GO BIG OR GO HOME
NO ONE MAKES A MOVIE IN A VACUUM. Even filmmakers working with the most micro of microbudgets want their films to be seen; movies are, after all, a mode of communication, a way of celebrating shared experiences or locating common ground amid differences. It's no wonder filmmakers who make a big splash with a small film often want to stretch their horizons by working on a larger canvas, with a fatter budget and flashier stars, all in the service of speaking to us.
One of the surprise indie hits of 2020 was Lee Isaac Chung's Minari, an intimate, semiautobiographical drama about a Korean American family struggling to establish a farm in rural Arkansas. Minari earned six Academy Award nominations; one of its stars, Youn Yuh-jungas a swearing, card-playing Korean grandmawon for Best Supporting Actress. And its success brought Chung a golden opportunity: this summer sees the release of Twisters, his reimagining of Jan de Bont's nature-gone-wild thriller Twister, from 1996. In Twisters, Daisy EdgarJones and Glen Powell play rival storm chasers tearing through Oklahoma's Tornado Alley though it turns out that even though she's a serious-minded researcher and he's a YouTube star, they have more in common than they think.
Twisters is a movie with a $200 million budget; Minari cost $2 million. That makes Chung just the latest in a long line of directors who have grabbed the chance to leap from low-key indie success to blockbuster attention grabber. More broadly, though, a big swing like this is a test of how we moviegoers feel about filmmakers as artists. Everyone loves an underdog hero. But what happens when a filmmaker sets their sights on a bigger project, one designed to reach a wider audience and, ideally, to net a handsome payoff? Is that selling out or stepping up? And in a climate where movies designed to be viewed on the big screen face an uncertain future, is it an act of hope or an exercise in futility?
Bu hikaye Time dergisinin August 05, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Time dergisinin August 05, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
LIVING LEGEND
Gypsy star Audra McDonald is now the performer with the most Tony wins and nominations in history
DOWN AND OUT
After the 2024 fiasco, the Democrats are rethinking everything
THE MAN BEHIND THE BOW TIE
In a documentary filmed just before his death, Paul Reubens reflects on the life he led when the cameras weren't rolling
What can you share about growing up in the Amazon and how it has informed your work?
Marina Silva Brazil's Environment and Climate Minister on growing up in the Amazon, hosting this year's U.N. climate talks, and the global retreat of the Trump Administration
THE SHIFT EAST
Once an auto underdog, China's electricvehicle boom now powers its tech rise
A new M:I won't save cinema, but it's fun to watch Tom Cruise try
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—THE FINAL Reckoning, the eighth film in the franchise and ostensibly its finale, looks, feels, and sounds like the sort of movie you need to see on the big screen.
Wes Anderson returns with a muted Scheme
WES ANDERSON, WHO SPECIALIZES in designing fancifully invented societies, probably doesn’t strike anyone as an angry person.
TIME 100 - Philanthropy
THESE ARE THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF GIVING
Germany's bold military push
FOR DECADES, SOME in Europe talked up the need for “collective European defense,” a policy to sharply reduce dependence on Washington for military protection.
Can states do what FEMA was set up to do?
PRESIDENT TRUMP FIRST POSED THE IDEA OF OVERHAUL-ing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while visiting North Carolina in January in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
