{"id":592273,"date":"2023-09-26T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T17:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/blockbuster-director-shawn-levy-is-hollywoods-most-reliable-hitmaker\/"},"modified":"2023-09-26T20:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T17:09:01","slug":"blockbuster-director-shawn-levy-is-hollywoods-most-reliable-hitmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/blockbuster-director-shawn-levy-is-hollywoods-most-reliable-hitmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"#Blockbuster director Shawn Levy is Hollywood’s most reliable hitmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photograph by Wade Hudson)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Every night is a blockbuster night for Shawn Levy. Coming up in the \u201990s, the Montreal-born director, screenwriter and producer mastered the buttery box-office banger\u2014think Date Night<\/em>, Cheaper by the Dozen<\/em>, Night at the Museum<\/em> and The Pink Panther <\/em>(Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s version). Even now, it\u2019s virtually impossible to escape his creations. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of Stranger Things<\/em>? He produced it. Deadpool<\/em>? He\u2019s partway through directing instalment three. Star Wars<\/em>? Ha! In development.<\/p>\n

Hollywood\u2019s franchise fetish certainly shows no signs of abating, but, lately, Levy\u2019s had to evolve his oeuvre along with a shifting industry, one disrupted by streamers; a new wave of scrapp<\/a>y, Macbook-owning Canadian talents; a contentious SAG-AFTRA strike and, relatedly, AI. Even the crowned emperor of family comedies is wading into more dramatic fare, with this month\u2019s All the Light We Cannot See<\/em>, a Netflix miniseries<\/a> based on Anthony Doerr\u2019s Pulitzer-winning novel, set during the Second World War. In fact, Levy\u2019s production company, 21 Laps Entertainment, has more than 10 Netflix vehicles in the hopper. He\u2019s going to make it impossible for you not to love them, too.<\/p>\n

So much ink is spilled about mega-million-dollar deals, on-set drama and who\u2019s been tapped for what franchise. Directors now seem to get the kind of breathless coverage once reserved for actors. You, however, are maybe the least well-known box-office sure thing. Do you prefer a low profile?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t set out to be incognito; I just always focused on the making of things more than being known for the making of things. I wanted to direct very badly, very young. I\u2019m proud that I live a scandal-free life. I\u2019m happy not to chase the other stuff.<\/p>\n

Between Stranger Things<\/em> and The Adam Project<\/em>, you seem to have a knack for sniffing out future hits. Do you look for plot? A particular feeling? What makes you say: \u201cThis is a Shawn Levy<\/em> movie\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, if you\u2019ll indulge a sports analogy, swinging at bad pitches tends to make you miss. I\u2019m always looking for a project with a fundamental humanism\u2014a story that\u2019s anti-cynical. Sometimes, it\u2019s big on inner-child stuff, like: what if museums came to life after dark<\/em>? There\u2019s the plot, but a movie\u2019s theme might be yearning for agency in a world not of your making. The idea is always bigger than the premise.<\/p>\n

You used the term \u201canti-cynical.\u201d You made your name in blow-out family comedies like Cheaper by the Dozen<\/em>. \u201cFeel-good\u201d can be a pop-culture pejorative. There\u2019s a snobbery that says if it\u2019s loved by everyone, it can\u2019t be that good. What\u2019s your take?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even when I was in film school at USC in the mid-\u201990s, while all of my classmates were making dark, violent Tarantino derivations, I was making Broken Record<\/em>: a rom-com about a 12-year-old boy and girl who get married to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records<\/em>. I was always aware of the dismissive attitude toward popcorn populism, but pleasing a crowd is my north star. And, as the world has grown darker, the appetite for warm-hearted fare has increased. Look at Barbie<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s not a seedy journey. It\u2019s unabashedly escapist.<\/p>\n

And Ryan Gosling\u2019s in it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

All Canadian Ryans rule.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0The Rise and Fall of a Chinese-Canadian Pop Star<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On that subject, you\u2019ve got upward of 10 projects in the works with Netflix, but the partnership everyone wants to know about is your bromance with Ryan Reynolds. So: how did you two meet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s especially weird because neither one of us has many friends. We both have a lot of kids\u2014eight offspring between us. We\u2019re not out there looking for bro-down beer-and-nacho nights; we\u2019re homebodies. About a decade ago, I was making a movie called Real Steel<\/em> with Hugh Jackman, and he said, \u201cThere\u2019s a guy who, if you ever work with him, you\u2019re never gonna stop. It\u2019s Ryan Reynolds.\u201d Then, in July of 2018, I got a text out of the blue: \u201cHey, Ryan here. What are you doing next year? I think I found our movie.\u201d That was Free Guy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s about a bank teller who realizes he\u2019s a video game<\/a> character, right? What sold you on the movie\u2014and Ryan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t a huge gamer, but Ryan said, \u201cThe movie has a theme of wish fulfillment in a world that feels disappointing.\u201d As soon as he framed it that way, I knew we thought about movies similarly. We rolled right from that into The Adam Project<\/em>. Then he said, \u201cYou know, they really want me to do Deadpool 3<\/em>, but I\u2019ll never do it if it\u2019s not with you.\u201d I said, \u201cAre you joking? I\u2019m fucking in. I loved Deadpool<\/em> before I loved you<\/em>, Ryan Reynolds!\u201d I actually spent the first half of today with him, starting with a joint workout. That involves me reducing his weight by two-thirds, then doing my set.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you live, like, 100 yards away from each other in Manhattan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I worked on my biecps and threw a stone out my window, it could break Ryan\u2019s.<\/p>\n

For so long, Canada\u2019s been banging the \u201cHollywood North\u201d drum. Between your production company 21 Laps Entertainment, Elevation Pictures, the Ryans and directorial talent like BlackBerry<\/em>\u2019s Matt Johnson and Emma Seligman of Bottoms<\/em>, do we even need to chase American clout anymore? We\u2019ve got our own, thanks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that there\u2019s more visibility on our talent\u2014we have a deep bench. (By the way, I straight-up cold-called Matt Johnson after I watched BlackBerry<\/em>. It\u2019s fun to tell someone you admire their work, even if you don\u2019t know them.) For Canadians, there\u2019s an eternal conflict between chasing Hollywood clout and knowing there are other metrics for success. Decades ago, there was almost a tractor beam pulling me south. The emerging generation isn\u2019t running to the same end zone as I was. They can make a film with independent distribution\u2014in Canada. Sometimes the goal is financial, but now, it\u2019s also about having your piece reach a certain cultural volume.<\/p>\n

The traditional studio setup has been upended by the Amazon Primes and HBO Maxes. Have streamers levelled the playing field for filmmakers at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that they\u2019ve made things more equitable, but the tools of filmmaking have become much more democratized. Films don\u2019t need to be slick or big-budget to get seen. Where the streamers have also increased opportunity is in the sheer volume of content. That didn\u2019t exist when you only had, you know, six theatrical studios.<\/p>\n

You touched on technology<\/a>, which\u2014in addition to compensation\u2014is one of the sticking points in the recent SAG-AFTRA\u00a0<\/strong>negotiations. Are you tempted to use AI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of now, it\u2019s not something I have any interest in. I\u2019m a spectator\u2014along with the rest of the human race.<\/p>\n

Have you seen any films that have used AI in ways that impress or intrigue you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not yet. I\u2019ve seen it used in visual art at MoMA here in New York, and in some tweets my college-age daughter has shown me. I can\u2019t say that it\u2019s emulating human voice and nuance well at all. By the time this article comes out, though, things could be radically different.<\/p>\n

The strike has actors and writers on one side and studios on the other. Directors are an awkward island in the middle. How has that conflict affected you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Massively. We were in the middle of filming Deadpool 3<\/em>, and I had to send 500 people home without jobs. The pain isn\u2019t just being inflicted on striking guild members, but the entire ecosystem of the industry: crew and ancillary artists aren\u2019t able to earn a living. It\u2019s brutal. I\u2019m hoping for more equity in the new deals.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0How Celine Song\u2019s Past Lives became the surprise indie hit of the year<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredibly difficult to get bigger studios to green-light original content now\u2014that is, movies without already-bankable source material, like comic books. You\u2019ve dabbled in the franchise pool yourself. How do you create anything new when the public (and studios) seem to want more of the same?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m answering this as someone who\u2019s working on Star Wars<\/em> after Deadpool<\/em>, but I\u2019ve still built the majority of my career on original content, projects that miraculously got made in the absence of\u2014overused word alert\u2014IP. We went to Fox and said we wanted to make Free Guy<\/em> based on nothing: a new screenplay centring on a video game that\u2019s made up. How do you do that? You pitch your ass off.<\/p>\n

You said that you lost your shit when you were tapped to helm the next Star Wars film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I lose my shit every time I think or talk about it. My younger brother and I would take the 24 bus down Rue Sherbrooke to the Imperial Theatre in Montreal. I saw Return of the Jedi<\/em> there six to 12 times.<\/p>\n

Have you played with any of the toys yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have, but not specifically for the next movie. I directed a Nissan commercial several years ago to shoot a scene with the Millennium Falcon. I can\u2019t even tell you what model we were selling. When something achieves cultural-icon status, like Stranger Things<\/em>, it assumes a magical totemic power.<\/p>\n

It can also resurrect the pop culture of the past. Somewhere, Kate Bush is like, \u201cThank god for Shawn Levy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u2019s been very gracious. But I don\u2019t go into any of these things saying, \u201cThis is going to be a billion-dollar, three-movie franchise.\u201d I meet so many young filmmakers now who come into a first meeting and want to talk about building a franchise. That\u2019s a presumptuous way to start. It\u2019s mercenary, and I don\u2019t think it fosters good karma.<\/p>\n

That said, the projects on your CV share a certain stubborn sunnyness. You\u2019ve said publicly that you didn\u2019t have the easiest childhood\u2014your mom struggled with addiction and you more or less willed yourself toward happiness. Not to frivolously psychoanalyze you here, but\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was clear that the general<\/a> sadness that I saw my mom wrestle with for most of my life wasn\u2019t going to be my destiny. I loved growing up in Montreal, but that part of it was like living under a heavy blanket. The minute I could throw that blanket off, I did. I did community theatre in high school, then skipped CEGEP to apply to Yale for drama. Even after I became \u201cfamily comedy guy,\u201d I founded my company as a step toward a more eclectic workload. \u201cWhat\u2019s next\u201d has always been axiomatic for me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious: how did 21 Laps get its name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When my first-born, Sophie, was in kindergarten, her school hosted a fundraising jog-a-thon. Sophie was in no way athletic. I was like, \u201cI\u2019ll sponsor her per lap. It\u2019s not going to cost anyone a lot of money!\u201d She didn\u2019t break her stride for the entire jog. By lap 19, I was sobbing on the sidelines. I thought that if the goal of the company is to surprise people, 21 Laps felt like a good name.<\/p>\n

Jog-a-thons, man. We need to find another way to raise money.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a vague memory of doing a fitness test that involved sit-ups and climbing a rope in front of my peers\u2014cruel activities.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when you find out you\u2019re an arts kid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was it.<\/p>\n

On pivots: you used to be an actor. You\u2019re even an alumnus of Stagedoor Manor, a prestigious performing arts school in the Catskills\u2014Natalie Portman, Robert Downey Jr. and you. Was there a moment when you realized, Wow, not for me<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Yale, I got cast as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/em>, opposite a fellow freshman named Paul Giamatti.<\/p>\n

Stop.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did my cringeworthy version of Bibbit\u2019s stutter. Giamatti, meanwhile, is just astonishing as McMurphy. I was like, \u201cShit, that\u2019s what greatness looks like.\u201d I was too self-conscious to lose myself in acting. Amazingly, by senior year, I was directing Giamatti in Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf<\/em>? Paul\u2019s dad, Bart\u2014the president of Yale who later became the commissioner of MLB\u2014came up to us after our final performance and said, \u201cYou boys are both doing what you\u2019re supposed to.\u201d Like hearing an oracle speak.<\/p>\n

I read that your own dad once said, \u201cYou\u2019re this big Hollywood director, but you live a Montreal life.\u201d What did he mean by that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it was his way of saying, \u201cI\u2019m glad you didn\u2019t become an asshole, son.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0How this choreographer created the creepy monster movement in The Last of Us<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Your non-asshole friend Ryan has mastered side hustles: Aviation gin, Wrexham Football Club and\u2026\u2009everything else. Do you see yourself similarly wading into moguldom?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always had a sweet spot for candy, to a degree that\u2019s probably inappropriate for a middle-aged man. If someone put a pack of Fun Dip or a roll of SweeTarts in front of me right now, we\u2019d have to pause.<\/p>\n

Perfect movie food.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Give me some Glosette Raisins and I\u2019m a happy boy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n