How Hollywood Learnt To Stop Worrying And Embrace The Underground
As the dust settles on Sundance 2024, let's take a look at how Hollywood's relationship with independent film has developed over the years.
When acclaimed author Peter Biskind set about penning his Easy Riders, Raging
Bulls follow-up Down And Dirty Pictures - a history of modern independent cinema - he was dead certain about who’d be the first person he’d call up. Sure, Quentin Tarantino and the pre-scandal Harvey Weinstein were near the top of the list, but there was another man, arguably the greatest actor of his day, that Biskind wanted to track down first.
Tattooed neo-Nazis, dual-personality psycho killers, scuzzy cardsharps, fight-friendly office workers - yep, it didn’t matter how low-down the picture, Edward James Norton Jnr could get the character down pat. “But Peter,” the actor protested when Biskind’s call finally came, “don’t you realise that I’ve never made an independent movie?”
Biskind’s faux pas is easy to appreciate. Over the course of the mid-to-late ’90s,
the relationship between the Hollywood studios and their indie counterparts had grown so close as to seem almost incestuous. Clearly shaken by Billy Crystal’s crack about the 1997 Oscars nominations resembling “Sundance-By-The-Sea”, the majors
in part saw off the opposition by creating their own edgy film outfits such as Fox Searchlight and Dimension.
If said attempt to recreate indie cool sounds rather sinister, it’s done wonders for the studios with regards to retaining talent. In the past when a star got uppity, they’d be given something to direct. Now when someone talks about wanting to get back to their roots or trying something new, they can do so without even leaving town.
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