Jose Padilha Hates His Experience Directing ROBOCOP
Elite Squad director Jose Padilha is about to start shooting the Robocop reboot for MGM. This is his first big Hollywood movie, and unfortunately it's been a terrible experience for him. So bad in fact that he never wants to do it again!
Director Fernando Meirelles (City of God; 360) is a friend of Padilha, and in a recent interview with the South American film site Cinemacom Rapadura, Meirelles said...
I talked to José Padilha for a week by phone. He will begin filming Robocop. He is saying that it is the worst experience. For every 10 ideas he has, 9 are cut. Whatever he wants, he has to fight. “This is hell here,” he told me. “The film will be good, but I never suffered so much and do not want to do it again.” He is bitter, but it’s a fighter.
It sucks that he's having such an awful experience. I hope it gets better for him, but it doesn't sound like he'll be wanting to make anymore Hollywood films again.
The reason these big studios bring in directors like Padilha is because they are relatively new directors that have proved they have talent. They can be hired on the cheap, and are also easily controlled by the studio. But apparently Padilha is fighting the studio for his version of the film, and it's a battle he seems to be losing. I'm way more interested in Padilha's vision for the story than the studio's, because most studio executives don't really know what makes a good story or what the audience wants.
The movie is targeting a release date of August 9th, 2013, and stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jennifer Ehle, Jackie Earle Haley, Jay Baruchel, Michael K. Williams, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Any thoughts on Padilha's bad Hollywood studio experience?