With A Actual Ache a success, Jesse Eisenberg is ready to direct a musical, however the style has been the damage of many a director earlier than him.
Making a big-budget musical appears to be the good white whale for any aspiring director. Many have tried, many have failed. These embody names like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and most just lately Todd Phillips. Undeterred, Jesse Eisenberg, recent off the success of his breakout hit A Actual Ache, has signed on to direct his third film which – watch for it – is ready to be a musical comedy.
Certainly, in keeping with Deadline, Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti are set to co-star within the movie which, is about “a shy woman who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical. Under the spell of the strong-willed and enigmatic director, she loses herself in the role and the high-stakes world of this community theater production.”
Sounds good, proper? Given how A Actual Ache is, it could be, however, the non-musical/musical style has humbled some really nice administrators earlier than, so Eisenberg needs to be cautious.
Listed below are just a few:
Martin Scorsese: New York, New York (1977)
This film was a infamous bomb for Scorsese, because it was his follow-up to Taxi Driver. It was extremely anticipated on the time, with it pairing Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli, however the movie, which went vastly over finances, was a bust. Scorsese turned depressed after its failure however finally bounced again with considered one of his biggest movies, Raging Bull.
Francis Ford Coppola: One from the Coronary heart (1983)
This film’s failure led to the collapse of Coppola’s dream studio, Zoetrope, with him spending a staggering $26 million on this musical set in Vegas, with songs by Tom Waits. Why was it such a flop? Partly as a result of Coppola opted to recreate Las Vegas on the Zoetrope soundstages. The film didn’t even gross 1,000,000 {dollars} and despatched him out of business. His subsequent quasi-musical, The Cotton Membership, was additionally a flop. Nevertheless, each movies have since been re-evaluated, with The Cotton Membership particularly impressing critics as soon as Coppola launched a brand new reduce.
Todd Phillips: Joker: Folie a Deux (2024)
When Todd Phillips introduced his Joker sequel was going to be a jukebox musical, it appeared like there was a couple of 99% likelihood the film can be a catastrophe, however then there was additionally that small sliver of hope it could be a traditional. Suffice it to say, it was a catastrophe—with it among the many greatest flops of all time.
Do you suppose Eisenberg will pull off what Scorsese, Coppola, and Phillips didn’t? To make certain, I’m positive his scale is much more modest. I do know Eisenberg a bit from interviewing him just a few occasions; he doesn’t take himself tremendous critically, so the film most likely has a better-than-average likelihood of succeeding. One factor that’s on his facet is that Giamatti is definitely a reasonably good singer, with him having nailed his songs within the underrated rom-com Duets from the early 2000s.
