Marc Webb's career

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  • Marc Webb's career

    I have two questions about this guy:

    1. I understand FOX signed him to a two picture deal, and from looking at his imdb page I see that before that he'd only done music videos and a short. Isn't that kinda much to sign a guy to a two movie deal when he's done nothing much before that? I mean if a guy's done a good short you'd figure they'd give him a shot at a film, but not sign him to two movies outright, no?

    2. This is the one that really puzzles me:

    I heard that apparently Sony wanted Webb who, at the time, had done 500 Days of Summer for FOX and still had one movie to do for them, so in exchange for Webb Sony agreed to promote X-Men for free.

    I don't get this, why would Sony go to such trouble to get a guy who'd done one film, not to mention that they are getting him for a superhero special effects film and the one move he'd done was a romantic comedy?

  • #2
    Re: Marc Webb's career

    To clarify, Sony made that deal with Fox so that Webb could direct the SECOND of his Spider-Man films before having to fulfill his obligation to Fox. Otherwise you would have had a different director for the second Spider-Man than the first. In that, you can see the motivation a little better.

    Also, keep in mind that studios do not just look at a director's completed works in deciding to make a deal with that person. They have meetings, they hear pitches, etc. I don't know specifics here, as I have not read many interviews with or articles about Webb.

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    • #3
      Re: Marc Webb's career

      Originally posted by TheKeenGuy View Post
      To clarify, Sony made that deal with Fox so that Webb could direct the SECOND of his Spider-Man films before having to fulfill his obligation to Fox. Otherwise you would have had a different director for the second Spider-Man than the first. In that, you can see the motivation a little better.

      Also, keep in mind that studios do not just look at a director's completed works in deciding to make a deal with that person. They have meetings, they hear pitches, etc. I don't know specifics here, as I have not read many interviews with or articles about Webb.
      Ahhh, I see.

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      • #4
        Re: Marc Webb's career

        Originally posted by TheKeenGuy View Post
        Also, keep in mind that studios do not just look at a director's completed works in deciding to make a deal with that person. They have meetings, they hear pitches, etc.
        Agree with the above.

        It doesn't matter if a director just has shorts/music videos or only 1 indie feature on their resume, if they win the job they win the job. They were the person that had the best pitch, gained the trust of the studio, had the best plan for success, etc.

        I don't know Marc Webb's story specifically, but if FOX signed him to a two-picture-deal, he must have really earned it (and been so impressive that they probably didn't want to lose him to another film/studio).

        And this kind of jump is definitely not singular to Marc Webb. Some examples:
        • Rupert Sanders went from BLACK HOLE (short) to SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN ($170mil).
        • Gareth Edwards went from MONSTERS ($800k) to GODZILLA ($160mil) to now a STAR WARS film.
        • Colin Trevorrow went from SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED ($750k) to JURASSIC WORLD ($150mil).
        • Paul Greengrass went from being a documentary filmmaker to BLOODY SUNDAY ($2mil) to THE BOURNE SUPREMACY ($75mil).
        • Spike Jonze went from music videos to BEING JOHN MALKOVICH ($13mil).
        • Neil Blomkamp went from ALIVE IN JOBURG (short) to DISTRICT 9 ($30mil) to ELYSIUM ($115mil).
        • Rian Johnson went from BRICK ($475K) to BROTHERS BLOOM ($20mil) to LOOPER ($30mil) to now a STAR WARS film.


        And there are plenty more that have taken a similar path. Everyone has to start somewhere.

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        • #5
          Re: Marc Webb's career

          There are so many tentpole movies now and not enough A-List directors to go round. The ones that are left have to be locked in.

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          • #6
            Re: Marc Webb's career

            FOX signing a director to a two picture deal is not necessarily a good thing for a first time director. It's them locking in a director for a second movie at a favorable rate just in case the first movie turns out to be exceptionally good and/or successful. They don't HAVE to make that second movie, but it gives them a lot of power (such as the ability to negotiate with Sony when Sony wants to make a movie with that director).

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            • #7
              Re: Marc Webb's career

              Don't underestimate 3 key ingredients here folks when it comes to new directors. Anybody with impressive backgrounds in commercials, gaming or vfx will land on the radar of a studio.

              Sanders was one of the most successful award winning commercial's directors of 2008/2009

              That's how he made the jump into movies. Not because of a short film.


              Blomkamp made the spectacularly impressive and multi award winning Halo video game trailers and was then set to make the movie version with Peter Jackson until it fell through and Jackson asked him what else he had. Hence the feature version (District 9) of his short.

              Gareth Edwards didn't just go from an 800k film to Godzilla -- he CREATED that 800k film with over 2000 vfx shots made on basic Adobe software in his bedroom over the course of a year. Prior to that he won a sci-fi 48 hour film challenge which introduced him to his agent and in turn Vertigo Films.

              If you're looking for a truly bizarre leap -- check out Jim Field Smith. He was a comedy troupe actor whose semi successful short starring James Corden generated him meetings with a handful of execs and landed him on a producer's list for the 20 million movie 'she's out of my league'. He's since done Butter and season 2 of Episodes. Now that's a crazy jump.

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