It's been a whiplash-inducing year for writer-director Damien Chazelle.

After beginning 2014 as a relative unknown, the 30-year-old who became the toast of Sundance with his semi-autobiographical Whiplash now finds himself a frontrunner for Oscar nominations in director and original screenplay categories.

But don’t expect Chazelle, who has two buzzy projects lined up, to take long before getting back behind the camera. As he recently explained to The Hollywood Reporter, he has spent a lifetime studying the careers of his favorite directors and had been mapping out his next career move well before his Park City breakout.

“The movie I'm doing next I wrote before Whiplash,” explains Chazelle. “It was just too big to get off the ground, so the hope was that Whiplash would allow the doors to open for that movie.”

That project is La La Land, an L.A.-based musical about young dreamers striving to make it in the big city, which is set to go into rehearsals in February. The love story will feature Whiplash star Miles Teller as a jazz pianist and Emma Watson as an aspiring actress, both of whom are pushed to the edges of madness in a city of artist dreamers.

The theme of characters pushing themselves to extremes is central to Chazelle's work and is what attracted him to also sign on to First Man, a biopic about astronaut Neil Armstrong that is in development at Universal.

“It's like Whiplash in space,” Chazelle tells THR. “It's going to be another portrait of someone driven to the brink of what some people might term 'insanity' and also questioning the cost that goes into great achievement. I guess as someone who is kind of driven to the point of alienation myself, I'm attracted to characters like that.”

Both First Man and La La Land represent a significant step up from Whiplash’s reported $3.3 million production budget -- but don’t look for Chazelle to sign onto a franchise film any time soon.

“There’s also a temptation to jump right into some giant tentpole,” explains Chazelle, “I think for some people that works, but for me I wouldn't be interested in that because I'm only interested in things I can actually direct. I'm not interested in being a puppet on a string.”

Chazelle points to Christopher Nolan’s career path as being one he emulates.

“His career is very interesting, where he worked his way up to [big budgets] more slowly than people try to these days,” says an admiring Chazelle. “I want to make things that are personal like Nolan that are seen by people.”

He continues: “There's certain movies I want to do that are huge and would require huge resources, but you have to build your way to them. You have to earn the right -- and I have no problem with that.”

I think Christopher Nolan, in a way, he can do the combination. He's an old-school director who uses everything technology gives you today and puts it into a movie (...) He's an old-school director in terms of his craft, which is a big compliment. He's just so good with technology. He can do everything. Because the good things in Inception aren't to do with technology. They're about the dramatic way he directed it.

Christopher Nolan’s three-film tenure as the director of Batman might have concluded, but the days of his dark, gritty style of superhero films may also be drawing to close, according to director Matthew Vaughn.

In the latest issue of SFX magazine, the Kick-Ass director, and Claudia Schiffer’s husband, argued that audiences are turning their backs on such movies in favor of more light-hearted material.

"People want fun and escapism at the moment," he says. "Look at the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think Nolan kick-started a very dark, bleak style of superhero escapism, and I think people have had enough of it."

"I was born in 1971, so they were very formative years for me growing up. I was inspired by all of it. The Avengers, Harry Palmer, The Prisoner, The Man from UNCLE, In Like Flint," the director said. "Of course, there’s a huge shadow of Bond – Bond is the monolith of spy movies – but it’s not just about Bond. There were a lot of other things that influenced me."

"The studio was like ‘What is this – Austin Powers?’ It was a balancing act but I think we pulled it off," Vaughn said. "It’s not a comedy, but it’s full of laughs. It’s got everything. It’s what we did with Kick-Ass – it’s a proper movie but were allowed to have a bit of more fun with it. Its aim was to be entertaining but not silly."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/m ... lms-761096

MyCocaine wrote:Matthew Vaughn: People "Have Had Enough" of Christopher Nolan's Dark Superhero Films

Christopher Nolan’s three-film tenure as the director of Batman might have concluded, but the days of his dark, gritty style of superhero films may also be drawing to close, according to director Matthew Vaughn.

In the latest issue of SFX magazine, the Kick-Ass director, and Claudia Schiffer’s husband, argued that audiences are turning their backs on such movies in favor of more light-hearted material.

"People want fun and escapism at the moment," he says. "Look at the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think Nolan kick-started a very dark, bleak style of superhero escapism, and I think people have had enough of it."

"I was born in 1971, so they were very formative years for me growing up. I was inspired by all of it. The Avengers, Harry Palmer, The Prisoner, The Man from UNCLE, In Like Flint," the director said. "Of course, there’s a huge shadow of Bond – Bond is the monolith of spy movies – but it’s not just about Bond. There were a lot of other things that influenced me."

"The studio was like ‘What is this – Austin Powers?’ It was a balancing act but I think we pulled it off," Vaughn said. "It’s not a comedy, but it’s full of laughs. It’s got everything. It’s what we did with Kick-Ass – it’s a proper movie but were allowed to have a bit of more fun with it. Its aim was to be entertaining but not silly."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/m ... lms-761096

Matthew Vaughn at it again. First he attacks Kodak and laughs at everyone who tries to preserve it and now he attacks Nolan. He sounds like a immature adult. The criticism is almost laughable coming from the director of Kick-Ass. And no, not everybody wants to see generic movies with no depth. And for the record I don't even consider The Dark Knight Trilogy being superhero films.

Matthew Vaughn sets the record straight in regards to his comments about Christopher Nolan, making it clear that he's a big fan of The Dark Knight Trilogy director, but that he still believes the likes of Spider-Man and Superman should not follow the same dark route as Batman. Talk of Nolan never winning an Oscar then turns to the Kingsman: The Secret Service helmer's love of Guardians of the Galaxy and his disappointment that the movie has received little in the way of mainstream awards attention.

In an interview at the 2014 Marrakech film festival in December, where she served as jury prexy, she stated that her recent intensive U.S. experience is simply a pure coincidence of back-to-back projects. She nonetheless emphasised that she’s interested in stepping up her collaboration with international helmets, including on English-language pics, and talked about her upcoming projects with directors such as Paul Verhoeven, as well as other directors with whom she would like to work, including Christopher Nolan and David Cronenberg.

At Marrakech she underlined her appreciation of auteur cinema, but explained that she believes that high-budget commercial films can also convey a director’s individual vision, citing Christopher Nolan as a prime example.

Q: Is there any director in Hollywood who catches your eye these days?

A: I saw the film from Wes Anderson, "Grand Budapest Hotel," and I thought it was a great film. So original, so personal. I like very much Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan also, and "House of Cards" director David Fincher.