![]() ![]() ![]() “And our culture has become so throwaway. ![]() “What spoke to me about it was that it’s really about finding people in your life that mean something,” he says. Not just because he was thrilled by the cinematic potential of its narrative-within-narrative structure, but also because he related it to his own life. The story - of a fortysomething who receives and reads the manuscript of a harrowing thriller written by her brutally dumped ex-husband - absorbed Ford completely. In 2012, Ford had been working on an original screenplay (something incredibly “politically incorrect”, which he jokes the world may be ready for now “we have the person we’re going to have living in the White House”) when a UK journalist friend recommended the novel Tony & Susan. I don’t know that I’ll ever collaborate with anyone.” “I have another job, which is very satisfying in certain ways,” he says, “so the reason I make films is that they are a personal expression, and this was a personal story. He will not commit to a project unless it connects with him on a fundamental level, and he always writes alone (his joint credit on A Single Man is the result of rewriting an existing script by David Scearce). It has restored my faith in the possibility of working with another studio.”įord’s commercial nous and industry savvy do not detract from the fact film-making, for him, is a fiercely personal pursuit. “But working with Focus and Universal has been the exact opposite. “I wasn’t happy with the way A Single Man opened or was handled or was advertised,” he says of his first film, which was released by The Weinstein Company in North America. If he were gambling with his independence by taking the deal, it paid off. “And that went back and forth and then finally we agreed on something.” That “something” was the biggest deal to be made in Cannes for years: $20m for the distribution rights to most of the world, which covered a majority of the $27m budget (Ford, of course, funded the rest himself). ![]() “They said they wanted to buy the world, and I said no,” he laughs. Ford had only just started selling off territories when Focus Features and Universal Pictures approached him. They had all read the screenplay, but at least this gave them a sense of the film’s visual world.” “The whole thing took about three minutes. He stood on a dais and narrated the story outline while projecting around 25 key mood-images to illustrate characters and moments. At Cannes in 2015, he hired a ballroom at “one of those hotels, I don’t know which”, and presented the project to about 250 potential distributors. At this point in my life, I know what I need to make things work, and I need a certain amount of autonomy.”įord did, though, “mitigate my exposure” by selling off the international distribution rights using FilmNation as a broker. I’m certainly not good with things like notes - I can’t even stand that word. I’m not good with a lot of voices in my head. “I have a certain fear of the studio system. So with Nocturnal Animals, his layered adaptation of Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony & Susan, Ford’s path was clear. And it paid off, grossing almost $25m worldwide against a $7m production budget, as well as earning international plaudits and furnishing its lead actor, Colin Firth, with an Oscar nomination. When nobody would invest in his reinvention as a cinematic auteur, he used his fashion-industry fortune to fund A Single Man himself. When he wrote, produced and directed his impressive debut, A Single Man, he was already renowned as one of the fashion world’s boldest talents, having reinvented and rescued Gucci until quitting that company in 2004 and establishing his own clothing and fragrance brand. But then, neither did Ford’s film-making career. Nocturnal Animals, Ford’s second feature in seven years, did not come together under entirely usual circumstances. I just had to say that disclaimer! I get so self-conscious about it.” And I have the advantage of knowing most of the people in this industry. Something he wants to get out in the open, to clear the air before he can continue the conversation in comfort. ![]()
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