This past Friday, Jeff Nichols finally released his first film in over eight years, “The Bikeriders,” but it’s not like Nichols hasn’t tried to make another film during this noted absence.
These last few years, Nichols has a had a few projects fall apart. One of them was his “A Quiet Place” spin-off, which ended with him exiting the project due to creative differences. Nichols was replaced by “Pig” filmmaker Michael Sarnoski and the film, now titled “A Quiet Place: Day One,” is set for release next week.
Nichols is finally tackling the reason why he decided to not make the film, and it’s kind of what I was expecting him to say. There’s always a price to pay when an auteur decides to enter the world of IP, and this particular case was no different (via The Wrap).
It’s hard to say this without sounding pretentious but I’ve made enough films at this point in my career, that if I do this, it’s going to become my film, and the truth is ‘Quiet Place,’ those are John [Krasinski’s] films. At some point, you realize, it’s never going to be my film. It’s better if I just step away and let some other people do that.
When it was originally announced that Nichols would be directing the ‘A Quiet Place’ spinoff, it just sounded like an odd fit for a filmmaker who was known to rarely, if ever, make creative concessions through his art. The last thing we need is for the director of “Take Shelter,” and “Mud” to get bogged down by IP.
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.