Oscar nominations are out

Compare to how clean (mostly) Ridley Scott movies are, considering they mostly swim in the same waters. Exception: Dumb sequence where a space ship tries to turn around to go back to Mars and pick up dude.

 

So maybe "Get Out"? How scary is it? Mrs. Whitman doesn't do scary.

 

This will sound like I'm humble bragging or name dropping or whatever, but... I owe my entire embryonic screenwriting career to a director who started making small-ish films and now makes very big films. The problem is, from my observation, that once you get on that path, it's very hard to throttle back. The way the industry is built, there are very few directors who the studios will trust with big budgets (correctly). So they make it harder and harder for those select few to say no.

I'm working on two film projects with him, one medium-size, and one very small, and he wants to direct them, but I think we both know that he probably won't direct them—even though I really hope he does—because he keeps getting offers to direct big movies. When someone dangles hundreds of millions of dollars in front of you and giant marketing budgets and the best talent in the world, it's really hard to say no. I suspect Nolan is in the same position. He's basically in a place where he can make anything he wants. If he went to a studio and said, "I'd like to make a small period piece with unknown actors and a budget of $5 million," they'd be like, Are you sure? You don't want to make a blockbuster instead? And then they would dangle some incredible offer in front of him that he couldn't refuse. It's like "small-movie" directors—Sofia Coppola, say—are small-movie directors and big-movie directors are big-movie directors, and there's a whole system in place to make sure you can't go back and forth.

 

Is she black?

 

Tell Michael Bay I really liked his music videos.

 

I know. It's where Rian Johnson's at now, too.

 

I fucking hate you.

I just had to look up his resume. His first movie as a director was Bad Boys. He never made small movies.

 

With an ass like that, somewhere down the line, I would have to assume.

 

Exactly. Brick was tiny. Looper was his ticket to the "big-movie" club. Now he's not turning down Star Wars to make Brick II.

 

You hate me because I made you look up Michael Bay?

I just remember his late '80s, early '90s hard rock music videos. They all had the exact same look, flow and really hot women in skimpy outfits. And apparently, per the great oral history about MTV, once he made it big in the movies, he ditched any references to his music video past faster than Marky Mark.

 

He really made a giant jump, from music videos and shorts to major action tentpoles. His first three movies were Bad Boys, The Rock, and Armageddon. He went from budgets of $19 million, to $75 million, to $140 million in three years. And all of them were massive box-office hits.

The guy is a very specific kind of genius.

EDIT: The closest he's ever come to losing money, despite budgets that have sprawled to $200 million, is 13 Hours, his Benghazi thing. It broke even or made or lost a sliver.

He's flop proof.

 

Maybe I'd feel differently about "Inception" had he cast Brad Garrett instead of Leo.