Steven Spielberg Praises SQUID GAME and Explains How it Changed The Industry For The Better
When Squid Game was released on Netflix, no one expected it to be the massive hit that it became. This series just exploded and it proves that films and TV shows don’t need to be English language projects with big stars to be a huge success. All you need is a great and interesting story that will captivate audiences.
Director Steven Spielberg recently spoke on a panel at the Producers Guild Awards and while there he praised Squid Game saying that it has changed the film and television industry for the better, as it’s proven how successful films and shows can be without big A-list casts and domestic pull.
While discussing the importance of movie stars in casting, Spielberg said: "Squid Game comes along and changes the math entirely for all of us. Thank you, Ted. A long time ago it was domestic stars that brought the audience into movies. Today, it's interesting, unknown people can star entire miniseries, can be in movies."
Producer Todd Black (The Ricardos) added: "What's interesting is you can mix and match them also. It's really wonderful to be able to say, 'Okay, I'm going to have a star in a smaller role. I'm going to have an unknown in the lead role.' Now, you can go to the streaming service or the studio and say, 'Okay, well, I'll get the name to play for three days in this role but I’m going to go with a total unknown’. Nine times out of 10 if the script is good enough and the budget is small enough, you can pull that off."
Spielberg added: "They do need an anchor. If there's an anchor they're familiar with you can surround them with lesser known faces."
Now, while they talk the talk, they also need to walk the walk. It’d be interesting to see if filmmakers like Spielberg start to fill up their casts with unknown actors. It seems like directors and studios still follow the formula of casting big established stars in their films to ensure that box office draw. Hollywood has been doing that from the very beginning and I don’t think that will ever change because it limits the risk of a film bombing.
It seems like the streaming services are the places that will actually take these kinds of risks with new filmmakers and unknown actors. They are a bit more comfortable with taking those risks than the big studios.
Source: Deadline