With A Actual Ache a hit, Jesse Eisenberg is ready to direct a musical, however the style has been the smash 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, contemporary 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 accordance to 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 might be, however, the non-musical/musical style has humbled some actually nice administrators earlier than, so Eisenberg has to watch out.
Listed below are 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 funds, was a bust. Scorsese turned depressed after its failure however finally bounced again with one among his best 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 a million {dollars} and despatched him into chapter 11. His subsequent quasi-musical, The Cotton Membership, was additionally a flop. Nonetheless, each movies have since been re-evaluated, with The Cotton Membership specifically impressing critics as soon as Coppola launched a 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 about a 99% probability the film could be a catastrophe, however then there was additionally that small sliver of hope it is perhaps a basic. Suffice it to say, it was a catastrophe—with it among the many largest flops of all time.
Do you assume Eisenberg will pull off what Scorsese, Coppola, and Phillips failed to? To make certain, I’m certain his scale is a lot extra modest. I do know Eisenberg a bit from interviewing him a few occasions; he doesn’t take himself tremendous severely, so the film in all probability has a better-than-average probability of succeeding. One factor that’s on his facet is that Giamatti is definitely a fairly good singer, with him having nailed his songs within the underrated rom-com Duets from the early 2000s.
