Mr. Matthews and Mr. Gordon, what is the biggest challenge you face as film producers today?
Nick Gordon: In the indie space, movies tend to not happen because you can't get enough money to be able to execute. Some companies have their own financing, they have to get things made in order to keep the business going and so they may be willing to make more sacrifices than others. But for a company like our Brookstreet Pictures, we are always trying to keep our eye on the ball as far as quality control, if we see something dipping to a level where it's like, that extra million dollars means this has to go from the project, or you're cutting a week from the schedule, or that cast member no longer works… We just won't do it. We try to really keep our prestige meters as high as we can. Our aspiration is to execute at the highest level.
Trevor Matthews: Right, we're doing this because we're passionate about storytelling, so we want to enjoy the experience, but also create something worthwhile. We’re so lucky to be one of the many companies in the world that gets to select what kind of stories we want to bring to the world, so we do have to ask ourselves before each film: Why are we making this? Why is this story important?
What other big fundamental questions are you asking yourself before deciding on a project?
TM: When deciding on a project, we’re asking questions like: What is the experience making this going to be like? What is the director’s past work? What changes should we make to the story if we could?
NG: Can we give the filmmaker the resources he or she needs to succeed? What happens when you have to adapt along the way? Because you will invariably have to adapt, you will have to pivot here and there, so you want to try to predict if those pivots that you have to make will adversely affect the project.
TM: Those questions all merit a whole day sometimes to sit down and analyze. With the director, we’re asking what's really important about the story to them, and how can we help emphasize that in the creation of the movie? Timing and fiscal responsibility also come into play when we’re thinking about making another movie. Sometimes we might be searching for something that will come together quickly, while in other cases, we may have had an idea that's been festering around in our heads for the last seven years. Sometimes there’s simply something in your bones, like you have make this right now.
When was the last time you felt like that after reading a script?
TM: I’ve been in this business 20 years, and I've never read anything like The Brutalist. It’s funny because it took a long time to read it, it’s dense, you know, the script was 165 pages! But I couldn't put it down. I jumped on the phone with Nick right after reading it… It doesn't really have any inherent action in it, but every beat felt so important and harkened back to so many classic movies that we aspire to make. It was an original story, but it felt like a piece of classically beautiful cinema. When we talked about it afterwards, and we were just both really jazzed about it. That’s the last time we felt like we really had to find a way to get this made.
NG: The thing about this film is that it doesn’t fit the mold of anything. In the indie sphere, we all aspire to do special, prestige, elevated important work, but at the same time, like I said, there is an element of hunting for hits, just in order to keep the lights on, you have to find stuff that feels inherently commercial to keep the business going. Those two things don't necessarily go hand in hand. This script is not inherently commercial, but it was the best screenplay to ever come into this company.
Is the non-commerciality of a screenplay also part of the appeal sometimes? Because if a film is clearly going to be a slam dunk, it’s probably something we’ve seen before.
NG: Sure, I mean, if you’ve got Mark Wahlberg attached to your project, you’re probably going to get it made, you know what I mean? The kind of movies that any production company can get made, those movies are like the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the sea. There are challenges inherent to financing something that might not seem slam dunk in the market, it means that you’re making something different, something that challenges… It also means you have to deliver the quality.
People are flocking to see The Brutalist in ways that have almost become commercial. I went to see it in 70mm in a completely sold-out cinema.
TM: Absolutely, it’s sort of become commercial! The Brutalist is doing all the things that I think a film of this size is not supposed to do! In the years prior to this film, a lot of publications were saying that people were getting tired of the length of movies, you know, these three-hour long Scorsese films – which I love, by the way – so the thinking for a while was to make something more contained. This didn’t fit that mould, but we couldn’t not make it. We had to find a way.
What kind of role do you have in bringing a filmmaker’s vision to life? Is it more logistical and budgetary? Or is there a creative element as well?
TM: It depends on the project, for sure. There's been certain projects where we've been very involved in the creativity, talking about the story on a daily basis with the filmmaker. With The Brutalist, the film came to us fully developed by Brady and his writing partner Mona Fastvold, so this time around it was more about talking to Brady about how the hell he's gonna pull this off. The institute, László Tóth’s building, was almost like a character in the script, so as producers, the big question for us was: How are we going to create this character on an indie budget? Luckily Brady always had these incredible answers for all those questions. He has such a vision and we really deferred to him for that creative aspect. We were contextualizing the scope and scale, the economics of the budget and the financial aspects.
You’ve often said that it’s like a small miracle every time a film gets made. Is that unique to Brookstreet Pictures, or is that true of all films?
NG: I think a lot of indie filmmakers deal with the same challenges that we do. It’s like lining up seven planets, and any little hiccup to the plan causes a planet to fall out of line. Maybe there are locations that aren't available, or a tax rebate that you didn't qualify for, and you kind of scramble to put it back together, you’re constantly trying to keep that train on the tracks. It can be so daunting, but that is really normal for our business. I think movies come together with the cast they're meant to have, and they come together at the time they're meant to go. We’ve got projects that we’ve been sitting on for the past ten years, waiting for the right time, waiting for the pieces to come together. Films take a long time. It’s a 24 hour a day, seven day a week kind of job. There are just so many facets to getting a single film made.
TM: That’s why I think it’s also important to enjoy it. You have to enjoy development as much as you enjoy getting on a plane and going to production. You have to enjoy sitting in a dark room watching edits and working through post-production as much as you enjoy going to festivals and talking about marketing. You have to enjoy every aspect of it. You really have to live and breathe every single project with a tremendous amount of passion.