I remember we all got this kind of idea early on, like, okay, this is the real world, but these are like a handful of the most extreme people that you might encounter in the real world.

We were thinking of movies like network, you know, which is about a TV station that elects to kill someone on live television for ratings.

And at no point does it become like super over the top.

And that's what grants it credibility.

Yeah. Hello and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.

In this episode, a man disowned by his wealthy family will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, in director John Patton Ford's dark comedy thriller, How to Make a Killing.

Loosely inspired by the 1949 feature Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film tells the story of

Beckett Redfellow, a blue-collar worker disowned by his wealthy relatives. Determined to reclaim his inheritance, he launches a campaign of manipulation, betrayal, and calculated violence

to eliminate everyone standing between him and the fortune.

In addition to how to make a killing, Ford's other directorial credit includes the feature film Emily the Criminal, which earned him a nomination for the DGA's first-time feature film award in 2022.

Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles, Ford spoke with director Kobe Libby about filming how to make a killing.

Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.

So we were just chatting a little bit backstage.

I really love this film.

And one of the things I wanted to start with is I feel like it's hard to

make a film that is in any way tonally ambitious, right? It's really easy to make. It's not easy

to make film that's realistic, but it's it's, it's, there's a shared language if you're doing a

realistic drama, right? But any time you're sort of pushing the boundaries of that or trying to do something that's a little different, that's a shared language if you're doing a realistic drama, right? But any time you're sort of

pushing the boundaries of that or trying to do something that's a little different, that's

incredibly, that's an extra level of challenge on what's already a really challenging job. So I guess

my first question is, how did you approach getting everyone to make the same movie, right? Whether

it's designers, actors, you know, in the development

...