Moviefone Editorial

Tag: andrea-arnold

  • Scarlett Johansson Starring in ‘Featherwood’

    Scarlett Johansson stars in 'Wes Anderson's Asteroid City.'
    Scarlett Johansson stars in ‘Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.’

    Preview:

    • Scarlett Johansson will lead new true-crime thriller ‘Featherwood’.
    • Andrea Arnold is directing.
    • The movie is based on an award-winning, six-part news article.

    Scarlett Johansson has played a few real-life people in her movie career; you might recall her Janet Leigh in 2012’s ‘Hitchcock’ or as Mary Boleyn in 2008’s ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.

    She’s now found a compelling true-life character to play for a new movie called ‘Featherwood’ that sounds like it’ll be a challenge for any actor.

    Related Article: Scarlett Johansson and Jason Schwartzman Talk Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’

    What’s the story of ‘Featherwood’?

    Scarlett Johansson in Marvel Studios' 'Black Widow.'
    Scarlett Johansson in Marvel Studios’ ‘Black Widow.’ Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

    Johansson would play Carol Blevins, a heroin addict and “Aryan Princess featherwood” (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas.

    Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Brotherhood.

    The script for the new movie comes from Ned Benson, who previously wrote and directed ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby’, which starred James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain. But a more recent job brought him into Johansson’s orbit, as he worked on the story for Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’.

    According to Deadline, Benson drew from an award-winning, six-part Dallas Morning News article by Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Farwell.

    Who is making ‘Featherwood’?

    Sasha Lane in 'American Honey.'
    Sasha Lane in ‘American Honey.’ Photo: A24.

    Andrea Arnold is aboard to direct the new movie. Arnold is the British filmmaker best known for the indie likes of ‘Fish Tank’, ‘Red Road’ and ‘American Honey’ and her naturalistic style feels like a good fit for Blevins’ story.

    More recently, Arnold directed a documentary about the life of a cow called, well, ‘Cow’ and is currently in post-production on a new drama called ‘Bird’ that stars Barry Keoghan.

    What is next for Scarlett Johansson?

    Grace Edwards as Dinah, Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell and Damien Bonnaro as Bodyguard/Driver in writer/director Wes Anderson's 'Asteroid City,' a Focus Features release.
    (L to R) Grace Edwards as Dinah, Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell and Damien Bonnaro as Bodyguard/Driver in writer/director Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features

    Most recently seen in Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’, Johansson has a couple of films headed to screens.

    She’s leading an untitled romantic comedy alongside Channing Tatum, which was directed by Greg Berlanti, and has contributed the voice of Elita to ‘Transformers’ animated prequel movie ‘Transformers One’, due in theaters on September 13th.

    The actress is also one of the interviewees for new documentary ‘Broadway: The Next Generation’.

    When will ‘Featherwood’ be in theaters?

    ‘Featherwood’ has yet to lock down a distribution deal, so it doesn’t have a release date as of yet. But if it works out, we could certainly see it finding a slot come awards time.

    Scarlett Johansson in Marvel Studios' 'Black Widow.' Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios.
    Scarlett Johansson in Marvel Studios’ ‘Black Widow.’ Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

    Other Scarlett Johansson Movies:

    Buy Scarlett Johansson Movies on Amazon

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  • TIFF Interview: Agustina San Martín on ‘To Kill the Beast’

    TIFF Interview: Agustina San Martín on ‘To Kill the Beast’

    Julieth Micolta and Tamara Rocca in Agustina San Martín's 'To Kill the Beast'
    Julieth Micolta and Tamara Rocca in Agustina San Martín’s ‘To Kill the Beast’

    Born in Buenos Aires, writer-director Agustina San Martín’s bold debut feature film, ‘To Kill the Beast,’ mixes reality and mythology, sexuality and religion, as 17-year-old Emilia (Tamara Rocca), arrives in a small, border town in between Argentina and Brazil looking for her estranged brother. Staying at her aunt’s hostel, she hears stories from villagers of a beast in the jungle that they believe is the spirit of an evil man. When a new lodger arrives, Emilia discovers a whole new world beyond her understanding.

    San Martín studied filmmaking at the University of Buenos Aires, where she also worked as a screenwriting professor. Her short films ‘The Cry of the Oxen’ premiered at Festival de Cartagena, ‘The Swedish Cousin’, co-written and co-directed with Inés María Barrionuevo, premiered at the Berlinale and ‘Monster God’ (19) received special mention at the Cannes Film Festival.

    She sat down with Moviefone ahead of the premiere of ‘To Kill The Beast’ as part of the Discovery section at the Toronto International Film Festival.

    Filmmaker Agustina San Martín. Her feature directorial debut, 'To Kill the Beast' premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
    Filmmaker Agustina San Martín. Her feature directorial debut, ‘To Kill the Beast’ premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

    Moviefone: How did you first develop the idea for this film?

    Agustina San Martín: The first idea was to put a sexually ambiguous girl (at least for the audience) at a frontier. Second: to have a mostly female cast with a mostly female crew. These were the first things that we decided. Later, it developed onto a magical universe where we would connect sexuality and local myths. I wrote the film 9 years ago, so, as I like to say, the main character and I were both coming of age at the same time. My ways of looking at the film continued shifting as I proceeded, so in that way it’s hard to decide on the genesis of an initial idea, since things felt like they were always moving.

    MF: Were there any local folklore or legends that inspired the script?

    San Martín: Many of them! Most of the most famous jungle folklore usually involves a mythological man that attacks women or girls who disobey. For example, the Pombero or the Curupí, both have the capacity of punishing and getting girls pregnant. In that sense, for me that “virile domination” was the essence of this beast, as it is said to be the spirit of an Evil Man.

    MF: What is the significance of the film taking place on the border between Argentina and Brazil?

    San Martín: Frontiers are a space of uncertainty where something is not one nor the other. Usually, towns on the border, and moreover towns where the geographical frontier is not physically marked, for example with a fence, have their own way of habiting that space. In this frontier, people often speak a mixture between Spanish and Portuguese. Food culture is also tangled. Two things join to make something else. For me this was always fascinating, and it feels like these are forgotten spaces where things defy their own categorization.

    MF: Were there any challenges shooting on location?

    San Martín: Just the excess of random tropical rain, but it was actually just perfect. We had a great team rooting for the film.

    MF: Can you talk about the film’s unique sound design?

    San Martín: The mix at the end in particular was brilliant. Mercedes Gaviria is my sound designer. She is very talented, and we worked together on “Monster God” too. We like to talk a lot about ambience and about ways to generate certain feelings into things. Usually, our conversations are extremely poetic, yet she always finds a way to sink that onto sounds. As we’ve worked together before, she already knew my likes and dislikes, so it was actually very easy to communicate around those sound textures. For me, ambience is everything. Both of us are very baroque in that kind of way: we love an excess of elements and making it be like an orchestra of diegetic sounds. We usually try to build scenes by the musicality of the background sounds. The mix was done in Brazil by Tiago Bello. We did everything remotely, which was kind of insane, but since we did it amidst Covid, it was the only way.

    MF: How did you capture the mist throughout the film?

    San Martín: It was very dedicated and expensive work! We had two mist machines, but they weren’t enough for that immense jungle, so we had to recreate the mist in post-production, with VFX. I had drawings for every frame and where the mist should go, and along with María Peralta we built the scenes like a painting. The only cases in which the mist is real, were some shots we did with the DP, Constanza Sandoval, at 4:00am in the morning all by ourselves because it was the only way, and we couldn’t make people work outside of the approved schedule. We just did it out of pure nerdiness and a mist-loving obsession.

    MF: Can you talk about the use of green throughout the film? Both in the interiors, but also the lush jungle?

    San Martín: The houses of that particular location are actually all in color. They are all wooden, very similar to one another, and they all share similar colors. Blue, light blue, green, yellow. Since we had decided to aim for a cyan/greenish kind of look to the film, we embraced those colors as an identity and tried to diminish the magenta and red tones as much as possible. It started as an aesthetic decision, but it started to make further sense as we evolved in the process.

    MF: How did you cast Tamara Rocca as Emilia? Can you talk about her character’s arc?

    San Martín: We did a very long process of casting. When we found her, I had a feeling about her. Later we clicked, which was a key since I always try to work with people I would like to be friends with, to make the long film process happier. Her character starts as a girl who is looking at the past and ends up by looking at the future, that’s how I see it. She has to learn how to live with herself in order to find what she is really looking for. The sexual awakening has everything to do with it: it is through sexuality that her narrative is able to shift.

    MF: What do you hope people feel after they’ve watched the film?

    San Martín: It’s so hard to make films, and even harder to make films everyone approves of. The only thing I hope is that whoever this film is meant for, can see it, can take something from it. Be reinforced by it. I’m trying not to think so much about how it may be received.

    MF: Can you recommend another film directed by a woman for readers to seek out?

    San Martín: I love ‘Lazzaro Felice (Happy As Lazarro)’ directed by Alice Rohrwacher, ‘Fish Tank’ directed by Andrea Arnold and “La Ciénaga” directed by Lucrecia Martel.

    ‘To Kill the Beast’ premieres on September 14 as part of the Discovery series at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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  • How ‘American Honey’ Hinted at Riley Keough’s Work in ‘Zola’

    How ‘American Honey’ Hinted at Riley Keough’s Work in ‘Zola’

    Zola – directed by Janicza Bravo

    'Zola' stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough on set with director Janicza Bravo
    ‘Zola’ stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough on set with director Janicza Bravo

    Director of one of this year’s most buzzed titles, Janicza Bravo is poised for a breakout year. I wrote about her debut film ‘Lemon’ a few weeks back, but there is never enough space to praise Bravo’s singular artistic vision.

    Along with ‘Lemon’ and a cadre of short films, she also directed the much-lauded ‘Juneteenth’ episode of Donald Glover’s FX show ‘Atlanta’. Bravo was brought on to direct ‘Zola’ after James Franco exited the project amidst a sex misconduct scandal. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, but its release was pushed back a year due to the ongoing pandemic.

    The original 148-tweet thread from Aziah “Zola” King was turned into an article by Rolling Stone’s David Kushner in 2015. This was then used as the basis for the first draft of the screenplay by Andrew Neel and Mike Roberts. After Bravo signed on to direct, she re-wrote the script with playwright Jeremy O. Harris.

    Bravo described King’s original tweets as “like the intersection of Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow’ and David Lynch‘s ‘Blue Velvet.’ The text was enigmatic, energized, raw and unfiltered. It seemed to exist on a planet that was just next to ours, somewhere larger than life and deeply saturated.”

    The opening of the thread was instantly iconic: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out???? It’s kind of long, but full of suspense.” What unfolded was a harrowing yet hilarious story that included pole dancing, strip clubs, seedy motels, drugs, attempted suicide, and eventually sex trafficking, all told through King’s sharp sense of humor.

    King told Kushner, “The humor made [readers] want to dig deeper into the story, and they realized it’s something that could happen in their backyard — I was their waitress. I was the girl they walked past in the grocery store or hotel lobby.”

    Bravo’s take on the story stars Taylour Paige as the titular Zola who meets a sex worker named Stefani (Riley Keough) at the diner where she works. The two immediately hit it off, and Stefani invites Zola on a trip to Tampa to make stacks of cash at a swanky strip joint. When Stefani arrives at Zola’s home at the start of their trip, a man named X (Colman Domingo) is at the wheel.

    Despite her own better judgment, Zola goes off with this motley crew of relative strangers and finds herself deeply entrenched in some serious drama. Shot on 16 mm, Bravo captures the garishness and glamour of Florida at night. Paige is masterful as Zola, her face capable of every emotion in the book. For every crazy thing that comes out of Keough’s mouth, Paige’s reactions say more than words ever could.

    Keough herself has proven time and again an actress of immense range, often walking a tightrope between genius and bad taste. Domingo is as ominous as he is hilarious, adding layers to X beyond that of a clichéd pimp. ‘Zola’ proves that even when truth is stranger than fiction, when a story is this good it works in any medium.

    ‘Zola’ is in theaters now.

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    American Honey – directed by Andrea Arnold

    Riley Keough and Shia LaBeouf in 'American Honey'
    Riley Keough and Shia LaBeouf in ‘American Honey’

    Riley Keough, granddaughter of the King himself, Elvis Presley, is no stranger to road trip movies. One of her early breakout roles was in director Andrea Arnold’s 2016 epic ‘American Honey’. Arnold first broke out with her short film ‘Wasp’ for which she won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2005.

    Three of her four feature films have premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: ‘Red Road’, ‘Fish Tank’, and ‘American Honey,’ where all three went on to win the Jury Prize. Most recently, Arnold directed all seven episodes of the second season of HBO’s ‘Big Little Lies’.

    Shot by Robbie Ryan in a tight 4:3 aspect ratio, ‘American Honey’ follows teenager Star (Sasha Lane) as she meets charismatic Jake (Shia LaBeouf) one day in a Kmart. Star is stuck in a dead end town in Oklahoma, caring for her younger siblings and fending off the abusive advances of her father.

    Jake offers her an escape in the form of a magazine crew. Jake and several other young people travel together in a van selling subscriptions to magazines, a mysterious and somewhat dubious enterprise. The crew is run by the domineering Krystal (Riley Keough), and what starts out as a freewheeling adventure eventually devolves into its own kind of drama.

    Inspired by a New York Times investigative piece she read about magazine crews, Arnold impulsively took a road trip from California to Miami, Florida before starting work on the script. Most of the cast was found in parking lots, construction sites, streets, and state fairs in order to capture the authentic makeup of these magazine crews.

    Scouted while on spring break, Sasha Lane told The Guardian she “felt Arnold’s vibe and decided to trust Arnold for an audition.” Landing the lead role, Lane has since starred in several films, including Desiree Akhavan’s ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post,’ and she’s recently appeared in ‘Loki’ on Disney +.

    Since making her debut in Floria Sigismondi’s ‘The Runaways (2010), Riley Keough has acted in 25 films, six of which were directed by women. For her beguiling turn as Krystal in ‘American Honey’ she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards.

    This year, Andrea Arnold is returning to Cannes, though not with a film. She will serve as the President of Un Certain Regard, which runs parallel to the main competition. In contrast to the Palme d’Or, which tends to favor more established filmmakers, the Prix Un Certain Regard was introduced to the festival in 1998 to recognize younger talent and encourage innovative and daring works.

    Seven out of the 20 films competing for the Prix Un Certain Regard this year are directed by women, as opposed to the mere 4 out of 24 that are competing for the Palme d’Or. Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano’ remains the only film directed by a woman to win the top award at the festival.

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  • Female Filmmakers in Focus: Director Zaida Bergroth on ‘Tove’ & ‘Holiday’

    Female Filmmakers in Focus: Director Zaida Bergroth on ‘Tove’ & ‘Holiday’

    Tove (directed by Zaida Bergroth)

    Alma Pöysti in 'Tove'
    Alma Pöysti in ‘Tove’

    Zaida Bergroth graduated from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2004. Her debut film ‘Last Cowboy Standing’ played in festivals around the world. Her fifth feature film ‘Tove’ is a look at the early life of artist and author Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins. For those unfamiliar with the Moomins, they are a family of trolls (who resemble hippos) that are the central characters of nine books, five picture books and a long-running comic strip. These characters have been featured in numerous television series, films and there is even a theme park called Moomin World!

    ‘Tove’ is the second most expensive film ever produced in Finland and was selected as the country’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, although it was not nominated. Finnish theater actress Alma Pöysti plays the titular artist as she navigates the art world in post-WWII Finland and struggles with the success of Moomins at the expense of her fine art work. The film also explores her relationships with left wing journalist and prominent intellectual Atos Wirtanen and theater director Vivica Bandler.

    ‘Tove’ is playing in select theaters now.

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    Moviefone spoke to Zaida Bergroth about her new film.

    Moviefone: What drew you to a project about Tove Jansson?
    Zaida Bergroth: I was asked to this, and I think that was really good because I wouldn’t have dared to suggest this myself. That happened in 2017 in the springtime when producer Aleksi Bardy asked me to join this project.

    MF: Was it always focused on this early part of her career and life?
    ZB: No. We did speculate about that. We had many discussions with the screenwriters and producers, but quite early on decided we wanted to focus on this part because Tove Jansson is very, very famous in Finland, probably the most loved artist that there is, and we wanted to tell a new kind of story about her, and we wanted to focus especially on this period when she was a bit younger, before she became famous. We wanted to shine a new light on her.

    MF: She calls herself a “bleak shadow” of her father’s genius. How do you think that tension with father drove her as an artist?
    ZB: We could have made a movie about that relationship because it was so interesting. The thing is they loved each other very much, and I believe they understood each other on a very deep level because they were both artists, and they were both very ambitious, and they were both very talented. I think that Tove really admired her father. His opinion meant the world to her, so everything he said she really took it to heart. Her father didn’t really appreciate the Moomins, so I can understand the frustrations that Tove must have felt, that she’s getting recognition for something that she, at the time, considered to be children’s stories. And there were a lot of political arguments also. I remember I read from a letter that Tove sent to a friend that she got so angry with arguing with her father that she had to throw up. So they were very dramatic, their arguments. But they respected each other.

    MF: When she first sleeps with Vivica Bandler, she describes it as “a new room in the house of the soul”. Where did that phrase come from?
    ZB: Yes, that was from her writing. That’s how she described it, and we thought it was a very nice and poetic way to put it. It was a good idea to have that dialogue in a scene, where she tried to explain in a beautiful way the situation to Atos [Wirtanen], whom she also loved. So yeah, that came from Tove’s actual description of her lovers.

    MF: In doing research, what kind of written material did you uncover?
    ZB: There are two really good biographies written about her, so I read those. Of course, she wrote a lot of letters to her friends and to her family members. They were wonderful, very revealing. There were documentaries made about her. There was so much material about her, you couldn’t ask for more. It was almost overwhelming, but it was lovely also. After you have studied as much as you can, I felt free to do our version of the story.

    MF: What was the atmosphere in Finland like for the LGBTQ community at that time?
    ZB: It was illegal to have same-sex relationships. You could go to prison for that. I know it was more dangerous for men. Women were a bit more safe. You could easier live with your female partner as friends or whatever. But it was illegal, so of course the society didn’t look at it in a nice way. I think in artistic circles they were more safe, and the circles that Tove and Vivica lived in were pretty bohemian. It was very life affirming, they really wanted to celebrate life after the second world war, so there was this freedom, at least in their circles.

    MF: She insists that her paintings are really her, and the Moomins are a distraction. Can you talk about mining that tension to show Tove’s interiority?
    ZB: I felt it was one of the most interesting things for me. I can relate to an artist who is afraid of failing, and I think it was so interesting that she didn’t really appreciate the thing that came the most from her heart. That is what I really believe. I think that she was a very good painter, but she was more exceptional as an illustrator and as an author. I could relate to that problem of getting recognition for something that you are not prepared for. At that time, after the second world war, I think she tried to impress some people. There was something very conventional in her paintings, and I think the Moomin stories and those political cartoons that she made were bolder, and they had humor, and they were wilder in every way. Maybe there was something holding her back when it came to her paintings. Maybe the thing that was holding her back was the opinion of her father. Perhaps. It was interesting to think about these things and to speculate. Of course, the movie hints towards some directions, but we can’t really know.

    MF: Can you talk about casting Alma Pöysti as Tove?
    ZB: She’s a great actress. She has been mainly on the stage. I had seen her many times in the theater. We had a pretty massive casting process, but she was on my mind very early on. I’m glad that she accepted the part.

    MF: Tuulikki Pietilä is only introduced at the end of the film even though she was Tove’s longest partner, and the film sort of indicated that Vivica was who she loved the deepest. What led to that choice?
    ZB: I think Tuuliki was definitely a big love in her life. That relationship lasted for so many decades, and they were so important to each other. But Vivica was the first woman she fell in love with, and I felt it was so essential to show that it was a new beginning for her. She never looked back. She loved Atos dearly, but she never had a relationship with men after that. So, I call this genre of film a coming of middle age. She is still learning so many things about herself. I think it was a life changing thing to fall in love with Vivica and learn about herself. She had to learn to respect her own needs. She thought she could control her emotional life before that, and I think it was a big learning experience for her. With Tuuliki, they were so happy, it wouldn’t make for a lot of drama.

    MF: What do you hope people take from the film?
    ZB: It’s wonderful to lead people to Tove’s works. It’s wonderful to let people know this kind of exceptional artist exists, and excited and her works are wonderful. I hope that we were able to create an honest portrait of a young, female artist. I hope that people connect with her and her experiences.

    MF: Can you recommend another film directed by a woman for our readers to seek out?
    ZB: I love works by Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold and the Argentine film director Lucrecia Martel. I would recommend to get to know those filmmakers and getting to know their work. Also, I recommend Isabella Eklöf’s ‘Holiday’. It is delicate and violent at the same time. It’s bold in the way that is made that makes me respect the filmmaker herself. I think it touched me and it disturbed me.

    Holiday (directed by Isabella Eklöf)

    Victoria Carmen Sonne in 'Holiday'
    Victoria Carmen Sonne in ‘Holiday’

    Isabella Eklöf attended the National Film School of Denmark and made her feature screenwriting debut co-writing the acclaimed fantasy film ‘Border’ with director Ali Abbasi. Her feature film directorial debut ‘Holiday’ screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in World Cinema Dramatic Competition section. It won two awards at Fantastic Fest later that year, as well as four Bodil Awards, which is the highest film honor in Denmark. ‘Holiday’ follows a young woman named Sascha as she embarks on a vacation to the Turkish Riviera with her drug dealer boyfriend. Unflinching in its depiction of violence against women, it also asks viewers to question what they think they know about certain women. A warning for viewers: there is an extremely graphic rape scene in this film.

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  • HBO Dismisses ‘Big Little Lies’ Director Controversy As ‘Misinformation’

    HBO Dismisses ‘Big Little Lies’ Director Controversy As ‘Misinformation’

    HBO

    Controversy, what controversy?

    Today, HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys addressed reporting that Season 2 of  “Big Little Lies” was “taken away from” director Andrea Arnold.

    “There’s a lot of misinformation around that subject,” he said  at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Wednesday.

    “Let me clarify. There wouldn’t be a second season without Andrea. We’re indebted to her.” But, he added, “As anybody who works in television knows, a director typically does not have final creative control. That creative control was taken from a director is a false premise.”

    IndieWire reported that Arnold was given the impression she had carte blanche for Season 2, then was devastated to have the entire season taken out of her hands and re-edited by Season 1 director and series executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée.

    Bloys says Arnold was never promised final cut. He added, “I would be hard pressed to point to any show that airs the director’s cut of any episodes.”

    As for the fact that as many as a dozen editors worked on some episodes this season, Boys explained, “[Jean-Marc] is an editor and he has a team of editors that he works with he is very particular about who he works with and how he works with them.”

    He added, “Jean-Marc was not given carte blanche [in Season 1]. He and [David E. Kelley] and the producers had an aligned vision on that they wanted to do.”

    Speaking of a potential third season, Bloys didn’t expect one, saying: “To me, there’s no obvious place to go, no obvious story. I would certainly be open to it because I love working with all of them.”

    None of the stars of the show, some of whom also produce, have so far commented on the controversy.

    Although Laura Dern did show her support for Arnold by posting a photo of herself in a t-shirt that read “Andrea Arnold” to Instagram when shooting on Season 2 wrapped.

    [Via Variety, Deadline]

  • ‘Big Little Lies’ Insiders Claim Season 2 Was Taken Away from Director Andrea Arnold

    ‘Big Little Lies’ Insiders Claim Season 2 Was Taken Away from Director Andrea Arnold

    HBO

    If you wondered why Season 2 of HBO’s award-winning series “Big Little Lies” felt so choppy, you weren’t alone.

    IndieWire reports that after Andrea Arnold (whose films include “American Honey” and “Fish Tank“), was hired to direct the season, she was given free rein and no style guidelines.

    And then executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée, who had directed the first season, took over and radically edited what she had shot, then ordered 17 days of closely monitored reshoots.

    According to a number of sources close to the production, there was a dramatic shift in late 2018 as the show was yanked away from Arnold, and creative control was handed over to executive producer and Season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallée. The goal was to unify the visual style of Season 1 and 2. In other words, after all the episodes had been shot, take Arnold’s work and make it look and feel like the familiar style Vallée brought to the hit first season, which won eight of the 16 Emmys it was nominated for in 2017, including Outstanding Limited Series.

    Vallée, who was busy shooting “Sharp Objects,” apparently thought Arnold’s style was close enough to his that it wasn’t necessary to give her any notes about the “visual rules” of the show, which is a common practice for TV series that uses different filmmaking teams.

    As Vallée, told IndieWire last year, “We have similar ways of shooting, when you look at it. She shot handheld, available light. She aims for performances, like I [did] in Season 1. She is who she is, but the spirit of the other is there.”

    According to IndieWire, “the creative team… believed that Vallée and his Season 1 team could easily shape [Arnold’s work] into the show’s distinctive style in post-production.”

    Vallée and Arnold reportedly never spoke during production, so she had no idea he was going to come in and take over.

    Arnold chose not to speak to IndieWire, but is reportedly “heartbroken” about  having shot and edited her own version of the show and “then have it taken from her, without explanation or warning.”

    HBO issued the following statement:

    There wouldn’t be a Season 2 of ‘Big Little Lies’ without Andrea Arnold. We at HBO and the producers are extremely proud of her work. As with any television project, the executive producers work collaboratively on the series and we think the final product speaks for itself.

    Fans on social media are now asking for HBO to “release the Arnold cut.”

    [Via IndieWire]