Disney’s messy succession story; Overcoming the production challenges of ‘Strange Darling’

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the wake of Disney’s big night at the Emmys, Kim Masters and Matt Belloni take a look at the New York Times article chronicling the chaotic succession endeavors at Disney.

Plus, Masters speaks with writer-director J.T. Mollner and producer Roy Lee about their cat-and-mouse thriller Strange Darling. The film currently sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and was called a “clever masterpiece” by Stephen King. But the road to such acclaim was not an easy one for the filmmakers. Mollner and his producers faced constant pushback from studio executives at Miramax, including having production shut down two days into shooting. Plus, the pair tells us about editorial clashes in post-production that would ultimately result in Mollner being given final cut.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.
0:05.2	Soon after J.T. Molnar started shooting his new film, Strange Darling, executives at Miramax shut it down. Within days, producer Roy Lee got the project back on track, but the writer-director was still reeling.
0:18.8	During that week, I was thinking to myself, I finally get a shot
0:22.4	to direct another film. I know what we're doing is special, but if we get shut down now, I doubt
0:28.2	anybody will ever give me another opportunity to make a movie. So from the time we went back into
0:33.4	production on, I felt like I was directing for my life.
0:43.5	With Strange Darling now sitting at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, Molner and Lee talk about the fight to keep the project going, and how Molnar, after a strong test screening, wound up going
0:48.6	from fired to getting final cut. The filmmaker also talks about finding an unexpected ally in comedian Tiffany
0:56.4	Haddish and how actor Giovanni Ribisi made his feature film debut behind the screen as cinematographer
1:03.1	on Strange Darling after years of quietly lansing music videos and commercials. But first we banter.
1:10.6	Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.
1:15.0	I am joined by my companion in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt. Hi there. So let's congratulate Disney.
1:22.7	Disney mopped up 60 Emmy Awards. And I think neither you nor I expect that to happen again. The great
1:30.6	majority of these, of course, were thanks to FX and Shogun and the kind of swing that Disney
1:36.4	didn't used to take at all, but is now going to have to take if it's going to remain competitive
1:41.7	in this very difficult world. So that's a nice thing for
1:46.2	Bob Iger, but it made me think maybe we should check in on the succession race. And as you know,
1:52.0	maybe a week or two ago, the New York Times ran a huge story about the clash between Bob Iger
1:59.1	and Bob Chappick, which we've talked about many times. It's clear that
2:03.1	Bob Chapic is now ready to tell his side of the story. People I know sort of felt like neither one of
2:09.2	them came out particularly well. I don't know. What did you think? No, nobody looks good in this story.
2:14.5	I mean, not even Willow Bay. Bob Eiger's wife looks good in this story.
	...

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