In a recent interview, Celine Song explains how she got “Past Lives” made, but completely omits the elephant in the room. She’s been doing this in every interview.
“Past Lives” was producer Scott Rudin’s last movie before he got ostracized. He played a major role in getting Song’s film made. He went to bat for her when nobody else would.
Rudin basically put that whole “Past Lives” crew together and risked it all on her because he was a huge fan of her plays. For example, he set Song up with ‘Small Axe’ DP Shabier Kirchner and Terrence Malick’s editor Keith Fraase.
Don’t get me wrong, A24 did great things in getting this film made, but Rudin brought this project to them via the partnership that they had. He’s the unsung “hero” of “Past Lives,” but his name shall not be uttered.
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.