literate of all the scripts in

Disney smash Zootopia, from Jared

Language entry Toni Erdmann and

distributors, since neither burned up

contention here. The tragic human

Bush and Phil Johnston, to make a

Jim Jarmusch for the wonderfully

the box office. David Birke’s adapta-

story owes much of its success to

splash here; the most likely of all the

bizarre and engaging Paterson.

tion of the controversial book Oh…

the written word and it is sure to be

2016 ‘toons to make the cut.

rewarded. Lonergan, like Chazelle,

On the Adapted side, frontrun-

into the Paul Verhoeven French-

ners feature several true-life stories

language rape drama Elle should not

has been in the mix before for his

ciaries include Matt Ross’s Captain

including David Hare’s riveting

be counted out.

previous films, You Can Count on Me

Fantastic, Yorgos Lanthimos and

Holocaust denier drama Denial;

and Gangs of New York. He’s also a

Efthymis Filippou’s The Lobster—

Allison Schroeder and Ted Melfi’s

for the gangster films of the ’30s and

favorite of his writing colleagues—

which, of all the entries, might be the

warm audience-pleaser Hidden

’40s, and his take on Dennis Lehane’s

the ones who cast the votes.

most original—and Warren Beatty’s

Figures, which chronicles the story of

Live by Night, bring this Argo and

long-gestating Howard Hughes film

three African American women who

Good Will Hunting Oscar winner back

highly-admired Southwest bank

(but don’t call it a biopic) Rules Don’t

played key roles in the early days

in the running?

robber movie, Hell or High Water,

Apply. Beatty has won writing nods

of the NASA space program; Todd

Taylor Sheridan’s prescient and

16

If any of these falter, likely benefi-

th

And could Ben Affleck’s affection

Time will tell for all. ★

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THE ACTOR’S SIDE Intriguing one-on-one conversations between Deadline's awards editor & this season's acting contenders

new vid eos every w ed nesday WATC H NOW AT DEADLINE.C OM

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Ant hon y D’ Ale ssa ndr o on

how Dam ien C haze lle, h is

prod uce rs an d Lio nsga te

are taki ng a cha nce

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han ce

on r ebo otin g th e do rma nt H ollyw ood orig inal mus ical gen re w ith L a

La L and .

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has worked at the box office. No, not Broadway adaptations like Les Miserables and Mamma Mia!. We can thank 2002 Oscar Best Picture winner Chicago for reigniting the then-dormant Great White Way genre on the big screen. Enchanted doesn’t count because that’s a title propped by the Walt Disney princess brand. And Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe and Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You—all of them are technically jukebox musicals. We’re talking original, big song-and-dance titles, like MGM’s 1952 Singin’ in the Rain or the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers 1935 vehicle Top Hat, that were built for the big screen, and once upon a time resonated with the masses. statistical box office evidence to thumb down any greenlight of

opening LA highway musical number, “Another Day of Sun”,

the genre, in a superhero and Star Wars dominant time that’s

giving the distributor some long-needed esteem in a year where

created a two class system of the haves and the indie have nots

they’ve battled such $140 million big budget disasters as Gods

at the box office (at date of publication, few arthouse movies

of Egypt, and the cinematic demise of their once popular YA

from indie labels cracked $26 million at the domestic box office).

franchise The Divergent Series with Allegiant.

Desperate times call for broken rules, and La La Land’s

studio in this day,” explains Lionsgate Motion Pictures Group

expectations with the release of Whiplash Oscar nominee

co-president Erik Feig, “but at Lionsgate and Summit, we often

Damien Chazelle’s original musical, an ode to the City of Angels,

make left-of-center decisions. When you look at the success

the MGM musicals of yore and Jacques Demy’s French new

of both companies under one roof, whether it’s a Tyler Perry

wave trio of Lola, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls

comedy, The Hunger Games, Twilight or Warm Bodies, or on the

of Rochefort.

TV side with Orange is the New Black, what’s interesting is that most of what’s worked has been unconventional bets across the

in 35mm, in 93 location sets and 48 exterior locations, with

board in most genres. When we first made Now You See Me, prior

1,600 extras, on two cameras, with anamorphic lenses, over 40

to that, no other movie about magic had been successful.”

days—that could potentially deliver the studio’s first Best Picture

For Chazelle, his best friend composer Justin Hurwitz, and

Oscar win in 11 years, since Crash surprised voters. La La Land is

producers Fred Berger and Jordan Horowitz, La La Land is a

also being released under the Summit logo, and the last time that

testament to passion paid off, having developed the movie over

banner collected a Best Picture Oscar win was in 2009 for The

the last six years; a complete defiance of odds in a town where

Hurt Locker (Summit would merge with Lionsgate in 2012).

putting round pegs into round holes is the legit way to play it safe

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“An original Hollywood musical is an unusual decision for any

creators—and Lionsgate executives—are looking to defy all

For Lionsgate, La La Land is a $20 million-plus gamble—shot

20

Achieving Oscar glory with La La Land should be enough to make Lionsgate executives dance like the extras in the film’s

PHOTOGRAPH BY

BACK D ROP BY CA IT L IN D OH ERT Y/ WW W.P 1M .CA

Chances are you’ve named few, if any original Hollywood musicals, which only provides production executives with

Chris Chapman

12/2/16 12:32 PM

BACK D ROP BY CA IT L IN D OH ERT Y/ WW W.P 1M .CA

TWO HOUSEHOLDS Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling play the leads, Mia and Sebastian, in La La Land.

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on screen. Flight scribe John Gatins wisely said a few years ago

pianist Sebastian (Ryan

that, when it comes to the challenges of getting a great screen-

Gosling) who yearns to

play on the big screen, “Great movies aren’t born. They fight their

own his own club. Their

way to life”.

glowing romance is set

The same could be aptly said about La La Land. One would

against the sunset of

think closing down the 110-105 interchange twice during its

modern day LA, but

production, with a slew of extras, for the “Another Day of Sun”

their careers soon take

sequence was the most grueling moment during filming, com-

precedence and com-

plete with scorching 100-degree plus temperatures, and a traffic

plications ensue. In Guy,

jam of cars blocked for the shot. However, getting La La Land

a jazz trumpeter meets

off the ground was indeed the hardest. As Chazelle couches

Madeline, and although

the six-year production of La Land from soup to nuts, “It’s the

he embarks on a quest

longest-running passion project.”

Says the director: “There wasn’t a lot of excitement in the room when we initially pitched La La Land around town. Here

“Boston as a romantic metropolis isn’t a role that city tradi-

we are with an original musical, one that incorporates jazz, and

tionally plays in movies,” says Chazelle about Guy and Madeline,

a love story where the protagonists may not wind up together;

“but in La La Land, here was a chance to take a city that disap-

everything was a further death knell. The genre itself, when it’s

pears behind-the-scenes in most films and use it for a romantic

not based on a pre-existing property, is a scary thing, but the fact

playground for lovers.”

that there haven’t been any in a while was part of the appeal.”

La La Land was built before Whiplash became a reality. That

It was during Guy and Madeline that Chazelle also found his cinematic style, with his ‘whipping’ camera visuals; a jerking

movie initially started as a Sundance Film Festival short, and later

shot between two subjects. In Guy and Madeline, we see it

became a feature that won the Audience Award and Grand Jury

used between a musician and a dancer, while in Whiplash it’s

Prize at the Park City, UT fest before embarking on its Oscar quest.

employed during the intense final concert scene between J.K.

Buddies since their Harvard days, when they performed in the

Simmons’ acerbic conservatory instructor Fletcher and Miles

indie pop band Chester French, Chazelle and Hurwitz soon left

Teller’s masochistic drummer Andrew. In La La Land, ‘the whip’ is

to pursue their love of film and score, making a black-and-white

used for dramatic purposes between Mia and Sebastian at The

$50k 16mm musical film in college entitled Guy and Madeline

Lighthouse Café.

on a Park Bench. In many ways, that film laid the template for La

22

for a more gregarious paramour, ultimately the two seem destined to be together.

Guy and Madeline received great reviews coming out of

La Land. Similar to their latest endeavor, Guy and Madeline was

its premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Chazelle and

inspired by Demy’s work and the MGM musical canon, with a

Hurwitz would move to Los Angeles around 2007, and within

logline that bears similarity to La La Land, which follows Emma

less than four years began cracking La La Land. During the James

Stone as aspiring actress Mia, who falls for burgeoning jazz

Schamus/John Lyons era at Focus Features in 2011, the classic

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label had an in-house program that paired young producers with young filmmakers. Matthew Plouffe, now an SVP of production at Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures, was a Focus executive who brought Chazelle and Hurwitz together with Berger and Horowitz.

BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY Behind the scenes during productiion, Gosling and Stone with (middle image) John Legend.

“We sat down with Damien and he pitched us an original musical set in Hollywood,” remembers Horowitz. “It’s a love story between an actress and a jazz pianist. We were just like, ‘Literally everything about that is probably wrong, so let’s do it.’ The program was pushing us to take risks and do ambitious projects.

The intention was to do it for a low budget, and we were like, ‘Let’s actually just make the version of this film that we think feels rights.’”

From the onset, Chazelle and Hurwitz knew that there would always be an opening dance on an LA freeway, as well as a lift-off-into-space moment in the middle, set at the Griffith Observatory. Not to mention the twist ending between Gosling and Stone’s star-crossed lovers. Another element that remained intact from early pre-production was Hurwitz’s “Mia and Sebastian’s” melody, which he calls “the emotional heart of the movie,” a melody that’s initially heard when the actress spots the pianist plucking away in the nightclub in a love-at-first-sight moment.

La La Land would eventually stall at Focus, however the rights easily reverted back to Chazelle, Berger and Horowitz. At this time, Chazelle’s Whiplash script was going around town and gaining traction. After the short won at Sundance, the La La Land producers knew it would be another year before any movement was made on the musical. Whiplash’s feature wins at Sundance in 2014 marked the arrival of Chazelle to the wider world, and La La Land “became a real conversation,” says Horowitz. The project was on fire with a number of suitors, particularly those on the foreign sales side.

Cut to a WME party in Park City that year where Feig met Chazelle. Lionsgate had a bid in on Whiplash, but Sony Pictures Classics would ultimately acquire U.S., Germany and Australia for an estimated $2.5 million. It’s here that Feig learned about Chazelle’s offbeat musical, and he was instantly hooked. For starters, at Summit, Feig presided over and produced the Step Up dance franchise, which grossed $651 million worldwide. Chazelle spoke about Emma Watson and Miles Teller starring in La La Land, and those were two boxes that Feig automatically checked off, as Lionsgate was coming off the actors’ respective projects The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Divergent.

However, what was vital to the La La Land producers was adhering to Chazelle’s vision at the right production cost, complete with an eight-week shoot and a three-month rehearsal period. The demand was turning two actors into Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, with the male protagonist a complete piano virtuoso. A traditional foreign sales model wouldn’t propel La La Land to where the filmmakers needed to shoot it properly.

Lionsgate, with its foreign output deals, was able to trigger better incentives, and gave the La La Land creators the perfect bull’s-eye to make the version of the movie they wanted, with more than enough resources and not jeopardizing Chazelle’s vision. While there was an eagerness among other suitors, their suggestions of replacing jazz songs with pop music, and asks for Mia and Sebastian remaining together, didn’t jive with what Chazelle was building. Lionsgate, on the other hand, got it.

Over coffee, following their initial encounter at Sundance, Feig and Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairman Patrick Wachsberger wowed Chazelle and his producers with their knowledge and excitement for musicals.

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executives would crowd into watching dailies of the film, with Feig continually being floored by how Chazelle would resolve plot points and details in an organic way, whereby development suits didn’t need to dispense story notes. “We would talk about how we’re making a movie about jazz, and how some people don’t like jazz. Then Damien addresses how people don’t like jazz in a Sebastian and Mia date scene,” says Feig.

He also recalls that, during the course of a day, it wasn’t uncommon to walk through the office and hear people blaring the song “City of Stars” from the movie. “It’s at that moment you realize, we actually could be onto something.”

When it came to casting, the mandate wasn’t necessarily to find two big stars who could revive this yesteryear genre at the box office. Rather, per Berger, “We needed a classic Hollywood singing and dancing duo who could be the beating heart of the movie.”

Much has been made about the casting of La La Land, with some of that melodrama played out in the press. During the Whiplash awards press tour two years ago, Teller was beaming about being a part of La La Land with Watson, after Chazelle approached him about the role during production on Whiplash.

In fact, La La Land was greenlit at Lionsgate with both Teller and Watson.

In a recent conversation with Deadline, Teller had no comment when it came to the La La Land casting situation, however, he shared his frustrations with Esquire magazine in an August 2015 article.

Recent reports in the trades surfaced that Teller was holding out for more money (above the $4 million offered) and, as negotiations dragged out, his window of availability for La La Land began to close. For both personal reasons and another project going late, Watson was unable to commit to La La Land, and ultimately

no foul; rather the nature of the beast when you’re developing

everything in his movies.” Another asset for Lionsgate: unlike a

a project for six years, through different permutations. When

jukebox musical where they would have to license the songs, the

the possibility of casting Stone and Gosling arose, it made the

distributor would own them with La La Land.

actuary table for La La Land’s finances look better, with more box

in 23 or 24 days, Lionsgate provided the La La Land team more resources, increasing filming to 40 days, and providing enough

office comps supporting the film’s potential success. As such, Lionsgate could increase the budget.

Stone and Gosling first played opposite of each other as love-

financial allowances for dance scene extras and more locations.

birds in 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love ($84.4 million domestic, $142.9

For Feig, it was about giving them enough to make their love

million global box office) followed by their respective roles as a moll

letter to the City of Angels.

and an LAPD sergeant with eyes for each other in the 2013 film

Internally at Lionsgate, La La Land fever spread throughout all their departments. Not just the project executives, but other D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

1207 - Cover Story - La La Land.indd 24

For the filmmakers, the turnover in casting was no harm,

about Jacques Demy, Patrick, who is French, knew shot-by-shot

While Chazelle and his producers were planning to shoot

24

found her way into Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast.

Gangster Squad ($46 million domestic, $105.2 million worldwide).

“They have a proven chemistry together,” says Chazelle about PHOTOGRAPH BY

BAC K D RO P BY CAI T LI N D O HE RTY/W W W.P 1 M .CA

“I always loved the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic old Hollywood songbook,” says Feig, “but when it came to talking

Chris Chapman

12/2/16 12:33 PM

landing the duo. “Even though they’ve done two movies together,

from an audition to croon about the aunt who inspired her to

this feels so fresh and new for them. They’re great friends, and

become an actress.

they were very passionate about getting it right.”

“They have real, grounded voices that remind us of the French

“I couldn’t imagine lip-syncing that. It is a monologue, and would be rather messy. Coming off of Cabaret and its end num-

New wave ones,” says Hurwitz. “Emma has a beautiful, gorgeous,

ber, I can’t even imagine lip-syncing that. It was important for me

airy voice that is pure, vulnerable and breathy. She’s not a belter.

and for the character that the song be performed live.” “City of

Ryan’s voice is authentic; it doesn’t sound like anybody else’s. He

Stars” was another tune performed live so that it would be more

brings a character to his voice. At times, there was an optimism

diegetic, given its intimate setting.

that tipped into more somber tones, and we loved how subdued Ryan’s voice is. It wasn’t traditional.”

Rumor is that La La Land landed in front of Stone thanks

Gosling adds that Chazelle wanted both he and Stone to be able to sing live and with pre-recorded tracks while they were shooting. “That way he had the option in the edit to either make

to her then-boyfriend Andrew Garfield, who learned of the

the scene more heightened, with the pre-record, or make it more

project and slipped her the script. Chazelle ventured to New

vulnerable with the live take,” says Gosling.

York to watch Stone in her 2014 Broadway turn as Sally Bowles

Ask the actors what their challenging scenes were, and

in Cabaret at Studio 54. Two days later, they met for lunch at a

Gosling shares that he was working “about four hours a day, for

Brooklyn diner. As a child, Stone cut her teeth in musical theater

three months, on a piece of music that I was meant to be able to

at Phoenix’s Valley Youth Theatre, performing in such stage

execute in one take, without any sneaky edits or mistakes. It just

productions as Titanic, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor

so happened, for scheduling purposes that this scene had to be

Dreamcoat and The Wiz. Chazelle was aware of Gosling’s chops

shot on my first day of production.”

from the thespian’s two-man rock band Dead Man’s Bones, as

For Stone, “it was the dinner fight sequence [with Ryan] in a

well as the actor’s a capella rendition of the Doris Fisher-Allan

small apartment. We improvised a lot, but it was about finding

Roberts standard “You Always Hurt The One You Love” in Blue

that moment where eventually the record scratches and the

Valentine. An added bonus was that Gosling played piano, and

music stops between them. Damien, Ryan and I had to get to

the role called for someone who didn’t require a double.

that point, and it was painful.”

Gosling recounts that many people suggested he meet

Meanwhile, well before production, Lionsgate discussed the

Chazelle, and the two went out for a drink at a bar near the

risks of the film’s ending in which Sebastian and Mia (gulp) break

Drive actor’s house. “The drunker we got, the more passionate

up. “We saw that it worked in The Notebook, Casablanca and

Damien got about making movies that you couldn’t watch on

Titanic, which are defined as the most romantic classics ever.

your phone,” remembers Gosling. “He wanted to make films that

Even in Annie Hall the couple doesn’t wind up together. It’s the

people would want to go see in a theatre, with an audience.”

Socratic Method and there’s no question we should get to see

Chazelle brought up La La Land, and Gosling asked to hear the

them together,” explains Feig.

music, which he received before he arrived back to his house.

And despite how ambitious the idea of an original Hollywood

From there, the music stuck in the actor’s head. “We had never

musical might sound, there’s a universal through-line that runs

discussed my being a part of the film, so I was just happy to

through the project that any audience 13-35 watching it on the

know that a guy like him was out there planning on making a film

big screen can live vicariously through: similar to The Notebook

like that. A few weeks later, I got a call from him asking if I still

and Twilight, La La Land is about falling madly in love for the first

knew how to dance.”

time, told in a fresh genre that’s been turned on its head.

Stone admits, “it was unbeknown to me that Ryan and

Says Feig, in explaining Lionsgate’s business model, “We

Damien met,” but once she heard, she was stoked. When asked

often ask, how do you compete in a world of $100 million CGI

to expound on her organic, on-screen chemistry with Gosling,

spectacles? Well, we don’t out-CGI spectacle them. We bring

she tells the story about how the duo were asked to improvise

something new to the table.” ★

together during Crazy Stupid Love, and how they got the opportunity to do so again in the falling-in-love scenes of La La Land. “I grew up doing improv and we immediately established a rapport where we really had to listen to each other,” Stone recalls.

BAC K D RO P BY CAI T LI N D O HE RTY/W W W.P 1 M .CA

“There are some actors who are island actors; their performance isn’t going to change no matter what you do. They’re working on their side of things and they don’t move in a fluid way. Ryan isn’t that way, and I’m not that way. And that openness to that way of working establishes a mutual respect. It’s kind of a lucky thing.”

While most of the musical numbers were pre-recorded, Stone, who took voice, tap and ballroom lessons, asked to sing

IN FAIR LA Left: director Damien Chazelle. This image: Stone and Gosling at Griffith Observatory.

a couple of songs live on set. “Especially, ‘Audition’,” says the actress about a middle moment in the film where she breaks away D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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Killer Kroc

Michael Keaton has starred in the last two consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners— Birdman and Spotlight—and earned a Best Actor nomination for the former.

With his latest role in The Founder, Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the ruthlessly enterprising businessman who turned the McDonald brothers’ fast food restaurants into a global franchise worth in excess of $60 billion. Mike Fleming Jr. visits Keaton at his home to talk risk, reward and the value of hard work.

You drive down any major street in America, there are drive-through restaurants on each side of the road. I didn’t know until I saw The Founder that Ray Kroc was the ruthless father of a movement that seems like some fast food Manifest Destiny. What did you see in him that made you want to do this?

Here’s what’s really weird about this. We were sitting right at this table with John Lee Hancock. I said, “Here’s the thing I’m never going to do, so you might want to really think about getting somebody else to do this. I won’t back off from what he is. If the character is what he is, then I’m playing that. I don’t believe in begging for someone to love you when that’s not the job at hand.

That’s not something that appeals to me.” I said, “If you want me to soften this or go, aw shucks, he’s really not so bad, I’m not your guy.” That said, you don’t play a role as, say, Floyd the barber, and then you decide to make Floyd the barber some kind of maniacal prick. That’s not exactly accurate, either, but when the guy does what he does, then you play that.

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Kroc is this 50-something failed salesman who stumbles

leaving with or without you.” Which, in a lot of

So now, you and I every day do something

across the McDonald brothers, and then becomes ruthlessly

ways, is how I think about things. I’m going,

that’s portable and disposable. If you don’t

ambitious about his vision. He is certainly a complicated man.

I want you along, but at some point, if you

want to, you don’t have to sit at home and

That’s only one part of Ray Kroc. What I think John did really well as a

aren’t on the bus, the bus is going anyway.

cook a meal for your family. You could have

storyteller and director is he didn’t paint the darkness of it with a big,

Something happened to me that never

wonderful food that you stop and pick up.

thick brush with red paint. We were both just interested in this story.

has before, when I was in the middle of a

You can do everything on the road, and

Ray Kroc for sure is interesting, but the story is what’s important, so

scene. As an actor, I just want to drop into a

be mobile in every sense of the word. You

that when Kroc turns that corner…

scene and be the character, trying to show

don’t even think about how life was; it’s just

truth in the moment. That scene where I

automatic.

In his 50s no less.

walk up to the counter and this kid hands

Yes. He turned the corner and said, “I’m going to cut these guys off at

me the bag of food? I’d read the script, and

This is a profound realization to have,

their knees and be relentless and not give up.” That turn—that mak-

we rehearsed it several times. We’re rolling,

during a scene in a movie you are making.

ing a deal with the devil—is something I find anything but admirable.

and I look at him, dumbfounded, like, what

I remember when we would go to the first

What I really find interesting as an actor is, up until that moment, I

do I do with this thing? There’s food in a bag.

McDonald’s, and drive a long, long distance

really admired Ray Kroc. He worked his ass off. Ray Kroc to me was

What do I do with it? Where do I eat it? This

to it. I remember what it felt like as we were

a bootstraps guy. The truth of the matter is, when I hear all these

has never happened to me before [while

driving down Ohio River Boulevard on a

people in America, especially the politicians, they love to throw around

acting a role]. As I’m in it, I got it. I went,

summer night, and all of a sudden you look

the words “hardworking Americans”. You know who most of those

“Oh my God, this was a pivotal, seminal

down and you see that glow, and kids would

hardworking Americans are? They’re browned-skinned and they’re

moment.” I mean, think about that. It looks

be hanging out and there’d be bugs around

dark-skinned. If you really want to find who’s working really hard,

simple and kind of funny on the screen but

the lights, and you’d get this little package for

many, many of them aren’t a bunch of white guys.

the truth is that all of a sudden, life became

19 cents. It was like an event. I mean it truly

portable and that’s where that started.

changed things.

brothers, about where all this was going?

That atom splitting moment that

Kroc second-mortgaged his home with-

He saw what it was and they didn’t. And when they didn’t see it like he

makes movies like The Social Network

out telling his wife. He bet it all. When

saw it, and they didn’t want to go along, he basically said, “This bus is

so riveting.

you look for ways to find the handle on

How much did Kroc foresee, in screwing over the McDonald

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exactly what this was. He said, “Read this.” I did. I figured I’d tell him what I thought and he would go, “You’re probably right but I can’t do that.” I had only done Beetlejuice with him at that point.

Did you ever imagine that here we are, talking about these atom splitting moments with fast food and the internet, and Batman was right when the atom got split on the superhero movies that are now the most prized commodity by studios?

That is 100% right, and no, I don’t think of things like that, especially at the time. It hits me in various times. The further you get from events, you start to look at it from a little distance, position and height, and you get it. I have thought about that, and the way things have changed, because I just did Spider-Man. And Marvel? That is one welloiled machine. It is remarkable how they have got that whole thing covered in a really qualitative way.

What impressed you most?

Just how efficient it is, in the best sense, and how it operates on a practical level. How organized they are about what they make and how conscientious they are about what FAST FOOD NATION Keaton as Ray Kroc in The Founder. This page with (top) Laura Dern and (bottom left) director John Lee Hancock.

a great character like this, what’s the

Which was?

they have. They’ve got really wonderful actors

closest thing that you’ve done in your

Some of it was baked in already because he

for one thing, but I guess it’s always been the

life that replicates that?

was doing the Frank Miller Batman. I didn’t

case. Batman always had great actors sur-

I always bet on me, and I just don’t know

know anything about the lore, and to this

rounding that character. We had Pat Hingle

another way. “Let me see if I can pull this

day, I don’t know anything about the lore;

and all these terrific actors. They really get

movie off.” At the time, Batman was an

zero. But it was in there. I just saw it as an

that script is important, and they really pro-

enormous risk. If you go down in that you

interesting character. I knew Tim was an

tect their lore and that culture and they see

go down in a big, big way and I would have

artist, and Tim changed everything.

the enormity of it, on a capitalistic level.

myself. Because if that had failed, it would

The Ray Kroc of the superhero movie?

You said you worked the suit on Bat-

have failed in a huge way. So I’m not averse

Tim changed everything about that genre.

man, and with that came a level of

to risk. But I do have a practical side to me

He’s such a unique filmmaker, and he has

fame you weren’t accustomed to.

and I would never risk a house or anything

such a true, unadulterated, creative mind

What did you like, and not like, about

that could hurt my family.

that his take on it was also very risky. I didn’t

the fit of that suit?

have anything to do with what he did in

Well, oddly or ironically, I don’t really like a

You mentioned Batman. I remember the

terms of that imagery, but I got what it was.

lot of attention. So you might ask, “Why

criticisms when you took the role. “Does

The only question for me was, how do I

would you ever pick this way to make a liv-

he have the square jaw? He’s not a big

make this imagery work for me on a really

ing?” Because it wasn’t just Batman; it was

muscular guy. He does comedies.”

practical level? It was so big and powerful.

anything that gets me a lot of attention. I

I’ve joked about it, but that’s when I

had to really learn how to maneuver inside

decided, just work the suit. It was really

all that and outside all that, and then later

practical, but it was also I saw what it could

capitalize on all that.

needed a yeoman’s effort to resurrect

I’m not sure that it was more than I was associated with playing certain characters.

You weren’t on a Harrison Ford path.

be and where I stood and where I put myself,

What made you take the leap?

in the light. Those were all conversations.

Sounds like a difficult balancing act.

In The Founder, it was all there. Some-

Frankly, there weren’t really many down-

times in movies, it isn’t there, but Tim saw

sides. I mean, if I give myself credit, I’m a

Conversations with Tim [Burton]. We saw it exactly the same way.

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cake-and-eat-it-too type of guy. Probably

make mistakes; you aren’t going to know

really selfishly, I want it how I want it. I want

until you make mistakes. Whatever those

to make a living and continue to do what

guys are doing, they should keep doing it

I do for a living. I’m insanely blessed and

because from where I sit, it sure is working.

ridiculously fortunate and exponentially grateful.

But I also want to be able to walk into my

I once interviewed George Clooney in his office and he had one picture on the

local hardware store, my local bar, restau-

wall: him, as Batman. He didn’t have as

rant, and coffee shop. Hang out, and when

good a time as you did, and said the pic-

I walk out, talk to the doorman in New York

ture was there because it reminded him

City about what’s in the Times this morning.

to never do a movie for the wrong rea-

I like that. I enjoy that and live a normal life

sons, which in this case was taking that

and have a normal family and all that stuff.

movie to become a globally bankable

It takes finesse and it doesn’t come

star. How does this factor into what you

easily, but if you’re willing to put in the work

said about choices and how you make

and not create a lot of shit around you, you

them? What makes you say yes?

You’ve worked with really interest-

can do it. So I give myself credit, I guess,

It depends on the thing. There is no set way

ing actors. Jack Nicholson comes to

in terms of working hard enough to have a

to judge. Sometimes I will go, “I never played

mind. Was there anybody you observed

life like that, but I’m fortunate we can even

that guy before. I’m in.” This guy in American

or talked to who helped forge this

have this discussion. Sometimes even talk-

Assassin, I’ve never really played this type of

patience?

ing about this is crazy.

person before.

I’ll tell you one thing Jack told me that

Any long career brings ups and downs.

What kind of person?

time, but at the time he was right. We were

We wouldn’t see you for a while, and

Physically tough, and mentally very tough. I

riding around and he goes, “Keats, if this

you would show up in these small roles

played people who may have had some of

thing works, you could go have three flops

like Ray Nicolette in the Elmore Leonard

those qualities but not in the context of this

in a row and it won’t matter.” At the time, he

movies Out of Sight and Jackie Brown.

type of movie.

probably was right. But soon after that, the

doesn’t pertain anymore. It hasn’t for a long

You are among a handful of actors—

Here’s the other truth: you’ve got to run

business changed and that’s not the case

Kevin Costner is another—where you

a business. I am a business. If a movie like

for anybody anymore. You see these guys—

go, “Damn, I miss that guy.” If a young

that works, and it’s international, that keeps

these great actors and big movie stars—and

guy like Spider-Man’s Tom Holland or

your business alive. I want to keep doing

if something doesn’t work, people say, “He’s

American Assassin’s Dylan O’Brien

this for the foreseeable future, and if I can

in trouble.” When it is just that something

asked you how to best make it last,

help my business by doing that film, I’m

didn’t work. Or, maybe he or she is in

what would you say?

going to do it. I won’t if it’s not good. I might

trouble, and that’s the reality.

Well, the first thing I’d say before I answer

try and I might fail but I’m not… I’m being

that is what good guys they are, and

very honest and very realistic about it, but

Stars do seem more disposable in a way.

Taylor Kitsch as well, who’s also in Ameri-

usually there’s no set thing.

I think it comes from watching all the guys

can Assassin. I genuinely like them; really

With The Founder, I had been working

who came before you, and paying attention

professional, talented, serious, but fun. I just

real hard and I wasn’t really looking to do

to how they did and didn’t do things. After

enjoyed the hell out of these guys.

anything. They told me what it was about

that, I just do what I’m going to do, anyway.

and I thought like most people would think:

I’ve got to bet on me. I always did and I’m

you’re doing, in terms of all of that that I just

McDonald’s, Ray Kroc, I don’t know what

always going to. Sometimes I’m right, some-

said, just keep doing that. They seem to be

that would be. Then I read it and thought the

times I’m wrong. I’m not sure there even is a

having fun, so that’s a bonus. For me, I had

script was good. I met and really liked John

right or wrong. I just do what I do for a living.

to do all of that but sometimes I wouldn’t

and what he had to say. I thought about it

let myself have fun. I would be too afraid to

and I thought, what do I have in my life right

egade. I do keep one foot outside. I live

have fun. I thought, if I have too much fun

now personally? One of the things I could

where I live and I do what I do because I

while I’m doing this, I’m going to screw this

have used was sleep. But I thought, I’m in a

like it. I enjoy things in life, but I’m not trying

whole thing up. So I would say you have to

good spot right now and yeah, you should

to prove anything. I’m just being who I am.

balance that. I’d say pick wisely, but that

do this, it’s interesting. It’s a good role. Don’t

But you hear people like John McCain and

sounds too cautious and hard in the movie

overthink it. Just go do it, throw yourself into

Sarah Palin going, “We’re renegades.” If you

business.

it. It wasn’t anything more than that.

have to tell me you’re a renegade you’re

I guess what I would say is, whatever

I always tell young people, don’t be afraid

You were talking about lulls, before.

to make mistakes. I always rolled the dice on

There are always lulls and there will be more

me, and if Batman didn’t work, I would have

lulls, but there are never lulls in my life. Life is

had to recover from that. So just go and

as important as what I do for a living.

30

FULL CIRCLE Above from left: Keaton in Birdman; with Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James on Spotlight; as Batman in Tim Burton’s superhero movie-launcher.

I know people say I’m a bit of a ren-

probably not a fucking renegade, so you won’t hear me say that.

Paul Newman naturally and authentically did that. He raced cars because

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he dug racing cars, and his friends were

remember, out of all those compliments

Catholic. I know who good Catholics are,

his friends. I’ve got the widest variety of

was, he said, “And the best thing about you

and I’m not one. Many, many years ago,

friends. I would put me up against anybody

is you’re a gentleman.” That, to me, did it.

I lost faith in the Catholic Church for all

in terms of friends. I’ve got people all over.

That’s the thing that sticks. I hope he’s right,

the reasons that I think one should lose

In terms of range, my friendship range

but that’s the thing that I always hang on to.

faith in the Catholic Church. I’m still not a

is probably better than my acting range.

fan of the institution. But here’s the thing

The way Paul Newman authentically did

What about Spotlight?

I’ll defend, and I don’t care who you are,

it and lived where he wanted to live and

It was so nice to be part of that group.

Baptist, Judaism, I defend it to the death,

how he wanted to live, and still maintained

It’s weird to say something like, “We had

to the end; I actually admire and I’m kind

this iconic thing and was really genuinely

fun,” given the subject matter. But we did,

of envious of deep faith.

good... in terms of the whole package, if

because they were such a good group of

you’re going to be a movie star, that’s it.

people. They were all so funny and you had

mom. You couldn’t get better. She was

There is no better Catholic than my

to be on top of your game in the morning.

devout. That got her through a lot of stuff,

Fair to say you don’t give a rats ass

Somebody would be wisecracking, giving

man. So for me, that’s like if my mom had

about fame?

somebody a hard time.

a pal looking after her, and religion was her

I really frankly don’t, but at the end of the

The quality of those actors… everything

pal, that guy’s in for life. Even if you don’t

day, I can’t act like, “Aren’t I so groovy.” If

was real and nothing flashy. Mark Ruffalo

like that guy, but he saved your brother’s

you’re walking down the street and people

has that great moment where he blows,

life or something, he’s a made guy.

walk up to you and pay you these amazing

but aside from that it was really based on,

compliments… anybody who tells you, “I

hang on, stay in that real zone. We all got

What is religion, really, other than a

hate that,” they’re full of shit. They’re lying.

to generally like the characters we played.

mechanism to trigger conscience,

It feels good when people tell you they like

Robby Robinson has become a real friend.

empathy and dignity; things that are so

what you do. It just does.

Tom McCarthy was just so strong and

disposable in this fast food age?

specific, every day. And I happen to be a

You know what’s the scariest thing about

Aren’t the selfies taxing?

guy who really loves journalism and the

everything that’s going on now? The abso-

Those are getting harder to take.

newspaper world.

lute loss of decency. It’s so disposable. How

You have starred in the last two Best

You starred in The Paper…

things they say [in this presidential cam-

Picture winners. Give me a special

And I carry one around, all the time. I’ve

paign] but are just not decent? The thing

moment that sticks in your mind on

always loved that world. That movie meant

I’ll miss about Obama is how unbelievably

Birdman and Spotlight.

so much to so many people. Just yesterday,

classy and decent that family is. Man, am I

I’ll tell you one about Birdman and that

some woman stopped me to talk about it.

going to miss that. He’s a gentleman.

director. The accolades he gave me publicly

Working in London, people talked about it.

can you admire somebody who says the

To come full circle, it does feel like it all

and personally, and through people in the business in terms of being an actor, were

You grew up Catholic?

swings back around to Ray Kroc, ending

as good as you can get. The single thing I

Altar boy. I liked being an altar boy.

that Norman Rockwell painting that was America.

remember is when we wrapped the final shot, and we were down at this little bar in

What did that movie do to your feel-

Ray fucking Kroc. We have one man to blame

the theater district. There were a few of us

ings about the faith?

for all this. That’s how I should push this

hanging around and he and I were having

I haven’t been a practicing Catholic for a

movie. “I’ll tell you the trouble with America.”

a couple of drinks. The thing that I always

long time. I have no right to call myself a

The studio will go, “Wait… what?” ★

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D THE DIALOGUE

OSCAR CONTENDERS/ DIRECTORS & WRITERS

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Ava

intense, racist, violent footage to wade through.

It’s not easy to do, so I really feel these days that

D u V E R N AY

★

★

★

★

I’m happy to be working on a movie about a girl time-traveling through the universe [A Wrinkle in Time]. I get to spend my days creating creatures and beautiful costumes, instead of having to look through the worst of society with this footage.

Madeleine L’Engle, who wrote the novel A

The director switches gears from the oppression of 13th to the “scarily talented” cast of A Wrinkle in Time.

BY A N T O N I A B LY T H

Wrinkle in Time, was turned down by 26 publishers because she was a woman writing about science fiction. Does it feel like a fitting legacy being a woman making this film?

Yeah, I love it. Madeleine L’Engle is a rabblerouser. One of my favorite things that I love about the book is the fact that the book was banned.

I love that. That’s one of the things that I take great pride in, that we are really putting it on its

IF YOU ASK AVA DUVERNAY which genre she prefers, she says, “I want to play in the whole sandbox,” and she’s doing just that, with fingers in various directing, writing and producing pies right now. With her Netflix documentary 13th on release, her OWN TV show Queen Sugar raking in impressive ratings, and now at the helm of the $100 million-plus, A-list, sci-fi Disney film A Wrinkle in Time, DuVernay is doing it all.

feet and bringing to life a book that threatened people, just through the sheer creativity of this woman and what she felt and thought.

How is the shoot going so far?

It has been extraordinary. This cast is really, really scarily talented. I love the cinematographer that I’m working with; the crew looks like the United Nations. We work really hard to make sure that

for people who are not of color, because

there are people of color and women across

Selma, she found herself in hot demand, but

After directing the Oscar-nominated

they’re concerned. The purview of concern

all the departments, really bringing a different

first on the to-do list was 13th—an explora-

has expanded beyond race.

perspective to this thing. It’s one thing to have a

tion of the ways in which the U.S. criminal

woman director, but to have a woman director

justice system is heavily weighted against

I’m sure a lot of viewers didn’t know

and an all-male crew, you’re really not doing what

people of color. Squeezing 100 years of his-

about The American Legislative

you mean to do, you’re not truly being inclusive

tory into 100 fast-paced, extremely affect-

Exchange Council (ALEC) and how it’s

in the crew. You’re just a figurehead, and that’s

ing minutes, the resulting film was the first

been affecting them for years.

something that I never want to be. To have a

documentary ever to open the New York

That was my big surprise too. I grew up in

black director and no other people of color in the

Film Festival.

Compton, so there was a very aggressive

crew, that’s unacceptable.

But DuVernay has not allowed herself a

police presence there. I was feeling fear

Nothing that I make accepts that, from Queen

pause to regroup. “I have a certain window,”

when police officers came, so it was a differ-

Sugar, which has an all-women directorial team

she says, “and during that window I want

ent way to grow up. I was an African-Ameri-

and very, very inclusive crew too, to Wrinkle, to

to do everything I can. There is no woman

can Studies major at UCLA, so I studied a lot

13th, that’s shot by two black cinematographers.

director that I can look to that has a 30-year

of Black Liberation theory, but ALEC never

This work goes beyond the director. There’s a lot

career in this country, and there are very,

came into any kind of conversations I had.

of talk about women directors, there’s a lot of

very few filmmakers of color, black filmmak-

It really came through making this film that

talk about black directors, but truly the real work

ers in particular, that have had a very robust,

I learned about ALEC and was immediately

is done with a crew. I feel it’s a little disingenuous

full-bodied career.”

fascinated and frustrated by it. You could

to be there and just talk about my vision.

do a two-hour documentary just on ALEC. I 13th was such a powerful tool for edu-

tried to distill it down enough to get people

With Queen Sugar, what first grabbed you

cating voters. How do you feel about

to understand that there is a shadowy group

about working in TV?

the outcome of the election?

that meets in secret, working hand-in-hand

Really, it was watching Cary Fukunaga, who

Yes, the documentary talks about Trump,

with lawmakers to protect their corporate

directed all the episodes of the first season of

but it also talks about many people

interests, making laws that we all have to

True Detective. I wanted to do that. It’s like mak-

throughout history who espoused this

abide by. Those people are not lawmakers,

ing an eight-hour movie. But then we got into

point of view, and the effects of that kind

they’re not elected officials. That’s nuts.

working on it and it got to be too long, so I had to

of policy and that kind of thinking. And also

bring in other directors to direct with me, but just

the ways in which people have started to

What effect did making this film have

the idea of making television was really interest-

come back at that, and that’s where we are

on you personally?

ing to me. It’s the scariest thing that I’ve done.

now; that folks will resist this. The inter-

We just finished the film maybe 10 days

Every week, you’re like this, “Will they tune in?” It’s

esting thing now is that this is not a new

before it debuted in September. It was

a different kind of storytelling. I’m nervous every

feeling for people of color. It’s a new feeling

really intense, over 1,000 hours of really

freaking week. ★

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Pab l o

perspective and we never needed kings and queens, and then this country, all of a sud-

LARRAÍN

★

★

★

★

den, sort of felt that they had one, because they created and gave that illusion and power to a woman like Jackie Kennedy.

Both films have politics as a background, and so did No. What is your own background in relation to politics in

The Chilean master on his two films in this year’s race: Jackie and Neruda.

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

Chile?

I am of course active. I’m aware and worried about the political reality. I’m not someone who ignores the reality. I believe you have to be very aware of what is going on. Otherwise, history will just put its feet on your head and you will be a victim of yourself; of your own ignorance. I think my country is

HILEAN DIRECTOR PABLO LARRAÍN has been to the Oscar party before; his 2012 political satire No was nominated in the Foreign Language race. Last year, The Club was nominated for a Golden Globe after winning the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin. Now, he’s got the distinction of having two films in the Oscar race. Neruda, a twist on the biopic genre about the eponymous Nobel Prize-winning poet, Larraín made in Chile and debuted in Cannes. He is also on the circuit with Jackie, his first film in English and also a non-traditional biopic, this time about the former First Lady in the days immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It has buzz in several categories, from Best Picture to Actress and Director.

C

changing. I think we have a strong democracy, which is something that I like. I think there are things that we weren’t able to fix concerning the violation of human rights. It feels there will never be proper justice. It’s been so long and there are so many people that were never really judged, and that’s unsettling. But at the same time, I think we are understanding what the priorities are, and I think I can relate to Neruda. He was a communist, and the movie takes place in the late ’40s, and they were struggling with the lack of equality. If you look at what’s going on in my country today, it’s the lack of equality. The distance between rich people and poor people is getting so huge every day

You are promoting two films during

thinking on how essential a woman in

this Oscar season, having been here

power is, and how they can really help to

before with No. What’s different this

shape a country. I couldn’t imagine this

Neruda is a national treasure in Chile;

time around? Are you an old pro now?

country without the figure of Michelle

what about this story was new and

First, you never get used to it. It’s always

Obama, for example, in the last eight years.

needed to be told in your eyes?

different, and since my movies have been

I was hoping that Hillary was going to be

My brother [producer Juan de Dios Lar-

having a big political perspective, when

your first female president, and that’s what

raín] was like, “Let’s make a movie about

they come out they are usually affected

I’ve learned. This is the first film I’ve made

Neruda at this specific time,” and it was

and regarded by contemporary circum-

with a female character in the lead role

hard for me. At the beginning, I was like,

stances. So, it’s always evolving and

and it was very hard from the beginning

“You can’t put Neruda into a movie.” Then

reshaping into something different. I think

because it’s another type of sensibility that

when Guillermo [Calderón], our writer,

Neruda and Jackie are both movies about

I have to approach. I think it’s just the story

found this take on the cop, then we realized

people who work and shape their own

of a mother. We’ve been saying and think-

we were making a movie about his world;

legends or somebody else’s.

ing for years that behind every man there’s

the Nerudian cosmos. It’s less a movie

that I just don’t know how to relate.

a great woman, and I’ve just come to the

about Pablo Neruda than it is like going to

Jackie, particularly, has resonance,

conclusion that behind every great person,

his house and playing with his toys. It’s a

given what’s going on in our current

there’s a great mother.

movie about movies, somehow, because

political system. She was trying to pro-

This is the story of a mother and a

we mix so many elements from cinema.

tect the legacy of her husband, a fan-

country that lost the president, and then

It’s a movie about literature and the stories

tastically popular president, and the

somehow Jackie became the nation’s

we tell. It’s about people telling stories, and

U.S. has just voted in a very unpopular

mother and put everybody under her pro-

him somehow building his own legend, and

man as president. As a non-American,

tection, and grabbed the whole country’s

the cop is trying to understand who he is.

how do you view Jackie’s story?

grief and put it on her back, and walked. I

That’s the take on it, and it took a while,

For me as a non-American, I can tell you

think this is very beautiful: a queen without

because it was not only an expensive movie

that what is very powerful is the role of

a throne. Our countries have never had

for our reality, but also it took us a lot to

women today. And I’m not talking about

royalty because they’re too young. We were

find the proper take. Once Guillermo got it,

girl power or gender equality. I’m just really

shaping our countries from a republican

we went fast and made it. ★

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Kenneth

The scene when Lee and his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams) meet in the street is

L ONERGAN

★

★

★

★

the point of action on which the whole film turns. What sort of preparation went into that?

We made sure we all had the same backstory.

In a looser sense, we went through a similar process in terms of what they are trying to give to each other or avoid giving to each other. That

The Manchester by the Sea writer/director on taking the helm from Matt Damon and Casey Affleck’s “remarkable” performance.

BY A N T O N I A B LY T H

had to be a little looser because you want the actors to not just fill in the blanks but take what’s written and bring it to full life, which they did so magnificently. I don’t recall having to direct that scene a lot. We just had a pretty good idea, all of us, what the orientation was. Then you just turn the camera on and let them go.

HEN KENNETH LONERGAN sat down to write Manchester by the Sea, he’d had the idea kicking around for a while, courtesy of Matt Damon and John Krasinski, who’d first approached him with the basic concept.

Lonergan (You Can Count on Me, Margaret), did not initially plan to direct his own script, as producer Damon was originally set to take the helm. But Lonergan’s results speak for themselves, as the film was snapped up by Amazon at Sundance for $10 million and is now the subject of much Oscar buzz.

W

You’d worked with Casey Affleck before in your play This Is Our Youth in London.

What did you think made him perfect for this role?

He’s constitutionally right for it in that he’s very emotional, he has a great sense of humor, he’s a bit of a brooder himself, and he’s also familiar with the area. He’s an exceptionally good actor.

I’ve always thought so. He brought his performance, which goes beyond anything I just said.

It’s just really brilliant. It’s total commitment to the emotional reality, which is not easy to do, and not easy to live with as an actor. It’s a very

The tone of this film is set by its wind-

The first pass was just chronologi-

swept, freezing location. Was it always

cal and it was quite boring. I started over

going to be in that wintry landscape?

again with him doing his job shoveling

It was always going to be Manchester. I’m

snow. It seemed right to me right away

What was the process of casting Michelle

not sure if the season came into it right

because it just tells you who he is imme-

Williams?

away, but it came in pretty quickly. [Damon

diately. In fact, you start to wonder why

She’s got such an incredible skillset and such

and Krasinski] suggested Manchester, more

he is the way he is. Then you have a little

incredible, natural talent that I was never in the

or less at random, and said that I could

bit of dramatic interest, which is what you

slightest doubt that she could be wonderful in

change it if I wanted to. They said I could do

want. I liked this idea to do this very cold,

the part. She really wanted to do it, so that told

anything I wanted, but I liked the idea, I liked

somewhat anthropological look at this

me she was going to be able to do it. It’s one of

the name of the town and I liked the area.

guy, who’s fairly anonymous, not engaged,

the great modern performances, I think.

heavy load to carry and he does it with such a simplicity and truthfulness. It’s really remarkable.

and not talking like a normal person. Just What might you have written differ-

doing one job after another until the day is

As a father yourself, how did writing about

ently had you known you would be

over. Then he gets drunk, goes home and

the deaths of Lee’s children affect you?

directing?

does or doesn’t get into a bar fight.

It’s hard to feel that I was entitled to write it

There are a lot of driving scenes in the film

because I haven’t had that tragedy in my life,

and if I had known I was going to be the

The film doesn’t offer any resolution

thank God. It made me question whether it was

director when I was writing it, I might have

to family tragedy. Did you always set

something I had the right to work on. I thought

thought ahead a bit about how to shoot

out to avoid that?

ultimately I did, because if I could approach

them. As it turned out, it was fine, but it was

Yes and no. It never occurred to me to

it with respect and as much authenticity as I

something I thought, “Oh, I’ll let Matt worry

put it in there in the first place. I wasn’t

was capable of bringing to bear, then maybe it

about that,” and then it turned out that I

trying to be different just for the sake of

was a story worth telling, because people do

had to worry about it.

being different. When I do that I know

have to suffer through these incredible losses.

I’m reacting to other movies and I’m not

They do carry on with bravery, heroism and love

The film opens with Lee (Casey Affleck)

reacting to the material as if it’s authen-

for each other. Very often people have such a

going through a series of slow, methodi-

tic; as if it’s real people. I’m mostly trying

strong sense of duty to each other under these

cal chores. Was that something you had

to follow the lines laid down by the situ-

circumstances. It’s very inspiring. It doesn’t make

in mind from the beginning?

ation, by the characters, and follow them

the tragedy go away, but it exists side-by-side

That beginning came about on my second

to what seems to me to be an authentic

with it, and that was something I was interested

pass at the script.

course of action.

in looking at. ★

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Ta y l o r

trying to be an outsider, but an amateur Ameri-

S H E R I DA N ★

Taylor, your uncle was a lawman like Jeff Bridges’ Marcus character. a mandatory retirement age. The day before his,

M AC K E N Z I E ★

we were trying to represent.

Sheridan: He was a federal marshal. They have

David ★

can. I wanted to embrace and respect this world

★

he was kicking in the door and serving a warrant, then turning in his badge and gun. That was fascinating to me, that all of the sudden your life has no purpose.

The fact that Pine and Foster’s bank rob-

The writer and the director on Hell or High Water, this year’s indie movie smash.

BY A N T H O N Y D ’A L E S SA N D RO

bers steal from one chain in the movie— where did you draw inspiration for that?

Sheridan: I was driving through these small towns in Texas and every town had a bank and a café with nothing else to do. Everything else was closed. And I said to myself, “Why is there still a bank?” Well, obviously they needed to deposit oil royalties. I thought, someone can rob this

FTER DRUG WAR NOIR SICARIO, scripted

by Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars journeyman thespian Taylor Sheridan, made enormous waves at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival into last year’s awards season, you could feel that the scribe was bound to repeat his success for the second time on the Croisette with his revisionist western Hell or High Water. Not only did the CBS/Lionsgate film spark laughs and thrills, but it really hit a nerve given the year’s political landscape stateside. Sheridan, a Waco native, didn’t have his mind set to direct Hell or High Water—that role fell to Scottish helmer David Mackenzie—but it forms part of a “modern day American trilogy” of which Sheridan will direct the third part, Wind River.

A

place blind. There’s only two county sheriffs in an area that’s the size of greater Los Angeles. I then worked through in my mind the cycle of poverty, by robbing the people who legally robbed from you. I watched as the recession hit, and there was anger, and I allowed that to manifest.

The film’s opening tracking shot is pretty stunning. Where did the idea for that come from?

Mackenzie: On the very first day of shooting, it was the very first shot. I tried to shoot the outlaws sequentially. But the shot was trying to set up the scope of the world, and some kind of tension as you’re moving through this landscape.

I tried to do a lot in fairly long takes. It’s impor-

Tell us about getting Hell or High Water

important moments in Hell or High Water

mounted.

that could be overly sentimental, such

Taylor Sheridan: I wrote Sicario first. I sent

as between Marcus and Alberto’s friend-

landscape [like West Texas], felt very beautiful

Hell or High Water to Peter Berg, asking if

ship, and when Toby meets his ex-wife,

to me and my DP, Giles Nuttgens. We’ve worked

he’d like to be involved. He did a phenom-

or goes to sit with his son. There’s a lot of

on five films that I’ve done. For us it’s a beauti-

enal job with [West Texas fare] like Friday

landmines, and David effortlessly stepped

ful place, and for some people in America, they

Night Lights, both the film and the TV series.

around them. David boarded and we cast

would think it’s normal and slightly depressing.

He really responded and took to scouting

the film quickly.

Sheridan: I don’t write tracking shots in my

locations. His schedule didn’t permit him to

There’s something about European

tant that the pace of the film be what it is.

As an outsider, to come into an uncluttered

screenplays or any camera directions, but I do

direct. We found ourselves in a competitive

directors where they’re able to look at

try to give a sense of how the action is moving.

situation with a bunch of finance compa-

something American through unique eyes;

David came up with the method of weaving and

nies bidding for it. It was Sidney Kimmel

they don’t have a dog in this fight. I didn’t

he shot it on the back of a motorcycle.

who said he’d shoot my first draft. It was

want this movie to be political in any way;

a decision that was made alarmingly fast.

rather, social.

What took a long time was finding the right

David Mackenzie: Taylor’s script was

Tell us about Wind River.

Sheridan: It’s a deeply personal story, but it’s

director, and ultimately we found David.

love at first sight. I loved the way it moved,

not drawn from anything specific in my past.

I’d seen his film Starred Up and he had an

the sense of place and people and its con-

There’s a theme between all three of these

authenticity. That movie follows a father

nection to the great movies of the 1970s

movies—Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind

and son who wind up in the same prison

that I really loved. But it also felt like it was

River—that’s about fatherhood at the end of the

together. He’s an unsentimental director,

a snapshot of contemporary America with

day; the sojourns of a father. When you become

and he’s patient with the camera in a way

resonance of the past, a slightly poetic song

a new father, there are things that terrify you. I

that doesn’t feel slow. And I felt there were

to the change of the Old West. I wasn’t

look at that more acutely in Wind River. ★

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★ | c r a f t se rv ic e s

Production Design How three of this year’s Oscar-worthy production designers set the scene for movie magic.

BY E M I LY RO M E

WORLD BUILDERS Clockwise from top: Patrice Vermette’s work on Arrival, Stuart Craig’s magical Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Jeannine Oppewall’s Rules Don’t Apply.

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS, as

research required for The Young

spaceships and sea creatures. Real-

alien spaceships should look. And I

they craft the world where directors

Victoria, which earned him an Oscar

world squids partially inspired the

wanted to get out of that.”

lay their scenes, often start a

nomination in 2010.

look of the film’s massive, seven-

project by hitting the books. It’s a

Vermette is back in contention

After director Denis Villeneuve

legged aliens, called heptapods, but

told Vermette about an oval-

job that requires solid research skills

this year, for sci-fi drama Arrival.

Vermette strove to make their ship

shaped exoplanet, the Canadian

(especially for the period films that

He and two other production

look nothing like any spacecraft ever

production designer decided to

garner the most awards attention

designers—Rules Don’t Apply’s

seen before.

make the heptapods’ ship—dubbed

in the category) as well as massive

Jeannine Oppewall and Fantastic

amounts of imagination.

Beasts and Where to Find Them’s

of science fiction movies,” he says,

all black, no windows, no little

Stuart Craig—shared with Deadline

“and I realized very quickly that

antennas”.

and know your history, but at one

how both research and creativity

since 2001: A Space Odyssey, except

point you also need to know when

were key to their films.

some very rare occasions, most

work on the film was designing

“You have to do your research

to close the books and be creative,”

the Shell—oblong and “like a stone,

A crucial part of Vermette’s

of these spaceships all look very

the heptapods’ written language.

says production designer Patrice

less time with the Royal Archives

similar. Everybody has a very specific

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer included

Vermette, recalling the extensive

and more studying photos of

idea now how a spaceship and how

an early version of the language in

40

Arrival had Vermette spending

“I started looking at a number

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at the beginning of the film that

amount of lighting on much of

completely real; something you

has a circular corridor, and for Amy

Oppewell’s work didn’t keep her

accept and believe.”

Adams’ character’s classroom, he

from paying attention to period-

made sure to secure a lecture hall

accurate detail inspired by research

realistic look for the Big Apple by not

with curved rows of desks.

online and in books.

miniaturizing the street sets built

Oppewall comes to this awards

“It’s not just about what the

Craig stayed committed to a

at Leavesden Studios. It’s a typical

season after having spent nine

camera sees. It’s about what the

practice to reduce the size of streets

years on the Academy’s Board of

actors see,” she says. “It’s an acting

and buildings on backlots to fit more

Governors, where she got to know

space, and the actors have to get

in frame. “We stuck to wide streets

Annette Bening. Warren Beatty ran

in there, into the nest, make it their

and wide sidewalks,” Craig says.

Oppewall’s name by his wife when

own, and respond physically and

Though Craig was tasked with

he was searching for a production

emotionally to the environment that

crafting the Wizarding World of 1926,

designer for Rules Don’t Apply, and

we create for them.”

Fantastic Beasts oddly felt more

Bening “vouched for my ability to

For Fantastic Beasts, Craig

modern to him than the eight Harry

stand up to people”, says Oppewall,

returned to the magical world he’d

Potter films. “Because it’s set in

whose credits include Pleasantville,

crafted in all eight Harry Potter films,

New York with skyscrapers, it feels

L.A. Confidential, and Catch Me If

though this time, to a different

more like a contemporary film than

You Can.

continent of that world, in a story

Harry Potter because they’re going

set seven decades before Harry

to school in this medieval castle.

defeats Lord Voldemort.

It feels period because the setting

For a production designer, speaking up for your own ideas is just as important as dutifully

Craig set out to distinguish the

is period. So there’s a strange

realizing a director’s vision, Oppewell

home base for the Magical Congress

contends. “You have to try your best

of the United States of America

to protect directors from going off

(MACUSA) from the British Ministry

Apply and Arrival are vying for the

the rails. When you see that they’re

of Magic headquarters located

attention of Oscar voters who have

headed for the cliff, you have to be

deep underground. J.K. Rowling

long favored period films in the Best

able to say ‘No, no, no, boss, don’t go

determined MACUSA would be

Production Design category. Wins

over there—it’s dangerous.’”

housed within the Woolworth

for Avatar, Mad Max: Fury Road and

Building, and Craig designed a multi-

Star Wars are notable otherworldly

written, and directed by Beatty),

level, glimmering, art deco atrium for

exceptions, while All the President’s

about Howard Hughes and a young

Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander

Men managed to capture attention

aspiring actress new to Hollywood,

to walk into in awe.

for its contemporary D.C. By

On Rules Don’t Apply (starring,

one area where Oppewell pushed

The look of the titular beasts

contradiction there.”

Fantastic Beasts, Rules Don’t

contrast, the Art Directors Guild

back was Beatty’s initial idea to have

began in the art department, with

Awards have separate categories for

the many hotels Hughes occupies all

drawings by concept artists, before

Contemporary, Fantasy, and Period.

be part of the same hotel chain with

being turned over to visual effects

the same furniture.

houses. The most challenging beast

are for period films The English

Craig—whose three Oscars

“That wasn’t really going to

to get right, Craig recalls, was the

Patient, Dangerous Liaisons and

work because you can’t confuse

Occamy, a feathered, two-legged

Gandhi—says, “It’s perceived, I

the audience by making them think

creature with a serpentine body that

suppose, as if [period films] were

that they are always staying in the

expands to fill the space it occupies.

more work and required a bigger

“It’s the most exotic creature

effort, and I think that absolutely

his screenplay, and then Villeneuve

same place,” she says. “Plus, the

tasked his production designer with

design of a hotel in Acapulco is

because of its vivid colors and its

is not true. Contemporary films

creating a less techy-looking version

gonna be different from the design

extraordinary part snake-, part

are more difficult because the

of the language and determining its

of a hotel in Las Vegas, or one in

bird-like movement and behavior,”

choices are endless. In a period film,

mechanics; what each blot, curl, and

London, because they’re all different

Craig says.

you’re restricted by the period, the

squiggle meant. He built a dictionary

climates with different history and

of about 100 logograms—circular

different types of construction.” The

department’s collective imagination

discover in research. There are fewer

coffee stain-esque inscriptions

Acapulco hotel suite that bookends

ran wild with the design of magical

choices. Contemporary films—the

produced with the heptapods’ ink.

the film particularly stands out,

creatures and buildings, but

fact that there’s a profusion of

with its aqua blue and lime yellow, a

they had to also create, “a very

choices makes it harder.”

that the heptapods’ language must

“fun-in-the-sun flavor,” as Oppewell

authentic-looking, very credible New

have circular logograms. And circles

describes it.

York,” Craig explains, “ because we

whether the Academy has again

It was Heisserer who determined

subtly permeated other parts of

Beatty’s mysterious Hughes

The Fantastic Beasts art

clothes available, the detail that you

Come Feb. 26, 2017, we’ll know

learned on the Potter films that the

awarded a production designer’s

the production design—Vermette

prefers to conduct business in

magic works really well when it’s

recreation of the past, or imagined

found a location for the hospital

darkened rooms. But the minimal

born out of something that seems

present or future. ★

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★ | flash mob DEADLINE PRESENTS AWARDSLINE SCREENING SERIES SAND STORM, NOVEMBER 28, LOS ANGELES Director/writer Elite Zexer.

DEADLINE PRESENTS AWARDSLINE SCREENING SERIES AFTERIMAGE, NOVEMBER 29, LOS ANGELES Actor Boguslaw Linda.

DEADLINE PRESENTS AWARDSLINE SCREENING SERIES

RE X /S H U T T E RSTO CK

SIERANEVADA, NOVEMBER 30, LOS ANGELES Actors Judith State and Rolando Matsangos.

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DEADLINE

For Your Consideration In All Categories Including

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Produced By

CHRIS MELEDANDRI p.g.a.

JANET HEALY p.g.a.

BEST DIRECTOR GARTH JENNINGS

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY GARTH JENNINGS

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