Tag: Interview

Interview: David Prior, The Empty Man’s Director

March 25, 2021
ELDERFANFILMS

Today, I’ve got the honor to post the interview I did to David Prior; who After being in charge of production video documentaries and have worked alongside nothing other than David Fincher, arrives with his horror film The Empty Man, making his directorial debut. The Empty Man is based on the Boom Graphic Novel called the same way. David, Tells us the unfortunate fate his movie went through all due bad management and bad luck to be in the middle of a transition between companies, addition to that, the company launched a misleading trailer, transforming the movie in another weird horror teenage movie, totally opposite of twist-thrilling horror film. The Empty Man is a top notch production with a great cast and crew team. The film got to us on October 23, 2020 in theaters and on Digital on January 12, 2021.

The director also shared with us the film creation process, the rocks he had to apart away from his path to get the film off the ground, his insights and learnings from all this exhausting but comforting filmmaking labor.

Read the full interview

BETA (WPR): Writer, Director David Prior On The Horrors of Making ‘The Empty Man’

Stephen Root and James Badge Dale

Despite Trials And Tribulations, The Film Has Earned Great Reviews.

Doug Gordon
May 29, 2021
BETA (WPR)

David Prior got his break directing DVD special features for such David Fincher films as “Zodiac” and “The Social Network.” He obviously drew on that work experience in writing and directing his debut horror feature film, “The Empty Man.”

“Any time you spent hanging around the set with David Fincher or Peter Weir or any number of the other people that I’ve been able to hang around the set with, it’s always going to be valuable,” Prior said.

“The Empty Man” focuses on an ex-detective named James Lasombra. James is grieving the deaths of his wife and son. He helps his friend Nora whose daughter has gone missing.

James’s investigation leads him to a sinister organization called The Pontifex Institute, which turns out to be a cult. The film stars James Badge Dale, and chameleon-like actor Stephen Root who delivers a great performance as the cult’s leader. 

The movie also became embroiled in a mega media merger that delayed and botched its release. “The Empty Man” features an impending sense of dread and doom and themes of guilt, grief, the meaning of existence and mind control. Prior explains to WPR‘s “BETA” why he wanted to include such big ideas in his film.

Read and listen to the full interview

Watch The Empty Man

Tim Miller: “Netflix Was the One That Was Willing to Take a Chance”

Tim Miller Talks ‘Love, Death & Robots,’ ‘Heavy Metal,’ and Deadpool in the MCU

Dais Johnston
May 27, 2021
Inverse

Tim Miller has always been a fan of short stories.

“My father read a lot, which is where I got my habit,” he tells Inverse in a recent interview.

Before the Deadpool director reimagined adult animation by co-creating the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots with David Fincher (Season 2 is out now), he was in his father’s library.

It was there where he found a book called Chronopolis and Other Stories by J. G. Ballard. The short story book included “The Drowned Giant,” which tells the story of a dead human giant who washes up on the beach.

“I read it and I loved it. I even did an illustration for a fanzine in high school.”

“The Drowned Giant” is the standout episode from Love, Death & Robots Season 2, but the path to production wasn’t easy.

“Ballard is no longer with us, but his daughters are around. I asked them if I could do it Season 1, and they said no,” Miller says.

“I proceeded to send 50 emails begging them, and in one I said ‘Look, I’ve loved this story for years,’ and I sent them the illustration.”

Read the full interview

RedditLive AMA with Love, Death + Robots Creator Tim Miller and Supervising Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson

May 15, 2021
r/LoveDeathAndRobots (Netflix)

Watch the full livestream

Read the series guides:

2019. LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. Volume 1

2021. LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. Volume 2

Creative COW with Erik Messerschmidt: A Labor of Light

Brie Clayton
May 14, 2021
Creative COW

Mank could have easily been a parody of old school Hollywood, but Erik Messerschmidt and David Fincher weren’t going to let that happen. They went for broke on thoroughly reproduced sets, meticulous lighting, smoke filled offices, energetic conversations, and characters that breathe.

Once Mank opens its first scene, the scenery and intelligent dialogue make it hard to look away. As much as I thought I knew about San Simeon, having grown up ten minutes away from Hearst Castle, it was exciting to look into the bygone era when this California location was a lively hotbed of social chemistry, and parties, and movie creation, rather than just a stale museum where no one can touch the furniture.

When preparing to speak with Erik Messerschmidt, I would almost get lost working back through the layers of filmmakers contributing to this story. Mank pays homage to the legend Gregg Toland’s game-changing eye for cinematography. The dynamism between Toland, Orson Welles and the writer Herman J. Mankiewicz would be recrafted 80 years later by this modern team of David Fincher and Erik Messerschmidt, with Jack Fincher writing the screenplay.

In mid April 2021 Erik Messerschmidt took the ASC Award for Outstanding Cinematography, and then in May, deservedly, the Best Achievement in Cinematography Oscar for his lensing of the period piece Mank.

Despite his youthful appearance, Erik’s film career has already spanned decades, working his way up through the ranks as a grip, an electrician, and a number of years as a gaffer. Some of his gaffer work included Gone Girl, as well as DP on Mindhunter, with Fincher, further developing that relationship till the day when David asked Erik if he wanted to shoot this next project, Mank, and Erik said “Of course I want to shoot the movie!”

Mank, Erik’s first cinematography role outside of television, his first movie as DP, has won multiple awards this year. What kind of heavenly dream must that be for any cinematographer? Who hits a grand slam at their first baseball game?

Read the full interview

The Art of Production Design: A Panel Discussion with the Oscar Nominees

Thomas Walsh, Jan Pascale
April 24, 2021
Variety / American Cinematheque

Join us for a panel discussion with this year’s Academy Award-nominated production designers and set decorators. Nominated films are: MANK (production design: Donald Graham Burt; set decoration: Jan Pascale), MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM (production design: Mark Ricker; set decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton), NEWS OF THE WORLD (production design: David Crank; set decoration: Elizabeth Keenan), TENET (production design: Nathan Crowley; set decoration: Kathy Lucas) and THE FATHER (production design: Peter Francis; set decoration: Cathy Featherstone). Moderated by Thomas A. Walsh and Jan Pascale Presented by the American Cinematheque and the Art Directors Guild and Set Decorators Society of America. Sponsored by Variety.

How ‘Mank’s’ Production Designer Recreated Old Hollywood

Bianca Rae, Los Angeles
April 21, 2021
Spectrum News 1

Since his early life, production designer Donald Graham Burt never really had his eyes on Hollywood.

Burt grew up in Kansas and became a janitor right after college, but after living in Los Angeles for 40 years, he now has the chance at winning his second Academy Award.

“There are so many places in LA that are undiscovered, and sometimes they’re in the periphery and you don’t even notice them because you’re looking at the other things,” he said.

LA, however, does see Burt. In all his glory, like the Huntington Library Art Museum and Botanical Gardens — the gem that helped him embark on a nearly impossible journey to recreate old Hollywood.

Read the full article and watch the featurette

How ‘Mank’ Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt Illuminated a Monochrome Palette

We pull back the curtain on David Fincher’s nod to Citizen Kane.

Daron James
April 23, 2021
No Film School

Heading into Oscar weekend, Mank cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, a first-time nominee and ASC winner, is already deep into his next project. The Emerson College grad earned his chops as a best boy and gaffer before moving into cinematography full-time.

He spoke with No Film School via phone about working on one of this year’s biggest films.

It was the series Mindhunter where Messerschmidt teamed with director David Fincher, pushing the boundaries of digital workflows. With Mank, audiences are taken back in time to the 1930s as the story follows how Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) finishes the screenplay for Orson Welles in a gripping biographical drama.

Read the full profile

FIDM Online Lecture Series: Setting the Scene, Inside the World of Mank

Tom Henkenius
April 19, 2021
FIDM Museum / Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

Join us for a live Q&A with Production Designer Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator Jan Pascale about their Academy Award nomination for Best Production Design on the hit Netflix film Mank, nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gary Oldman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Amanda Seyfried), and Best Costume Design (FIDM Grad Trish Summerville).

About Your Moderator, Tom Henkenius: Tom is an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, director of FIDM’s Bachelor of Arts degree in digital marketing and principal partner at Thunder Communications, a content production company. Tom spent 10 years as a television news journalist after graduating from USC Annenberg. Tom holds a Master’s of Science from USC’s Iovine and Young Academy in Integrated Design, Business and Technology.

SBIFF 2021: Outstanding Directors of the Year Award Panel

Scott Feinberg
April 3, 2021
Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival Outstanding Directors of the Year Award is given to directors not afraid to push the envelope in the cinematic world, with an expertise that is both gracious and bold.

Moderated by The Hollywood Reporter Awards Columnist Scott Feinberg, the recipients are:

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)
David Fincher (Mank)
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)
Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round)

Watch the full panel in the following playlist: