John Sayles is one of the seminal figures of the American indie film movement. The rarest of creatures.
His debut, “Return of the Secaucus Seven” (1980), kickstarted the modern indie movement a decade before “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” (1989). It was made on a 60k budget and grossed $2 million at the box-office. Three years later, Hollywood remade it as “The Big Chill.”
For nearly 30 years, Sayles has built a career as the director of smart, uncompromising, character-driven films such as “Lone Star,” “Eight Men Out,” and “City of Hope.” And yet, he hasn’t directed a film in 11 years.
In an interview with The AV Club, Sayles says the reason for his absence is quite simply that nobody wants to finance him anymore. He tackles two screenplays that he’s already written — a Western, and a film about the 1968 Democratic convention — that he’d love to shoot:
Those have been written for several years, and I’ve been trying to raise money for them for several years and have failed for several years. They may or may not happen, but they’re written. I like them; they’d be good movies. But the gods of financing. It’s really hard to get a standalone drama made these days. So we just keep our fingers crossed, and every once in a while, we have a meeting.
Sayles is 73. It’s not like he hasn’t been keeping busy. A whole book could be written about his career as a much sought after script doctor. He’s also published a few novels. But we’d love to see, at least, one more film from him.
Sayles has actually been making the rounds promoting Criterion’s upcoming release of “Lone Star” — which is, still, his greatest film. He’s also most likely using the promo to get himself “out there”, as they say, and alert the industry that he still exists and still wants to make films.