What’s With the Shorter Oscars Conversation?
The Academy Awards celebrate filmmaking once a year.
First, you produced the 81st Oscars.
Image by Federico Napoli
BILL CONDON: Yes, I did with [Laurence] Mark.
What do you think would surprise people to learn about what it’s like to produce an Oscar?
CONDON: I think the most surprising thing is how hard it is to get people to present awards.
Image via Summit Entertainment
You would be shocked how many excuses people come up with tonotpresent awards.
My feeling about the Oscars is, listen, stop complaining that the show is three hours.
It’s a celebration of the best of cinema for the year.
I don’t understand why everyone is wanting to cut certain things.
CONDON: I agree with you.
GREG YOLEN: Good question.
Image by Photagonist
“What the fuck?”
CONDON: That’s more of a web connection thing, frankly, than the Academy thing.
That is a lot of income for the Academy from their online grid deal.
Image via Miramax Films
It’s as simple as that, I hate to say.
I want to see production design.
I want to see cinematography.
Image via Sundance Institute
I want to see the performances.
And I think a lot of people do, too.
Do I get to make two hours and 30 minutes?"
Image via Vanity Fair
How much does that factor into the creative process at the beginning?
So, I think that’s going to be the challenge.
I do think that can sometimes make for a longer experience because the pleasure of it is so strong.
[Laughs] That’s the problem with that.
I think that was a good model up to a few years ago.
I know now there are iTunes extras and things like that, but it’s weird.
Image by Photagonist
I miss knowing there’s that definitive version with alternate versions all in one place.
It doesn’t happen as much anymore, which is frustrating.
CONDON: It’s true.
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, convicted for public indecency. An unlikely bond forms as Molina recounts a Hollywood musical plot starring Ingrid Luna.
I did that withDream Girls.
Heres my only question onTwilight.
We talked a while ago about you doing a longer version ofBreaking Dawn Part 1and2as one movie.
Whatever happened with that?
So you’re saying there is a cut ofPart 2that you could do that’s longer.
It just needs money.
CONDON: Yeah, exactly.
How much longer would it be?
CONDON: Not that much.
I think it’s like 10 minutes.
YOLEN: Yeah, I dont think it is very different.
Is it just some VFX shots you oughta finish?
That’s a big VFX movie, like in that big battle at the end.
Here’s a question.
There are a lot ofTwilightfans.
YOLEN: This is a GoFundMe in two hours.
YOLEN: Gotta take that up with Summit Entertainment.
Thank you for indulging me.
CONDON: It’s a very, very loose adaptation of that musical.
If people know the movieCabaretcompared to the stage show, its as kind of reinvented as that movie was.
For me, it’s an idea that started when I was writingChicago.
So let’s talk a little bit about getting the rights because I’m sure that’s a battle.
What was it like putting this whole thing together?
YOLEN: It took a long time.
There was a great deal of, I would say, confusion at various pointsyears and years of it.
That’s the movie."
How did you get the rights?
Did you already have financing?
Because it costs money to get the rights and to get this thing going.
CONDON: We didn’t have anything.
No money touched hands on this movie.
I wrote the movie on my own.
It was a handshake deal with Tom and with John Kander, “Let me do this.”
I had known John fromChicago.Then, even those underlying rights holders, it was all shopping agreements.
As soon as your money is changing hands, there’s pressure because of that.
Also, there’s money.
How involved were Artists Equity?
CONDON: They financed the movie, along with a partner.
I’ve heard about Artists Equity and the way that it’s a new model of doing stuff.
For people that don’t know, what is it?
CONDON: Well, it’s like a 21st-century United Artists.
So the idea here is that the peoplescriptwriters, directors, starswe get paid scale.
YOLEN: Producers, too.
CONDON: Producers, too.
You get paid the minimum you might get paid, but you have real ownership of the movie.
It’s a very different model.
So, we’re at Sundance.
You haven’t been here sinceGods and Monsters.
What is it like being here again with a movie that’s also for sale?
CONDON: It’s exciting and nerve-wracking, as it was then.
Again, it was made the exact same way.
No money changed hands; we just made that movie.
It didn’t sell right away either, as you remember.
So, that, hopefully, will be a little quicker this time.
You wanted an unknown to play Molina.
Can you talk about why?
CONDON: Well, they could have been known, but I thought it was important.
First of all, there’s a huge list of things that this actor had to be.
How nervous were you that you weren’t going to find someone that made you light up?
CONDON: You do get nervous.
And it takes a while.
Everyone knows J-Lo is in the movie.
Talk a little bit about the role that J-Lo plays and how important music is to her character.
CONDON: Jennifer plays three parts in the movie.
It is a musical movie, so she has 11 musical numbers, which is spectacular.
She’s making it real.
I don’t know anybody else who could have done it.
I’m a huge Diego Luna fan.
I want to stress this.
So talk a little bit about Diego, why you wanted Diego in the movie, and his performance.
CONDON: I wanted him in the movie because, in this telling, it’s a love story.
But I have to say, working with him, I’m as huge a fan as you are.
Also, he’s a great collaborator.
He’s somebody who has produced movies and directed movies.
The experience is something I’ll treasure forever.
He also revealed where they have been recently filming the series.
I want to ask a production question.
For this project, what were the one to three hurdles that needed to be solve?
Jennifer was doing a new musical number every single day and coming in and nailing it.
That was something that we all realized we were barreling towards, again, on a tight budget.
you’re able to’t really just say, “Oh, we’ll pick that up tomorrow.”
We really had to hit our marks, quite literally, and she really did.
So again, we were all kind of like, “Oh, thank God.
We actually pulled off the New Jersey unit of the film,” which was all the musical stuff.
I’m fascinated by talking about the editing process.
How did this film change in the editing room in ways you didn’t expect?
But more than anything, it was what Greg just said.
That was the thing that we played with the most.
When are you ready to move from one to the other?
Do you resent moving at a certain point?
Maybe one day, it comes out in some imaginary Blu-ray or whatever.
CONDON: It wasn’t about getting it shorter.
It was really about listening to the audience.
You just get that sense from an audience, and you learn a lot.
It’s something I love.
It’s just interesting.
An unlikely bond forms as Molina recounts a Hollywood musical plot starring Ingrid Luna.
