Terry Zwigoff (‘Ghost World’) Hasn’t Directed in 20 Years — Can’t Find “Financing” for His Films

Where has Terry Zwigoff been all these years?

The reclusive filmmaker behind the acclaimed “Crumb,” “Ghost World,” and “Bad Santa” hasn’t directed a film since 2006’s “Art School Confidential,” which was the first movie of his career to receive mixed reviews. He hasn’t directed a feature since.

There was also the TV pilot “King’s Court,” which never got shot. He did direct a failed pilot in 2017, for Amazon, titled “Budding Prospects.” In between, he’s had numerous projects fall by the wayside — “Sassy” (co-written with Robert Crumb), an Elmore Leonard adaptation (“Maximum Bob”), the Nic Cage starring “Lost Melody", and “Edward Ford,” which would have starred Michael Shannon.

A year ago, Zwigoff told The Cap Times, that the writers of “Bad Santa” had a new idea for a film he’d direct and that they were starting to pitch it to studios. Now? It looks like those efforts have failed.

In an unearthed interview, Zwigoff tells Deeper Into Movies that he’s been trying to emulate J.D. Salinger by keeping a low profile, working minimally, and living off residuals from a major hit (“Bad Santa”). He’s written a few films he hoped to direct, but acknowledges that finding financing for the adult-oriented, independent films he wants to make has become increasingly difficult.

I’ve written a few films I still hope to direct, but I’m not getting any younger, and film financing for the kind of adult films I want to make has never been tougher to find.

Zwigoff expresses admiration for Todd Solondz’s films and laments that movies like his — “interesting and unique voices” — aren’t made much anymore. He gies on criticize the current box office landscape:

The box office winners are big, dumb, loud, action films or Marvel films. And money talks. The nuance, character, and dialogue don’t matter. It’s all endless action, chases, fights. It’s so tedious to me. They sell a lot of tickets Internationally where they don’t have to worry about that sort of thing translating. To me, the most interesting things are mood, character, and dialogue. 

Zwigoff has only directed four films in the last 30 years, but he has a unique cinematic voice that deserves to be heard more often.