www.thewrap.com: Over the course of his lengthy career, Tim Blake Nelson has seen it all. An actor, director, writer and producer whose latest film, “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” is premiering at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, he’s seen the industry evolve dramatically over the decades. And although he’s continued to work through all of it, this hasn’t always been an easy undertaking — especially in independent film.
2 comments:
It feels like in the modern day everyone is so obsessed with how profitable an idea is, which at least for artistic endeavors, feels like the wrong tree to be barking at. I am a firm believer that if a project is trying to please everyone, in the end all it does is piss everyone off because the message feels overly vague and inspecific, and there is no boldness to take any ideas to any point that is interesting. Its annoying that the indie film area is becoming so difficult to create in, because that feels like a great place for the weird little stories that are created from the heart and for a specific reason used to be able to go. It also creates a space for people to become successful. If investors are only investing in people that are already successful, eventually they are going to run out of people. Interesting art comes from people willing to take risks, so its nice to hear that there are still people out there fighting to make weird little movies even if they aren't going to gross a billion dollars at the box office.
I had no idea that Tim Blake Nelson, one of my favorite actors (watch The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, please, I beg you), was making a film, which is really just a confirming detail that Nelson is spot on. Studios and investors want to play it safe, want to minimize risk in order to maximize potential audience and, therefore, profit. Which, on one hand, fair enough -- money in and out is their job. But, man oh man is it depressing to hear about even David Lynch, icon of cinema, having his final film being thrown to the wayside after the pandemic slowed production. It can be easy to look at some of the recent successes of indie cinema and get all caught up in the storybook wonder of it all, ignoring the countless artists who can't even get in the door.
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