What do you do after your first film, a critically-acclaimed doc, won a slew of awards, including an Oscar? Well, you hop on the Disney train and sell your soul to greed.
Listen, I really liked Questlove’s “Summer of Soul,” an infectiously entertaining documentary, with great live music, that was mostly composed of rare and never-seen-before archival footage. I was really looking forward to his next documentary …
But it turns out he’s now going to direct a live-action animated hybrid remake of “The Aristocats.” You know, that 1970 animated film about a family of French cats.
Deadline has this to say …
Since then, Thompson had been weighing his options of what made sense when it came to directing a feature film, ultimately landing on Aristocats.
Hey, money talks. If you’re looking for a paycheck and, to make a living, you accept to be sucked in by the machine and sacrifice your own artistic integrity. It’s becoming more and more common these days with promising filmmakers.
Barry Jenkins is making a Lion King movie. Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) is directing a ‘Twister’ reboot. David Gordon Green wants to make ‘Exorcist’ and ‘Halloween’ movies for the rest of his career. Ryan Coogler is making ‘Black Panther’ blockbusters.
Regardless, this is, technically speaking, the definition of “selling out,” but do you actually blame these creatives for signing onto these projects?
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.