So that’s really what pulled me in from the get-go on this script. Yes, it’s a fun, outrageous R-rated talking dog movie. Still, it’s also a metaphor for being in an unhealthy, toxic relationship and how to deal with that, how to get out of it, and how your friends come and help you through … Read more
In 2015, Thorndike, along with Jennifer Phang and Nikole Beckwith, became one of the inaugural recipients of the San Francisco Film Society’s Women Filmmaker Fellowships, which was launched to support female writer/directors working towards their second or third narrative feature. Eventually, this became “Bad Things,” which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film … Read more
Revenge is a very classical and mythological story subject. So is incest. Because I’d already dealt with the division of the Korean peninsula in “Joint Security Area (JSA)” and class conflict within South Korea in “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” I didn’t want to handle yet another timely social issue in my next work. I wanted … Read more
Rogowski also fills out the extraordinary wardrobe that costume designer Khadija Zeggaï created in collaboration with you for his character—the sheer dragon-print crop top, a green sweater, and the snakeskin jacket. I like the term “fills out,” because it’s partially about the strength of his body. He actually does fill those clothes. If skin was … Read more
The last time we talked, you told me that your background as a CEO helped you learn about collaboration. How did that apply to your work on “Jules”? It’s true on every film. Directors get far too much credit. There are 100-plus people that are participating in making the film, and the director’s job is to … Read more
David Grann is an investigative journalist, a hands-on truth-seeker, and a historian who cares about humanity. In some regard, he inhabits a modern-day “Indiana Jones’” lifestyle by searching the world for mysterious adventures that will enlighten readers as he “sets the record straight” with his discoveries. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly … Read more
Something that’s really important to me as well is everyone getting comfortable with each other’s energy. That’s really more, for me, what rehearsals are about. And then, when we’re blocking and rehearsing on set, that’s finding the nuances of the scene. But the language is already there because we’ve talked about it a lot. It … Read more
At the end of this screening, the amazing Sandra Schulberg, who was the head of IndieCollect, who I’ve known for years and years, stood up and said, “I’m going to restore your film.” She said she volunteered to do it as part of the Jane Fonda Fund For Women Directors, which I knew nothing about. … Read more
So there were these elements and even more so, going back to Morrisa’s experience knowing that feeling, which is so real and authentic, that it’s taken four years after launching this journey for me to kind of feel that too. Watching it was like carrying Grandma with me. Before we lost her, my dad had … Read more
This was, for me, the start of “Afire,” thinking to myself, “What happened there?” The Americans, the French, and the Swedish—like Ingmar Bergman, with “Summer with Monika”—all have summer movies, which are so important. In summer movies, there’s no state, no parents, no school, no factory. We have a break in life and, in this … Read more