2008 seems like such a long time ago, which of course it is/was. An entirely different world. And yes, I miss the electric presence of J.C. Chandor…of course I do.
Cassian Elwes: “Right after I left WMA in ‘08 I made a deal to work out of a management company called untitled. They had an executive called Laura Rister whose job it was to help their clients with projects. I asked what her favorite unmade script was, and she said Zach Quinto had a great one called Margin Call. I read and loved it.
“I asked to speak to the writer/director, J.C. Chandor. He’d been trying to get this made as his first film. Eight years of trying while taking random editing jobs. Nothing. I also loved his producer Neal Dodson for doggedly hanging in there.
“I called J.C and told him I’d make it happen and that we’d be shooting within 6-8 weeks. I later found out he took the call on a park bench because he’d promised his wife he was going to stop chasing this dream and get a job. We were shooting eight weeks later.
“We sent the movie to Sundance but it took some cajoling on my part to get them even to play it, albeit in the second half. We had to show it privately in Park City the first weekend to get the buyers to see it. Because there was no real audience other than buyers, only IFC and Roadside were interested. We went with Roadside because they said they might go day-and-date as opposed to IFC, who said they definitely would.
“In August Roadside told us they were going day-and-date, which up until that point was the way indies were dumping films they didn’t think would do business. In September two things occurred — the reviews were fantastic and Occupy Wall Street happened. Journalists were saying ‘see this film if you want to understand what’s going on’. The movie was a big hit for a day and date film.
“The cool part of the Sundance screenings was that J.C. met Bob Redford in Park City and asked if he could send him a script. Redford said he was the first filmmaker at the festival to ever ask him. The script was All Is Lost. It was very short because there was no dialogue and mostly storyboards. Bob said yes and was nominated for an Academy Award later for his performance. That’s the beauty of this festival. Anything can happen.”
“Never Forget Margin Call“, HE-posted on 4.13.20.