Martin Brest Hasn’t Directed A Film Since ‘Gigli’ — Paul Thomas Anderson Is Still His Biggest Champion

Remember Martin Brest? He had directed quite the streak of successful films in ’80s and ’90s Hollywood: “Going in Style,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Scent of a Woman,” “Meet Joe Black,” and, his masterpiece, “Midnight Run.” Then “Gigli” happened, and it all went to hell for him. He hasn’t helmed anything since.

Paul Thomas Anderson loves Brest’s cinematic output, particularly “Midnight Run,” a meticulously crafted road movie with deceptively emotional character work that was an immense influence on “One Battle After Another.”

Apparently, PTA and Brest had an idea to make a movie together. That’s what they admitted during a 2021 American Cinematheque post-screening Q&A for “Midnight Run” and “Beverly Hills Cop” at the Aero Theatre. For some reason, the Cinematheque has only uploaded the discussion now.

“When this movie came out, it meant so much to me,” Anderson said of “Midnight Run.” “It was great then, and it was great a couple years later, and it was great 10 years later, and it’s still great now. It ages so well.”

So, what was this movie they had discussed making together?

“It was about a guy who kidnapped some girls, and they drove around and looked at Christmas lights because he wanted to have somebody to go look at these Christmas lights in the neighborhood,” Anderson explained.

In a more recent Variety interview interview with Brest, which basically amounted to a career recap, he tackled the ups and downs of his six-film career. Yes, Brest only directed six movies, unless you count the 73-minute AFI-produced “Hot Tomorrows” as his seventh.

His career abruptly stopped after “Gigli,” starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, which had a $75 million budget and grossed a paltry $7 million at the box office. The reviews were nasty. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 6% based on 187 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 18 based on 37 critics. Its CinemaScore was a D−.

“Gigli,” considered by many to be one of the worst movies ever made, destroyed his soul—and his career. You can tell from the interview that he doesn’t want to talk about it much. In fact, he doesn’t even want to reference the movie by name.

Brest did confirm that he has a script he wrote that has been set aside for many years, and that he wrote another one he’s been wanting to make for the past few years, but “nobody else seems to be wanting to burn along with me.”

Brest is now 75 years old, and he seems fairly certain that his moviemaking days are behind him. His last film will probably be “Gigli.”