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| Damien: 'Shit look away I can see Miles in the crowd.' JK: 'More La La Bland than La La Land with you around, MILES, lol JK' Damien: 'Come on, he did a good job in Bleed for This...' JK: 'There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job' |
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| Casey: 'Ken I really want to do a musical. Please? Pretty Please?' Ken: 'But can you sing though? Can I have a cameo though? Do pain and misery befall all?' Casey: 'Dammit Ken you're so BORING.' |
Um, yeah. Could work out, since he does seem to thrive with character studies, and I could see him making that final segment in particular work extremely well. Only thing I would worry about is that he might not be able to manage the stylistic edge that Moonlight thrives upon in short spurts.
Kenneth Lonergan, Arrival
Nope. I could see this working on an emotional level, but he doesn't have quite the artistic scope and ambition to see it through, methinks. If he were given the job though, I could easily see him re-teaming with Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck in the two most prominent roles.
Kenneth Lonergan, La La Land
NO. he'd be all sorts of wrong for this. A complete, stark opposition in styles. I like Lonergan as a director, but really he knows what sort of thing he's suite to the most, and this is certainly not within his ouevre.
Kenneth Lonergan, Hacksaw Ridge
Nope. Like Arrival, I could see his direction working during the small, intimate scenes of the film, but for the big battle scenes, I doubt he'd be comfortable working with them.
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| Barry: 'Now Alex, I know this is weird but I've been granted 200 M to make a sci-fi film by Disney, on one condition. What do you think about donning an Ewok suit for about 6 hours?' Alex: Better than spending six hours learning how to swim in the sea I guess. Barry: YOU TAKE THAT BACK. |
Yes. I wouldn't mind seeing this actually, and he could actually just fit his Arrival cast right in if he wanted (though he'd do well with the existing cast as well). Naomie Harris in Amy Adams' role, Andre Holland in Jeremy Renner's role, Mahershala Ali in Forest Whitaker's role. If he wrote the screenplay too he'd probably be able to give more depth to the side characters as well.
Barry Jenkins, Manchester by the Sea
Yes. Again, if we were to use his Moonlight cast, Ali in Casey Affleck's role, Harris in Michelle Williams's role, Jharrel Jerome in Lucas Hedge's role. It would essentially be the second act of Moonlight but with Juan returning from a terrible thing he's done and trying to reconnect with his nephew (I'd pick Ashton Sanders, but I think Jerome would fit the role of the jock jerk a bit more).
Barry Jenkins, La La Land
Um, yeah. I was reading a while ago, in one of those response articles to the La La Land 'whitewashing' (which I disagree with, by the way) that a better casting duo would be Michael B. Jordan and Ruth Negga. I don't know if either of them sings, but I can imagine that being kind of dope, and I can see Barry Jenkins taking on them, but then again he could take on Stone and Gosling as well. Haven't seen enough of Jenkins to know whether he could take on the more whimsical moments, but he's shown a knack for nailing the power of musical/visual combinations in emotional moments, so I'm confident he'd knock 'Audition' out of the ballpark.
Barry Jenkins, Hacksaw Ridge
N/A. I'm sure he'd be able to stretch himself to try this out, but it's just not a very Jenkins-esque tale to tell. I don't think he'll ever be a director who does biopics, nor do I think he should ever feel a need to do so, since he will probably prove himself to thrive best at telling deeply personal, intimate and smaller stories. If he did try this though, I'm sure Andrew Garfield would love his use of close-ups to emphasize his emotional input.
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| 'Ha, LOL you did Nocturnal Animals. Wait, what, a sequel? Well I'm always up for a challenge (phones up Ryan Gosling) The characters in Nocturnal Animals are replicants, I repeat, malfunctioning replicants. Over.' (Blade Runner 2049, order is restored) |
Um, yeah. I could definitely see Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams in Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams's roles, in fact I've only just realized you could do so many interesting comparisons between the two films. Anyway, I think Villeneuve would be great in sort of hearkening back to his Prisoners sort of aesthetic and nail the needed emotional drive to the story. The problem is that I don't think the story offers enough underlying darkness for him to properly thrive. The fire scene, for example, I don't quite think he'd be all that comfortable in handling without some added layer of something, it's hard to explain but it'd almost be too basic and simple for him.
Denis Villeneuve, La La Land
No. Although I should mention that Amy Adams could have killed it as Mia a few years ago (and still could now!), though Jeremy Renner as Sebastian, I'm not so sure, Jake Gyllenhaal as Sebastian? I dunno, hey maybe I've been underrating Ryan Gosling all along. Anyway, Villeneuve just wouldn't seem right for this. I'm sure he could try for something a bit more lighthearted if he wanted but it just doesn't seem to be his preference. It might be technically immaculate, but I doubt he'd have to heart to make it truly great.
Denis Villeneuve, Moonlight
No. First and foremost, Janelle Monae and Trevante Rhodes seem like actors who would absolutely thrive with Villeneueve. However, like La La Land although he could make a good film out of a script like Moonlight's, it doesn't really play to his strengths. It's a personal film like Arrival, but I don't feel like it would necessarily be all that personal to Villeneueve in the same way it'd be for Jenkins.
Denis Villeneuve, Hacksaw Ridge
YES. I would LOVE to see Villeneuve handle a WWII film soon enough. I feel like he'd absolutely kill it. I actually think the finished product wouldn't vary all that much from Gibsons, except that the first half might be a tad bit more cynical (I think he'd have lessened up on the romance and added more scenes with the alcoholic war veteran father), and the emotional release of the film would have been more muted till the end (I think he'd probably delay the 'I Can't Hear You' moment to partway through Doss's rescue of soldiers as he's at wit's end and prepared to give up), but otheewise I think it'd be an equally amazing bit of work.
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| 'Not my fucking tempo Ryan!! (sees scorpion jacket on nearby chair) Um, I mean, let's try that again, shall we? |
No. Although I could see Ryan Gosling in Affleck's role in a few year's time for sure, it just doesn't seem like a film he'd enjoy doing.
Damien Chazelle, Moonlight
No. See above.
Damien Chazelle, Arrival
Yes. A lot of the most powerful emotional scenes in La La Land reminded me a bit of the equivalent scenes in Arrival, both Chazelle and Villeneuve have shown a real knack at maximising emotional impact. In addition, I think he'd be great at delivering in the grand scope, score, and just scale of the whole thing.
Damien Chazelle, Hacksaw Ridge
No. I'm sorry, I actually do think he could do a fine job in the early scenes and who knows, his excellence for musical setpieces could extend to war setpieces with his unique visual flair. It's just that I'd expect Garfield to break out in song in like, just about every one of his early scenes in the film.
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| 'Look at this beard Andy!' 'Mel you're making me feel uncom...' 'This great big bushy beard. Can you even grow facial hair?' 'I did for Silence.' 'No one's going to see Silence. Not even the Academy.' 'I don't know why you think that Mel...' 'I'm your only hope for a nomination.' 'It's a really nice great big bushy beard.' 'Thank you.' |
No. I don't think it'd suit his abilities, nor do I think he'd ever get funding to make something like Moonlight.
Mel Gibson, Manchester by the Sea
N/A. Apparently his debut directorial effort, The Man Without a Face, was a small, intimate character study, so I'll have to watch that first and see.
Mel Gibson, La La Land
No. Gibson's films are actually underrated in terms of humour (Hacksaw Ridge and Braveheart, in particular have their fair share of hilarious scene), and I'm not going to lie I'm kind of in love with an image in my head of a love story between Stephen of Ireland and Nicolette the French maid, against the beautiful Scottish moors to some banging bagpipe tunes, marvellous stuff. Anyway, no, Gibson probably wouldn't thrive with a musical, though who knows.
Mel Gibson, Arrival
Um, yeah. Really, I think Gibson's a director who knows what works best for him, and chooses project on what best suits him, and what seems like it could make a good film when combined with his talents (all can change if he takes on Suicide Squad 2). Anyway, I think he wouldn't be a great fit for Arrival simply because so much of the source material and film hinges upon restraint. Gibson's a tremendous talent, but restraint's never been his forte, and I doubt he'd be able to hold back on the emotion for long enough to make the film work as well as it does for DV.
You know I think Villeneuve could have a musical in him, but I imagine it would be very Lynchian. That got me thinking it is kind of a shame Lynch has never done a full musical since his individual musical sequences are always so spellbinding.
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