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EXCLUSIVE: As an actress Jodie Foster is sticking with ICM which has long repped her. But as a director she’s taking agency meetings with UTA and Gersh. (CAA and WME wouldn’t rep her just for directing gigs.) ICM still hopes to hang onto her helming but couldn’t set up any movies or even a TV pilot for her. I hear she’s making a decision by Monday. “It’s hard out there for her,” a source explains to me. “The market for her is really cold.” (Then Hollywood is full of idiots because I think she’s a talented helmer.) Foster’s last directing effort was The Beaver starring Mel Gibson and it did little business. Her dilemma may explain why the two-time Oscar winner sent DVD screeners of the film to the entire membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in February: maybe it was a directing job application.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Gersh? Why not APA if thats where you are heading?
Jodie Foster is an inspiration to a lot of women filmmakers out there, but it is indeed a lot harder for women to stay in the game as filmmakers sadly. Where a male filmmaker can endure a bunch of flops before their careers are in trouble, a female director / screenwriter has one flop and they’re done. I’m amazed Kathryn Bigelow’s been able to stay in the game as long as she has, and thankfully her Oscar should protect her for a while.
David,
Filmmaking is about accountability. Any studio executive who will seriously go to bat for a female director, especially for a tent pole film (few if any to date) is sticking his or her neck way out there.
It is all about the money. Executive careers can be damaged by a male director, but falling on the sword for a female is pretty devoted stuff.
And, ladies, I have the greatest respect for your talent, but I am just postulating this totally from the business perspective.
FTCS, there are a lot of untalented male directors out there, too, yet studios keeps hiring men. Crazy, Daddy-O.
Really, it’s about opportunity and exposure and until more women are given the opportunity to learn how to make “tentpole” films then those types of movies will only go to men. Who will make them. And most will fail. But men will still have the opportunity to make more. Because they can.
As for Jodie Foster, if she wants to have more opportunities to direct she should make sure her next project have even the slightest chance of making make the money for the producers. Her choices are esoteric and commercially difficult, to be kind, and this is ultimately a business, not an art class.
Jodie Foster is a very untalented director. In fact she’s not a director at all. All three of her films showed lack of taste and visual style. She’s a writers nightmare overdeveloping scripts and asking the ridiculous. Writers loathe her.
I worked on The Beaver and watched her literally disembowel a terrific script. She was inflexible and humorless on the set. The luckiest thing that could have happened to her is that Mel Gibson fell apart on the last day of reshoots. It took the focus off her total incompetence.
THE BEAVER was the most overrated script in Black List history.
Kyle Killen has written 3 projects, all of which have failed, all of which have failed in news making fashion to boot.
I disagree. That script is taught in screenwriting classes. Its deep, funny and original. The writer is extremely talented. The script needed great directors. Visual stylists with heart along the lines of Dayton and Ferris.
Fosters work is humorless. It has no visual style. She didn’t seem to understand the script from what I saw in the finished product. Or at least she closed it up so tight audiences didn’t understand it.
She’s not a director. Why does the town keep indulging her fantasy? There is no growth between her three films. Someone needs to tell her.
No way Nikki saw The Beaver. Someone must have warned her. That’s two hours of your life you can never get back.
The reason there are a lot of negatives on this post are that she just sent this movie to the entire creative community a few weeks ago. It was such a misguided attempt of “See I am right.” But sadly she wasn’t. The final film is a lame mess. Her ego is not wired properly.
maybe she’s not the most innovative director but she directs well the actors
Foster is insecure and competitive and must usurp writers and producers in the development process. It’s her thing. She says as a director it’s her only choice. But it’s not.
I’m a female filmmaker and she’s not an inspiration to me. Please. She’s not a good director. Don’t lionize her for winning two Oscars for acting.
Her films as a director stink.
I personally loved Little Man Tate and thought Home for the Holidays had its moments. And if we’re talking women directors, to my mind Kathryn Bigelow is one of the most overrated directors working today.
The Hurt Locker was a painfully bad movie that somehow managed to secure Best Picture. Go figure. Maybe movies without a plot, very little character development and pointless narratives are all the rage.
why jodie, why?
I dont think ICM has any real clout to get her into the mix. It has been easy for them to field acting offers but the juice to get her into the buyers mind as a director seems to be too big a job for them today.
But… she sucks as a director.
Like many directors she has hit and missed but as for a bullseye, “Home for the Holidays” was the best. My family laughs our heads off annually when we watch the DVD.
She’s always had the worst luck ever with the directing side of her career. Flora Plum never did get off the ground. We all know the Mel Gibson/The Beaver debacle. She should just choose different material to work with. Good, but not as risky and off-the-wall as the Beaver.
She’s made her own luck. Foster has no real talent as a director. It’s like a tone deaf person thinking they deserve a recording career. It’s not about being a woman either. Foster ruins good material with her painstaking overdevelopment. Then she casts herself. She’s a very limited actor. So she ruins scripts, casts poorly, has no idea where to put the camera, doesn’t listen to any of her producers or her crew and she blames everyone but herself.
I’m sure the actress in her put on quite a dog and pony show at poor UTA and Gersh about how The Beaver wasn’t her fault. It was entirely her fault.
I’ve never seen her blame anyone or ever heard about her being difficult. Where do you get that information? Is that behind-the-scenes stuff? Whether she has talent is a matter of opinion.
Talk to anyone involved with The Beaver. ANYONE.
Talk to any writer who has ever developed with her.
Anyone involved in the Beaver? Jennifer Lawrence was just recently quoted as saying, “I’ve met so many weirdos. So many famous people who’ve gone off the deep end, I was getting worried. Thinking, ‘Will I be the same?’
“Jodie gave me hope because she’s not only sweet and nice and great, she’s also the most normal and down-to-earth person. It’s like she has no idea that she’s famous. I remember looking at her and thinking, ‘Thank God! It can happen!”
Doesn’t sound like someone who was difficult to me. Recently, in an interview someone even tried to get Foster to blame Summit for not supporting the film for Oscar season, and she refused to put blame on them and even praised them for their support. Doesn’t sound like someone blaming others to me. She must have upset somebody though. What’s with most of these negative comments sounding like they are coming from the same person?
Jennifer Lawrence is going to go very far.
I’ve experienced her being extremely difficult and unreasonable. She will not collaborate. She’s stubborn and has uneven taste. She assumes she’s always right even when she’s dead wrong. She doesn’t listen. When things don’t go her way she blames others for her mistakes.
sounds a bit like every director to me!
she reacts like every director :she does her movie
Every director fights for their vision. It’s a director’s medium. Why is it called stubbornor difficult whenever a woman does that?
Well, of course she’d dead wrong if she didn’t agree with YOU. Jeez. You’re obviously God’s gift to the movie world.
I’ve never heard anything but good things about Foster. Nice try, though.
see again the movie where she acts! Foster is not a limited actress
Interested,
You must be new to the business. “ICM has any real clout….” When you are Jodie Foster everybody knows who you are. You are automatically in the mix. It’s not like they need to use clout to say “hey, we represent this girl she’s a pretty good director you should see her reel.” Your statement is moronic. At the level she is at and ICM is at everybody knows everybody. In fact, everybody has been in business with or worked with one another at that level. What’s important for Jodie is who she really likes as a person and who has a list she fits nicely on. If there are three other Jodie Foster directos then maybe a conflict. Capiche?
You’re more wrong than right. I hope you’ve never worked in representation.
She sent the beaver out AFTER Oscar voting, which was unusual
Moronic is more like it.
What a lousy movie.
And it was all hers.
It’s not moronic unless she was hoping for votes. She said she only wanted her peers to see her movie because she said there were other small movies she liked that she only got to see through the screeners.
It seemed very out of touch to hare such a disappointing film with her peers. Didn’t she know it was not good?
Not really. You talk like the reviews were disastrous when really they were mixed (and better than the ones Angelina Jolie got for her film). Anyone helming a film with that script was guaranteed to get a mixed or horrible reaction. She got a mixed one. Mel Gibson’s performance won a lot of praise as well.
Angelina got good reviews for her freshman directorial effort that she also wrote – plus she won the producers guild’s Stanley Kramer award as well. By the way, why the fck are you dragging the only other lone high profile female director into this unfortunate Jodie Foster smack down. What in fck does Angelina have to do with it? Jodie is that you? way to be pro woman…throw the only other female out there being a risk taker under the bus. Nice.
They have nothing in common. Jodie is not a good director and Angelina is.
I have a feeling the problem with getting Foster directing jobs has a lot more to do with her notorious selectiveness when it comes to material than it does people being hesitant to hire her. She’s been very open about not wanting to commit the time and effort it takes to direct a film unless she’s incredibly passionate about it. She’s always been that way.
She’s ruined more great scripts — ask any writer in town. I won’t let my clients work with her.
Sadly she’s sure she’s brilliant and loves to blame others for her mistakes. Because she’s well spoken and we’ve known her since childhood in her acting people have a soft spot for her. Then you find out she’s slightly deluded and quite the viper.
Beaver was so close to being really good. It suffered from an identity crisis (that and no-one wants to touch Mel with a ten foot pole). I can’t imagine Jodi won’t be directing again in the near future, regardless of the agency.
Ba, you can’t be serious. The script was amazing until she got her hands on it. Seems Jodie thinks she’s a writer too.
She’s not a director that’s clear. Thought Roman Polanski captured the real her in Carnage. That wasn’t a performance. She’s cold and mean. The second half of her career she’s been given a free pass for her poor choices and poor treatment of people because Hollywood protects their own.
You are the only person I have ever heard describe Jodie Foster as mean. That says a lot for someone who has been in the public eye for 45 years.
How many posts have you made on this thread? I’m guessing you have a personal vendetta against her.
The Beaver was recently mailed to half the town and that might be what posters are responding to.
The original script of The Beaver was the number one script on the Blacklist and has literally been read by thousands of screenwriters aspiring or not. Then the movie comes it’s clear that that original script was trashed for some “vision” that was pretty nonsensical. It felt remote and off kilter. It takes a deaf ear to cut all the good parts out of a script. A smart director protects a script. My sense is she doesn’t know good writing from bad. That she has to make everything her own. My understanding is now she blames the script for her inability to be successful as a director. That’s lame.
Everyone seems to want to blame the writer. Then the screener was sent to a thousand more people. I don’t think having a critical discussion of Fosters choices throughout the process of making this project is called having a cross to bear when this was a very public script and public film.
Someone obviously has a personal vendetta against her. You can tell there are numerous posts by the same person. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about her. Everyone raves about her professionalism and integrity if anything. She’s known as a class act. I don’t know why she chose that script, but I’ve read it and it’s nearly impossible to pull off onscreen. The premise is so absurd. The fact that it wasn’t a complete Razzie-nominated disaster and did get some decent reviews takes talent. Everything about it was too risky.
She sent out the screeners so people would see the film, which is the goal of any filmmaker, particularly the crowd that’s too cheap to pay for such films, and particularly films with Mel Gibson. If Harvey would have sent screeners it would have been no big deal but because she decides to take her career in her own hands she’s criticized for it.
Jodie is an important American figure and immensely talent storyteller. I have no doubt that she will join the ranks of Clint Eastwood and makes many films in the years to come.
Who wrote this? She’s a horrible storyteller and her instincts are on Mars. Plus she’s a very unkind person. The reason she’s in this spot is how bad she is to work with and the fact she’s talentless.
Talentless? Bad to work with when her reputation has always been one of the best in that regard? I suspect someone is trolling under different names.
Funicello drinks to much, just go with Tracey Jacobs already you know you want to.
Clearly Nikki did not see THE BEAVER. That script, which was at the top of the 2008 blacklist, was a beautifully crafted screenplay destroyed by her terrible development notes and her lack of any talent as a director.
Dear Jodie,
We’d like you to star in and direct a reboot of “The Accused” for your big showbiz comeback. This time we want giant fighting robots to be the bad guys. We will pay you a lot of money to do this it’s a franchise and we won’t worry about the longshot repeat Oscar chances if you win another Oscar that will be a nice bonus but it’s not essential. Also if there’s a way you can put Eddie Murphy in it we’d be grateful he could play the funny bartender or maybe your lawyer we need to do something with him we owe him a movie.
Sincerely,
Good actress but she needs work in her directing skills, as the Beaver might indicate as such of those abilities.
While I was not able to catch Ms. Foster’s Beaver, I have seen everything else she’s directed and have always found her a little heavy-handed and too “on the nose”, bordering on simpering. I don’t think I’m alone, or she wouldn’t be in this situation.
Anyone agree?
As a producer in this town of several A-list movies, I have sat in meetings with Ms. Foster. She is a very talented director and deserves the best. She has been getting it. Meetings set by her agents at ICM, meetings she would not have been in (no matter how brilliant The Beaver may have been, and it was) were it not for her agents at ICM. Most notably, Lars Theriot has busted his butt for her above and beyond the call of duty. If she thinks she will get an ounce more progress in her career as a director from a different agency, she is sadly mistaken. ICM as an institution may have its difficulties at the moment but there are people there, Lars among them, who are the best there is in this town.
Nice try Silberman or clemens or MacLaren. You gave yourself up when you mentioned Lars…no producer of “A list” movies knows who he is.
Captain Lashout,
Foster wouldn’t be Foster without Funicello! He should be drinking and CELEBRATING, as he has had Ms. Foster as a client for her entire career! How many other people in the representation business can say that not only have they made the career, but maintained the career. Ms. Foster is an American Icon and Mr. Funicello has been her partner the entire time! Both classy people.
As for Ms. Foster’s directing career, the only mistake she has ever made in that department was hiring a man who is a loose cannon. She had no idea when she decided to work with Mel Gibson on The Beaver that some audio tapes with a psychotic rant on them would be leaked. Poor timing for Ms. Foster.
Agreed. I think she believed in Mel Gibson so much and her unwavering loyalty to him got in the way. Sure critics raved his performance in the film, but his troubles were bound to overshadow everything. I think she should have chosen a script that wasn’t so risky to help establish herself as a director first. A film about a man with a beaver puppet was too much of a risk. The fact that she was able to get a film like that made is a miracle. But when you’re a female filmmaker, you don’t get too many chances. She should have tried smaller, less risky independent films similar to Frozen River or Winter’s Bone.
Frozen River? Lol. Another film about the white savior industrial complex. Glad Jodie was wise enough to stay away.
How was Frozen River in any way a ‘white savior’ flick?
Nobody saves anyone in that flick.
The only mistake? Her mistake was directing at all. Just because someone wants something doesn’t mean they deserve it.
She’s an icon so we treat her with different rules. Big mistake. Her movies are awful and flat. She has nothing to say as a human being as she’s lived in a bubble her whole life. She’s grown up on film sets and if she had a shred of directing talent in her DNA she might have picked up on it. But clearly she hasn’t.
She’s not a gifted storyteller using film as a medium. I’ve taken meetings with her as a producer and thought she just pontificates and pontificates. She doesn’t answer direct questions. She’s lovely and poised and says nothing of any real insight. She’s an actress.
There’s a ton of good will towards her in acting. She could be the star of the next 24.
Jodie makes exceptionally good films, personally I think her films can hit raw nerves in people and makes people think, because she is true and passionate to what she believes in probably does make her choices selective.
So you have the dilemma of what an audience wants which is to be entertained to escape for a while, or escape and made to think.
Thing is she will find that one project that she can be true to will make audiences think and be a blockbuster.
JF knows it and there are some out there who do also problem is finding those who are willing to back it.
The Beaver was a very good film It was a shame that it was basically dumped because of media fuelled public outrage because “shock horror” a celebrity had a public meltown.
I wish her the best and look forward to when Jodie releases her film that knocks peoples socks off.
Jodie Foster is the luckiest director alive that Mel Gibson who she cast had that melt down (on the last day or reshoots). It took the attention away from how terrible the film was and how badly she treated everyone involved. It was a smoke and mirrors distraction.
Her work is seriously out of touch. Out of touch. Indecipherable.
She’s no artist. She’s barely workman like.
She’s no Tom Ford or Julien Schnabel. Her work is incoherent at best.
The film wasn’t dumped. It was terrible and no one went.
There is no great masterpiece there waiting to be discovered.
Jodie Foster is a very good actress, why doesn’t she go back into acting? There are a lot of good roles for actresses her age, I haven’t seen her work as a director so I cannot comment on it, there’s absolutely no reason for Jodie’s career to be cold and not able to get work….maybe she should act in smaller projects, with better writing and less commercial….she should do something with Al Pacino. I like her a lot.
I’m curious why she hasn’t taken the plunge and started looking at TV roles. Doing TV isn’t a downgrade, and if she pursued roles for cable networks like FX, Showtime or HBO — she could find something she could sink her teeth into.
But I agree. Directing isn’t her forte… she’s not bad, but nothing special or excellent.
Iread in an article where Jodie Foster said she realizes the past movies she directed did not do big box office. She said she does not care about box office results. She only directs movies she is interested in. I believe she has to direct more popular movies if she wishes to continue getting directing jobs.
I loved Little Man Tate, thought it was a solid pic.
Man, how many of Killen’s people are in here? And more importantly how deluded are you? The Beaver was never a brilliant script. It was a brilliant marketing maneuver that successfully launched his career. The Beaver movie was fine. Hardly some disaster. It is understandable that in her middle age she doesn’t want to direct any old fluff, and that’s likely where her troubles are coming from. She’s not the only one around here having trouble setting up interesting movies for adult audiences.
Jodie, please stick with acting. Love to see you star in premium cable series based on your character from Inside Man.