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00:00Hello everybody. Hi guys, good morning. Good morning. I hope you enjoy your quiche.
00:05I told Paul that this event is early enough that he still has time to go home and get out
00:09of his PJs and get dressed for work.
00:13Famously best dressed director, I think. It's a very low bar.
00:18I thought you were still in like your Cowboy Carter 10-gallon hat era, but I see you cleaned up
00:22for all these colors.
00:23There you go. Thank you so much for coming and talking to us.
00:26Thank you for having me, everybody.
00:26I want to start by saying, is Warren Dern here? He's your lawyer of...
00:30I wrote Warren. He goes, what's that?
00:34I didn't know. I said, are you at the lawyer event?
00:36He goes, what lawyer event? So he's not here.
00:38Shout out to Warren Dern, everybody.
00:41Just to pick up on what Stephen said earlier, what do you think the movies get right about lawyers when
00:45they depict them?
00:47Get right about them?
00:48And or wrong.
00:50What they get wrong is they lawyers are always really well lit in movies.
00:57Every courtroom, every office I've been in is not well lit.
01:01So you all look really good on screen.
01:03I'll just say that.
01:04Fresh blowouts and backlighting.
01:05Yes, exactly.
01:08You know, as our publisher and co-president, Dea, said, this conversation is sort of supposed to be about what's
01:13working.
01:14But I just want to acknowledge first this tremendous year you've had.
01:17I mean, starting with A Simple Favor, too.
01:19But, of course, the runaway success that the House made has just been so huge.
01:23So congrats.
01:24I mean, what would you think the secret was?
01:26I mean, those books have been around for a minute.
01:28And those rights have been sort of out there for a minute.
01:31How did you crack it?
01:32What did you think the secret was to doing it right?
01:33Well, I mean, you know, the fact that it was a very popular book that's been on the bestseller list
01:38for two years, you know, more than that now.
01:42You know, you're always, you know, the dirty word IP.
01:45Every studio wants IP.
01:46And I get it because, you know, originals are just hard to launch because nobody knows what they are.
01:53But I personally love originals.
01:55But having the backing of something that people know and are excited about that has a fan base helps you.
02:02But it doesn't get you over the hump.
02:04It's really, A, how you cast it.
02:07B, what your mission is with the project.
02:12And to me, the mission of all filmmakers, of all Hollywood, has to be, first and foremost, to entertain the
02:19audience.
02:20And it sounds trite to say that.
02:22But, you know, there's a lot of filmmakers and studios that kind of chase awards, which is fine.
02:28But you're not in service of the audience if your first goal is to try to win the critics and
02:34win awards in that way.
02:36So, you know, look, I made a movie called Bridesmaids.
02:39And it got nominated for...
02:41Right?
02:41Give it up for Bridesmaids.
02:42Turns 15 this year.
02:44But it got nominated for two Oscars.
02:46Do you think any of us thought we were going to get nominated for two Oscars when I had somebody
02:49shitting in a sink?
02:52You know, but we were just in service of the audience.
02:54And so that's really what we did on The Housemaid.
02:57And, you know, it was a tricky book because it's a story about abuse.
03:04So, you know, but I want all my movies to be kind of fun.
03:07So how do you make a fun abuse movie?
03:09You don't.
03:10But what you do is...
03:11The structure of the movie was great because, I don't know if whoever hasn't seen it, I'll try not to
03:16spoil too much because it's got a good twist.
03:19But the base of the first half of the movie, you think it's one thing.
03:22And it seems like this potboiler kind of like, you know, beautiful woman moves into the house.
03:27Oh, it's a husband going to, you know, and the wife is crazy and all this stuff.
03:29So, you know there's an hour's worth of fun in that.
03:33So you just kind of have the fun in that and people get into it and they're laughing and cheering
03:38and, you know, happy when the wife gets kicked out of the house and all that.
03:42But then when you hit the twist and you realize that this woman has actually been abused and has been
03:48in this terrible situation, then there's no fun.
03:50Then you just have, you treat that dead serious and you get the audience so angry at the people that
03:57they were rooting for in the first hour that then, you know, once you've given the backstory of the abuse,
04:01now you can have the fun of the retribution against the people now who they now hate.
04:06And so that's when you turn it up to an 11.
04:09And, you know, so we were able to do that.
04:12I have an amazing cast.
04:13Sidney Sweeney was fantastic.
04:15Amanda Seyfried turns in a performance that's unbelievable.
04:18Brandon Sklenar comes out of, you know, out of 1923, that TV show, you know, and it ends with us.
04:26And just wanted to go for it with this character who seems fantastic and turns out to be awful.
04:32And so the fact that we were just kind of doing all that at this high level, you know, in
04:38service of an audience, you know, I test my movies very, very heavily when I'm putting them together.
04:44About, you know, the DGA gives me 10 weeks to do my director's cut where nobody can interfere and the
04:49studio can't get involved and all that.
04:51Which normally, as a director, you take that 10 weeks to put together what you think is the perfect, you
04:57know, perfect movie.
04:59But I like to go, and I have my contracts now, thanks to Warren Dern.
05:02To say Warren, good job.
05:04I get a free, without the studio, test screening that I can do at any time in those 10 weeks.
05:11So about five weeks in, I'll put the movie together and kind of go, I think it works.
05:15I think it's in good shape.
05:16I don't know.
05:17But I'm not in love with it yet.
05:18And so, you know, and we got a real test audience of 250 people recruited off the streets and out
05:23of movie theaters.
05:24So they don't know me, you know.
05:26Friends and family screenings are worthless.
05:30So many filmmakers, oh, wait, are really good friends and family.
05:32Oh, did you?
05:32Was it great?
05:33Did your family love your movie?
05:37You know, and so then you have these 250 people and they're brutal on your movie.
05:41But we record them, you know, we record their audio, we record them with night vision.
05:46Because especially, a lot of my movies are straight up comedy, so I'm just going off of the laughs.
05:50But with a movie like Housemaid, which is, it's fun and then it's not fun.
05:54You know, I want to see, are they, you know, there's nothing worse than the night vision.
05:58Just see everybody sitting there, you know, like this, eating popcorn.
06:01And the most exciting thing happens and they're just like doing this.
06:03You know, so I'm looking at that and going, okay, what are they reacting to?
06:07What are they not reacting to?
06:09Where can you tell it's slow?
06:10What got a laugh?
06:11What didn't get a laugh?
06:12That should have got a laugh, you know.
06:13And then go back in and, you know, re-edit and just keep doing that throughout the process.
06:17And then eventually the studio comes in and I do the test screenings with them there.
06:21But I'm less concerned about their notes.
06:24Sorry, studio.
06:26Because I've got empirical evidence now.
06:29I've got an, like, they go, I don't think this works.
06:31Let's look at the tape.
06:32You know, they laughed or they didn't laugh.
06:33Okay, I can't defend it if they didn't laugh or didn't react.
06:37And I don't want it in the movie if they didn't.
06:39You know, so by doing that, then you have a product.
06:42By the time you get to the end of the process and you've locked your movie,
06:47you've got something that you know works with about 90% of all audiences.
06:50Because we're bringing in, you know, all, you know, just a completely diverse crowd every time.
06:55We break it down very demographically of who's there.
06:58And so, you know, so then you know it works.
07:00So then you can have the confidence to kind of, you know, put it out there.
07:04And then the Lionsgate marketing team did an amazing job of promoting.
07:10We had this one thing that really helped us a lot, which was we did a screening of it.
07:16And if you've seen the movie, there's a thing where Sidney Sweeney's character is breaking all these plates.
07:21And so they did a screening of The Grove where they handed out these breakable plates to everybody.
07:30And I got up and introduced it and said, okay, at this certain point, you know, Amanda Seyfried's character is
07:35going to scream.
07:36You guys can all scream too.
07:37You know, it sounds ridiculous, but people really got into it.
07:39And it made them go, oh, I could just be very vocal and kind of crazy during this screening, which
07:45that's what I wanted.
07:45I want people to be energized and in it.
07:47And then, you know, I said, okay.
07:48And there's one moment when Sidney Sweeney's character says, you know, I fucking love gravy.
07:53And then she smashes this plate.
07:55And so when I said, when that happens, do it.
07:58And everyone went crazy breaking these plates.
08:01And we filmed it all with night visions and used it as part of our ad campaign.
08:06So all the, yeah, so people go, that, look how much fun everybody's having.
08:11I want to go see that movie in a movie theater, you know?
08:14And so that just took us to the next level.
08:17And what was really interesting too is like TikTok, who knew that so many people go to the movies and
08:25film themselves watching the movie?
08:28It seems crazy.
08:30And yet it's, this is how people back in movie theaters telling you.
08:34No, I, there's so many young women who would go in groups and they'd film themselves getting all their, like
08:41they do a, what is it called?
08:42A hurricane or whatever, where you, you, you have the pop machine and you just get, you mix them all
08:46together into one cup.
08:48I think it's called a suicide.
08:49Suicide.
08:49Well, there you go.
08:51Long Island iced tea, I guess.
08:53You're good.
08:54But they, that, and they get all their snacks.
08:56They bring blankets.
08:58Who knew this?
08:58People bring blankets to the movies now because especially, you know, because now with these more comfortable seats, they'll snuggle
09:05up under their blankets with their friends and then film themselves watching the movie and reacting and screaming and all
09:10this stuff.
09:10And then they put it out.
09:12And it's fantastic.
09:14And then Cindy Sweeney is so brilliant.
09:15She would get those, she would just call all those videos and put them on her feed every day.
09:21So not only are people seeing this all over the place, but then people were like, oh, I want to
09:25be in her feed.
09:26So they're going and filming themselves doing it too.
09:28And it just, it just created this whole juggernaut.
09:31You know, we're, we're just scratching $400 million worldwide with the movie.
09:35And what was your budget?
09:36Yeah.
09:36$35 million budget.
09:38That's crazy.
09:38Yeah.
09:38Yeah.
09:39Give it up for that.
09:39It's a crazy multiplier.
09:42I think everything you just said really illustrates the power of, um, I think this, this phrase has a little
09:48bit of a context around it, but like popcorn movies.
09:51Yeah.
09:51And you've always done it in a way that's more elevated, but still, like you said, pleasing the audience is
09:56probably a really good place to start.
09:58Yeah.
09:59Well, it's always looked at it being so like, you know, a guilty pleasure, a popcorn movie, which, which great.
10:04I'll take the, you know, but I know, you know, if you're a serious filmmaker, you're like, oh, we don't
10:08do that.
10:09It's like, why not?
10:10You know, I, giving people a good time makes people keep going to the movies.
10:14You know, I have this thing about, you know, when it's like, you know, the Academy Awards season, all what
10:22I call homework movies come out, you know, you know, I'm in the Academy.
10:25You have to watch these and look, and they're always really good, but it's, it's never like, oh, I can't
10:29wait to watch it.
10:30It's always like, oh, okay, I got to watch this one.
10:32Yeah.
10:32What's the three hours long?
10:33Okay.
10:34Here we go.
10:34You know, terminal illness, children being abandoned.
10:37All right, let's do that.
10:38Yeah.
10:38Yeah.
10:38Yeah.
10:39Exactly.
10:39You know, look, I'm glad people are making important movies like that, but I didn't get in the business to
10:43do that.
10:43I get in the business to make, let people have fun.
10:45I was a standup comedian for years.
10:47And that's honestly the, probably the best training I've had for putting my movies together.
10:51Cause I put them, that's how I used to put together my standup act.
10:54You know, you write a bunch of material, you go up on a, you know, on an off night and
10:58try it all.
10:59And that didn't work.
10:59And you record it.
11:00And okay, let's go back and change this and all that.
11:02You know, by the time, so you finally working into something good.
11:05So, yeah.
11:06So I, I love popcorn movies.
11:08And, uh, you know, keep, we got to keep making them.
11:11That's how, that's how we're getting people back into theaters and people are going back into theaters.
11:15I'm so tired of hearing everybody saying movies are dead, movie theaters are dead.
11:18They're not dead.
11:19If we don't, if we give people a reason to go to them, you know?
11:22And so that's why I think, again, audience first, and you gotta be hard on material too.
11:28You know, um, you know, when I lectured to film students and stuff, everybody's, they're always like, how do I
11:33know what to work on?
11:34Um, I say the, the test you need to do is if, um, you were in a movie theater and
11:40you saw a trailer for the idea that you have in your head and you didn't know you, would you
11:46go, oh, I gotta see that?
11:48Or would you be like, yeah, okay.
11:48You know, and it, it sounds easy to do, but it's a really hard litmus test to put on yourself.
11:53And yet it really makes sense because there's just a lot of stuff you go, yeah, I don't, I don't
11:58care.
11:58You know, or like that, I'll wait, you know, that's, that's what we don't want.
12:02I'll wait to watch it on cable, you know, or on streaming or whatever that.
12:05So, you know, but that's why, you know, we need to expand the window, you know, the theatrical window.
12:10Um, because, you know, a streamer saying, okay, you know, and be in theaters for a, for a week or
12:16two weeks, everybody's going to wait, you know, if you go like, oh, just wait two weeks, it'll be on.
12:20But if you don't say when it's going to go to it and give it a 45, look, I love
12:24the 90 day window myself back in the old days, but we'll take the 45 when, you know, day window.
12:30Cause it worked for us on, on house made.
12:32We, you know, after 45 days, we went to PVOD and went to number one on all of them.
12:38And then after that window of doing that, now we're on stars, we're number one on stars.
12:42And then we're eventually going to go to Amazon where I'm assuming we'll, we'll do really well too.
12:46Um, but, but it's that, you know, it's, it's why, you know, why there's been kind of a, uh, uh,
12:52people going against binge watching recently because they say psychologically you get really depressed after you finish.
12:59And it is true. Cause it's kind of, how many times you're like, oh, I got to watch it all.
13:02And then you like rip through it and you're like, oh shit, I wish I could have strung that out
13:06a bit more, you know, like feel dead inside.
13:08Yeah. You know, it's like eating a whole, you know, I love pecan pie.
13:11Oh God, I'm going to eat the whole thing right now.
13:13And then never eat pecan pie again in your life, which happened to me in life.
13:16As a kid, I went to a Nance house and she made really good pecan pie and I ate it.
13:19I'd never had it before, had it the entire weekend and have never touched pecan pie again.
13:24Just the thought of it makes me throw up.
13:27That sounds like your first animated project.
13:28You know, there you go.
13:29Yes, there you go.
13:30Development.
13:30Um, and in terms of impact too, I mean, you said earlier about the, you know, the Oscars versus films
13:36that people want to see.
13:37I mean, you know, absolutely all credit to the, these other movies I'm about to mention,
13:40but Amanda Seyfried, I think got so much more attention and just showcased so much more versatility in your movie
13:47than her very serious awards film.
13:49Same thing with Sydney.
13:50She had a, a really amazing performance in a boxing biopic that really struggled.
13:55And this one, you know, she booked an Edith Wharton adaptation after Housemates Box Office.
13:59Like if that's, if that's not what a really compelling movie does for you and allows you to sort of
14:04stretch yourself,
14:04I just think it's very cool proof of concept that you can do both.
14:07Yeah.
14:08Oh, thank you.
14:08No, it's, you know, you can stretch as much in a popcorn movie as you can in a serious film.
14:13And I love that they're doing all these actors are doing all these things.
14:18That's fantastic.
14:18You know, it's just a lot of times I think you really got to balance as an artist, whether in
14:25front of the camera, behind the camera,
14:27what, how you pay off the expectations that you set with your most successful things.
14:33And you don't want to get pigeonholed, obviously.
14:36And yet there's ways to not get pigeonholed and still kind of deliver the, not put the audience off.
14:42I mean, I've had this happen with, with comedian, you know, comedic actors that I've worked with who, ironically,
14:48most people who are really funny want to be really serious.
14:52Just like all, all musicians want to be comedians and all comedians want to be rock stars.
14:57So nobody ever wants to be what they are.
14:59But, you know, I think you just have to, well, yeah, like some comedy people I know have, you know,
15:06wanted to do drama, which is fine, but what happens is this, this thought of like, okay, I'm a funny
15:15person.
15:15So in order to be a dramatic actor, I have to not be funny at all, you know?
15:19And so the audience, like sometimes you'll go, you know, I mean, the classic example was when Bill Murray did
15:24Razor's Edge,
15:25you know, and audiences don't know the business.
15:28So they don't know, well, this is the one where he gets to be serious.
15:30They're like, hey, Bill Murray's in a movie.
15:32I can't wait.
15:32And you're like, why am I not laughing?
15:34Why is this so serious?
15:36You know, and I think that happens with, with any of us, you know, a lot of people talk about
15:42The Housemaid.
15:43They're like, oh, this is your first foray in a drama.
15:44I'm like, it's not really a drama.
15:47You know, it's, it's just, it's a really, really dark comedy is what it is.
15:50Just because I guess for me, I still want to pay off the idea that any movie that has my
15:56name on it is going to be a good time.
15:59It might be a dark good time, like Simple Favor and Another Simple Favor and The Housemaid,
16:03or it might be just nutty, balls out, you know, The Heat and Jackpot and Bridesmaids, which, you know, Bridesmaids,
16:09but Bridesmaids is a drama that is very funny, you know.
16:13So it sounds contradictory, but I have to face all my movies like they're comedies,
16:17then I have to build them like they're dramas so that the stakes are real and that the characters are
16:23believable
16:25and there's a driver in the middle of it that pulls you along and then the fun comes out of
16:29how extreme do we get
16:31with how we're playing things or how extreme are these characters are, what are the situations they're in.
16:35But you have to have stakes.
16:36Like a movie that's just completely silly and just all jokes can be really fun.
16:40I love Marx Brothers movies and all that, but you're not exactly invested in the story.
16:44You know, you're just going, oh, this is really fun.
16:46But audiences these days need, they need high stakes, you know, and it's a real, you know,
16:51as a filmmaker, writer, anything dealing with the studios, you'll always just hear, you know, stakes,
16:57we need to raise the stakes, raise the stakes, which people just say, but at the same,
17:01and I used to get really mad just because I thought you're just parroting this thing.
17:04But it is true.
17:05You really, people have to be invested in these stories and they have to be life or death with these
17:11characters
17:11and not in a superhero way, just like, you know, somebody's being is at stake.
17:17Their emotional being is at stake.
17:19Their life and what they're doing in their life, not necessarily do or die,
17:23but like how they feel about themselves, that's how you latch in, you know.
17:27And that's what I love about making movies versus television is that, you know,
17:33most movies, two hours, let's just say, in two hours, I have to introduce an audience to a character,
17:39to a lead character, and make them fall in love with this character or care about them
17:44within five minutes tops, you know, and then pull them through this whole thing
17:49and give them a complete experience where at the end they're like, oh, and it worked out and it's great.
17:53Look, you can leave a little opening, oh, but it might be a sequel, but not open-ended like,
17:58well, it doesn't, you know, come back next year.
18:00But I have a problem with those movies that do that.
18:02You know, part two is coming, you know, two years from now.
18:05Amanda Seyfried will return.
18:07Yeah, exactly.
18:08Looking for revenge.
18:11Yeah, so, you know, it just, just giving that complete experience is difficult, but it's really fun.
18:19But that's why so many movies, especially comedies, start out with somebody's just so down on their luck
18:23and everything goes wrong, because we all go like, oh, you know,
18:26minutes you watch somebody, something going wrong for somebody you just really care about them.
18:30So, you know, it's just finding that way in.
18:33I want to talk about the sort of overall landscape, but before we move on,
18:37I just want to say, too, that there's an amazing through line, I think, through your career,
18:41you know, from Bridesmaids to, you know, something like The Heat to Simple Favor to Know the Housemates.
18:46You've always been really centered around and executed so well storytelling built around women.
18:52And I think that, you know, with all the noise in the world and in our working culture
18:57and in our larger, you know, societal culture,
18:59we can sometimes forget that these stories are really important to tell.
19:03And also, like, I always think about what Cate Blanchett said when she won the Oscar,
19:06like, stories women are not niche, they earn money, audiences want to see them,
19:09all quadrants of audiences want to see them.
19:11So is that something that's sort of still top of mind for you when you go to work?
19:14Or, like, talk to me about just your ethos around that.
19:17I'm just only interested in telling women's stories.
19:19I don't, it just, I grew up very close to my mom.
19:21I was the only child.
19:22All my best friends were girls growing up.
19:23So, you know, and then watching movies and seeing how women were being portrayed
19:27in, you know, modern movies versus you look back at the 30s and 40s
19:30where women were, you know, basically equal with the men on the screen.
19:33You know, your Katherine Hepburns and your Roslyn Russells and all that.
19:36Like, I love that.
19:37You know, and then suddenly with being a comedy guy,
19:39watching these comedies where the women are just kind of props running around,
19:42you know, for the guys to make fun of or for them to, you know, get in their way or
19:46whatever.
19:47I'm just like, this is not all the women I know.
19:49So I just, I found that I just really like telling these women's stories
19:53and I like working with talented women and there's so many out there.
19:56And I knew some, known so many over the years that I would see in movies
20:00and they weren't getting to do what they do, you know, especially comedians.
20:03It would just, you know, see so many funny women that I know
20:06and they're reduced to being like the bitchy girlfriend who the, you know,
20:10the male lead is like, oh boy, you know, like he has to get away from her.
20:13And I'm like, well, that's not fair, you know?
20:16So, yeah, so I just enjoy doing it.
20:19And like Kate said, I mean, there's an audience for it.
20:23I don't know how many times I've had to prove in my movies
20:25that there's an audience for women's movies, you know?
20:28And it's always treated as like, whoa, this is, whoa,
20:30we can't believe this broke through.
20:31And it's like, gosh, what the fuck, you know?
20:34Like, they're half the population of the world, you know?
20:38So, yeah, so every time we do it, it just keeps showing, you know,
20:41that they're out there and they want entertainment, you know?
20:44And if you make it not so just for women, but for everybody,
20:53then that's why Bridesmaids did really well.
20:54That's why Housemaid did really well.
20:56Because guys go like, oh, it's a chick flick.
20:58And then they get brought by their wife and they go, oh, no,
21:00it's actually for everybody.
21:02And then they tell their buddies, like, hey, you go see this, you know,
21:05and then you can make her go see your action movie
21:07or whatever you want to see.
21:09But, you know, so it has to be, you know, true for Quad.
21:12You know, we're very obsessed with, you know, with how many,
21:15you know, the quads that we hit.
21:16And if you're not for Quad, I think, you know,
21:19you're underserving the audience.
21:20For sure.
21:21And I also think, too, that seeing your cast reunite at the Oscars
21:24this year from Bridesmaids, I just remember at the time,
21:26it was like, holy shit, this is going to be this massive breakthrough movie.
21:29We're going to get a Bridesmaid every two years.
21:31Is that the way it shook out?
21:33Well, I mean.
21:33Do you think enough people are doing what you are doing?
21:35As a man, as a director, as a decision maker?
21:39I mean, it opened the door a bit.
21:41The door kind of swung open and it kind of swung back.
21:43And it kind of, you know, it's like a door in the wind.
21:46It kind of opens and closes occasionally.
21:48But it's not where it should be.
21:49It's not at all where it should be.
21:51You know, there should be more female filmmakers.
21:53You know, in our company, for a while,
21:55we're trying to get it refunded now.
21:56The pandemic wiped it out.
21:58This thing we had called Powderkeg,
22:00which was basically our incubator company that we had,
22:05where we had this program called Powderkeg Fuse.
22:08It was just to get underserved voices making movies.
22:12And we would, twice a year, do like five to six short films.
22:17We'd just have all these people just send in ideas.
22:20And we'd pick the five or six best, develop it with them,
22:23then give them $25,000 each to shoot a movie in one day.
22:28And they would shoot it and do it.
22:30And then they would have a calling card.
22:32We could see if they actually have talent and skill to pull it off.
22:37And then we can advocate for them.
22:39And so many of the people that we did this for,
22:41mostly women, went on to have really good careers in television.
22:46Some are making movies now and all that.
22:48So we're in the process of trying to get funding back for that.
22:51Anybody know a lawyer or a banker?
22:53All right.
22:56Talk to you.
22:58That's fantastic.
22:59And so I think right now, even in the past couple of days,
23:03I'm not sure if anyone's seen the news about Bad Robot,
23:07their decision to considerably scale down.
23:09I think you're going to see, sadly,
23:10some repetition of similar mid-sized producers do that.
23:15And I think a lot of people, at least in the days following that news,
23:18have been pretty shook up and scared.
23:20And also, if you look at the numbers of people working in California,
23:24productions here, artisan and craft jobs, the picture is pretty bleak.
23:29So why?
23:31And what do you think is going to happen?
23:33Well, there's been a major contraction.
23:36You know, I almost lost my company because of the writer's strike
23:39because basically all the deal, everybody pulled back their deal.
23:43So we had a TV deal at Lionsgate and we had a movie deal at Universal
23:47and those all just kind of ended.
23:50And it was because of my agents and my lawyers that went out
23:53and were able to really stump and find us, you know,
23:56we have a new TV deal at WB and our movie deal at Lionsgate,
24:02who we did The House Made with.
24:04So, you know, you got to get out there.
24:07But, you know, these are like first-look deals,
24:09so they're not like these mega deals.
24:10Those mega deals, I think, are gone.
24:12Never to return?
24:13I mean, unless you are just everything you're putting out is so high value.
24:20But, you know, you can't that level of hitting it all the time.
24:25Either you put out a lot of stuff and you have, you know,
24:28a pretty good track record or you put out a few things
24:31that you make sure are really great and those go,
24:33but then those aren't necessarily generating enough money for them
24:36to give like the, you know, the $250 million deal that they gave to JJ.
24:42You know, but I don't know.
24:45Again, we just have to be doing successful stuff.
24:49So you got to be hard on the stuff
24:50and you have to make sure you really don't blow it.
24:53And I think a lot of times there was so much about quantity.
24:59You know, I mean, that was kind of the good contraction from the strike
25:04is that there was just so many shows.
25:06And so it was like 600 productions or something.
25:08Peak TV.
25:09Yeah, totally.
25:10And it's great.
25:11We want everybody working.
25:12So that's great.
25:13But at the same time, there's just so much stuff.
25:15Nothing is landing because nobody can, you know, it's just too much stuff.
25:19You know, I mean, like I'm old.
25:21I come in from when there was, you know, three TV networks, you know.
25:25So I think it's just we have to be,
25:29make sure that the stuff we're putting out is really high quality,
25:32just good, entertaining, good.
25:35And it's a meritocracy.
25:36It has to be, people won't, people don't keep falling for the same thing.
25:41You know, that's what we've had to deal with.
25:42I never have done sequels and only have recently have started doing, you know,
25:46I do one for Simple Favor.
25:48Now I'm doing the Housemaid sequel this fall.
25:51And audiences are very, we did research on this with one of those companies
25:55that kind of scrapes the internet and finds out trends and all that kind of thing.
25:59And it's like, well, why aren't sequels working anymore?
26:02Because it's been a real tough to get sequels working with audiences.
26:06And audiences are basically going like, okay, I like the first one.
26:08Why do I need to see another one?
26:10Versus that used to be the mentality.
26:12I like that, so I got to see the next one.
26:13And I think people got burned by so many sequels
26:15because the quality would drop or they would just kind of rush them out.
26:18And so, you know, it comes to roost eventually.
26:22If you just can't treat the audience like they're just a bunch of rubes
26:25who are going to show up for anything.
26:27Like they are very discerning.
26:28And now they've got a million different options of things they can watch,
26:31games they can play, you know, the internet, you know, short form stuff.
26:35You know, everybody keeps saying like young people don't watch movies anymore.
26:39I don't buy that at all.
26:40Because, you know, they get really into it.
26:42If you give them an event to go to.
26:46And again, just going back to The Housemaid,
26:48that became an event for so many of these groups of young women.
26:52And, you know, people want to be together.
26:55You know, that's the problem with streaming and all that.
26:57You kind of have this by-yourself experience.
27:01You know, it's funny because my last three movies were for streaming.
27:05I made a thing called The School for Good and Evil,
27:08Jackpot, which is a big comedy, and then Another Simple Favor.
27:12And we would, you know, we do our standard test screenings
27:14in front of big audiences, get them where these things work like gangbusters
27:18and they get this big response and stuff.
27:20But then it goes right to streaming.
27:22And so people don't get to have that group experience.
27:25And critics don't get to experience it with an audience and hearing,
27:29oh, this is how people are reacting to this.
27:31And so you get terrible reviews, you know, and it's, you know,
27:35I'm not saying the movies were great, but at the same time,
27:37I know they worked with an audience.
27:40And then people watching at home by themselves aren't getting that experience.
27:44And I always, I like, you know, all your favorite movies
27:47that you've loved for your whole life and they become your comfort films
27:51and you go to them over and over again to watch, like Bridesmaids, hopefully.
27:55You know, but you had an experience in a theater the first time you saw those
27:59with an audience and you had laughs and you heard it.
28:03And so you were having this really, this fun time.
28:05You walked out there, oh my God, that was so much fun.
28:07So every time you watch it by yourself,
28:09you are hearing that experience in your head.
28:11You are recreating that, whether you know it or not,
28:13that is coming back to you.
28:15And so with my problem with the streaming movie is you just,
28:18you don't have that, you just consume this thing.
28:20And so it could be great.
28:22It just, these movies don't tend to join the culture
28:25as much as theatrical films do because they're there and they're gone.
28:30They're there and they're gone.
28:30And you just kind of, oh, you know, you consume it.
28:33And I don't know, I say that as a guy who's just dedicated to theatrical.
28:37But I've just experienced, I've experienced how people react
28:40to those movies versus the ones that are streaming.
28:42Absolutely.
28:42And there was this thing, a study last year from NRJ
28:44that said young people are not just driving moviegoing as a demographic,
28:48but they're also leading choice in their houses.
28:51Yeah.
28:51They're now choosing what the family sees.
28:53Whereas for decades, it was always parents setting the tone.
28:55Yeah.
28:56I just, I think, you know, all the short form we watch on, you know,
28:59scrolling endlessly through, you know, social media is fun up to a point.
29:03And then you just kind of go, I just want to like get into something,
29:06you know, it's why I always thought like, you know,
29:09movies were like, pick your own ending kind of,
29:12or you control it, you know, kind of like choice A or choice B never worked
29:16because an audience, you're like, no, no, you do the work.
29:19I don't want to do it.
29:20You know, I want to be surprised by your, by, you know, what you're doing.
29:23And that's, you know, movies that have big twists and stuff.
29:26That's the greatest.
29:27Like that's, people really love that because it's a surprise.
29:30You know, we have this big twist in Housemaid.
29:33And so that really, you know, and people guarded it really nicely too,
29:36which is really good.
29:37Because I did a movie called Last Christmas that, that, which I loved,
29:41but the Universal, bless them, I love them.
29:44But they, the trailer, they basically gave away this giant twist we had.
29:48And so it just became like the New York Times was giving away the twist
29:52in their articles.
29:52Like, you guys, like anybody, if you do an Agatha Christie movie,
29:56do you go like, and the killer was, you know, but somehow it was okay.
29:59So anyway, guard your twist.
30:02There you go.
30:03Have a martini with a twist.
30:03We're almost out of time.
30:04So I might go a hair over because I have to ask two things.
30:06It just occurred to me, I should probably ask for this room specifically.
30:11I want to ask about your personal experience.
30:13You don't have to wade into anything else,
30:14but it must have been very interesting releasing A Simple Favor 2
30:18in the middle of an incredibly contentious time for one of your stars,
30:22Blake Lively, a legal matter that is still going on
30:25as a protracted international scandal.
30:29So that was easy, right?
30:31Yeah, it's great.
30:32That's what you really want.
30:34No, look, I love Blake, and I support her in everything she does.
30:37Yeah, it was kind of, you know, there's so many things you control
30:42as a filmmaker, and then there's things you just can't control,
30:44and those are the things where you're like, oh, oh, okay.
30:49You know, I mean, it's like, you know, look, I mean,
30:52talk about, you know, what happened to Snow White, you know,
30:55over at Disney.
30:56You know, it's just like, you know, it's sometimes you just go like,
30:59oh, the old studio system kind of worked where they just controlled everything.
31:04I don't want that anymore, but there are times where you're like,
31:07oh, wouldn't that be nice if everybody was just not on social media?
31:10Well, just do Jimmy Fallon five nights in a row.
31:12Yeah, exactly, exactly.
31:14But, you know, look, we want free spirits,
31:16and we want people out there and doing what they do,
31:18and, you know, you can only control what you can,
31:21and, you know, people can get through it.
31:23I mean, you know, Sidney was, you know, had a contentious thing,
31:26but people just...
31:27The genes.
31:27Yeah, whatever.
31:29So, I mean, come on.
31:31Unnecessary outrage is the biggest problem in our society right now.
31:35People get so outraged about stupid shit.
31:37Yes, exactly.
31:38And when there's all kinds of things to be outraged about,
31:41but we're getting outraged about pop culture.
31:43Trust me, I made the female Ghostbusters 10 years ago,
31:46and you would have thought I had launched an invasion of Iraq.
31:51So stupid.
31:52That entire conversation was so insane.
31:55Right. So, yes, you actually...
31:57So, yeah, you've weathered many VR films.
32:00Somehow I'm controversial,
32:01and I talk about a person who does not want to be controversial.
32:04Just a comedy film.
32:05That's what I make people laugh.
32:07So you're running into Housemaid's Secret with Kirsten Dunst,
32:12which is very exciting.
32:13Sidney's coming back.
32:14And then I just want to end very selfishly,
32:16because this is a question as a reporter I've had for years.
32:18You had a project in development that I think went away,
32:21but I need to ask you if it's still alive.
32:22Paul attached himself to an adaptation
32:25of this amazing Elle magazine article from the 90s
32:28called Supermodel Snowpocalypse.
32:31Oh, yeah.
32:31And if I'm correct,
32:32it was about an Elle magazine photo shoot in the 80s?
32:36Yeah.
32:36In, like...
32:3770s or 80s.
32:38In 70s or 80s.
32:38In, like, Zermatt or somewhere like that.
32:42And it was a bunch of models and photographers,
32:44and an avalanche hit them,
32:45and they were stuck in this hotel for three days,
32:47and they just had an epic rager.
32:48Yeah.
32:49Where is that movie?
32:49Yeah.
32:50Where is the movie?
32:52I know.
32:53We had a really funny script for it, too.
32:54It just kind of didn't...
32:56Nobody wanted to make it.
32:58All right.
32:58Well, thank you for going to meet me.
33:00There you go.
33:00Thanks for ending it on a bad note, man.
33:02No, but we'll fund powder keg,
33:04and someone will make it.
33:05Paul Feig, everybody.
33:06Thanks, everybody.
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