COVER STORY: EMMA THOMAS
PHOTO BY MELINDA SUE GORDON
Producer Emma Thomas chats between takes with cast member Harry Styles on the set of Warner Bros.’ action thriller Dunkirk.
show, which was going to cost us $6,000. We had to raise the money. It was the most intense and insane experience of our lives because we got the print made in the UK, and our lead actor flew the print up to San Francisco. I mean, it had just been finished. He flew it out with hours to spare before our first screening at the festival. The first time we saw this print was when it ran in the theater. I look back on it now and I think we were mad to do that. After we had a successful screening in San Francisco we hooked up with an amazing guy named Peter Broderick who ran a company called Next Wave Films. Peter gave us finishing funds so that we could blow the film up to 35 mm, and helped us get distribution. We played a bunch of other festivals, while in the meantime, Chris had been writing Memento. On the back of the small-scale success that Following had, we managed to get Memento going.
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT YOUR AND CHRIS’ CAREERS IS THAT THE EARLIER FILMS EACH DEMONSTRATE A CLEAR GROWTH IN TERMS OF SCALE AND PRODUCTION COMPLEXITY. Exactly. I would say that the leap from Following to Memento is by far the biggest leap we’ve made. When you look at Chris’ body of work on paper, you would probably think that Insomnia to Batman Begins would be the biggest leap.
I ADMIT, THAT WAS MY THOUGHT, AT FIRST. To me, the biggest jump was actually Following to Memento, because although Memento was a miniscule budget by comparison with the films that we subsequently made, it was the first time that we were making a film with somebody
else’s money. You’re no longer pleasing yourself. On Following, we could do whatever we wanted. We controlled every aspect of it. We didn’t have anyone giving us notes. I mean, it was incredible, looking back. On Memento, there were a lot of people with a great deal of money invested, and if they didn’t have money invested, they had their reputations invested. So you find yourself having to do a lot more explanation of what you’re doing.
ESPECIALLY WITH A STORY LIKE MEMENTO . Especially with Memento. Memento was a script that when I first read it, I remember very clearly a lot of going back and forth among the pages. It was definitely a challenging script, pushing boundaries in a very unique way, just a very different experience. All credit to Newmarket and [producers] Aaron Ryder and Jen and
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