Puck’s Matthew Belloni has an interesting piece up about the cost management issues over at Netflix, spearheaded by new boss Dan Link. I’ll have more on this one later today.
Suffice to say, one of Lin’s first big meetings was with Kathryn Bigelow, who is now set to direct a “hot script” by former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim (he also wrote “Jackie”). The film will tackle how the White House reacts in real time to ballistic missiles headed for America.
Initially, Lin told Bigelow that her the project was too expensive and too long; he wanted to know how she might bring down both the budget and length. However, Belloni’s sources are telling him that they’ve since worked out budgetary issues and she’s officially signed on to make the movie as one of Lin’s first greenlights.
Bigelow was supposed to direct “Aurora” early this year, but the New York Times reported that the filmmaker dropped out of the project “a few months ago” due to budgetary constraints. It sounds like she went back to the streaming giant with another project and this time around it was met with approval.
It’s been seven years since Bigelow released her last film, 2017’s “Detroit.” The Oscar-winning filmmaker had “Aurora” brewing over at Netflix since 2022, which is when she signed on to direct the film.
Bigelow, 72, is the filmmaker behind such films as “The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Near Dark,” “Point Break,” and the highly underrated “Strange Days.” She was one of the hottest filmmakers in the aughts, having directed two Best Picture nominees, and having won then Best Director prize for “The Hurt Locker.”
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.