Danny Strong on Why He Recut ‘Rebel in the Rye’ (Exclusive Video)
TIFF 2017: “There were certain elements to his character arc that people weren’t getting,” writer-director tells TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman
Umberto Gonzalez | September 8, 2017 @ 2:02 PM
Last Updated: September 8, 2017 @ 2:14 PM
The Sundance premiere of “Rebel in the Rye” was disappointing to its director and co-writer Danny Strong, but, he told TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman, “it also was incredibly helpful.”
“It made me see what I needed to do to the film,” Strong said in a one-on-one with Waxman at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
“Rebel in the Rye” takes viewers on a journey into the life and mind of the legendary and secretive author J.D. Salinger and tells the story of the birth of “The Catcher in the Rye.” As the author who captivated a generation, Salinger soared to the heights of the literary world but left it all behind for a life of seclusion.
Although the response the film received at Sundance in January was less-than Strong had hoped for, it did serve an important look at what he thought was missing.
“I wanted people to put me on their shoulders and march me through Sundance,” joked Strong. When he didn’t get the overwhelmingly positive response, he realized there were elements to the story that weren’t coming across clear enough.
“I was frustrated with myself that I didn’t make these things clear enough that were so important to me in the story,” he said. “Like the PTSD story, like that this was the story of a veteran. There were certain elements to his character arc that people weren’t getting.”
After Sundance, Strong took his film back into the editing room. “I think the film greatly benefited because of it.”
Strong is known best for creating the hit Fox show “Empire,” for which he has written and directed multiple episodes. He also wrote the screenplays for “The Butler,” both “Hunger Games: Mockingjay” movies and the HBO films “Recount” and “Game Change.”
Watch the interview above.
“Rebel in the Rye” opens today in theaters.
12 Hottest TIFF Movies for Sale, From 'Hostiles' to Tonya Harding Drama (Photos)
Though it's not as robust as the annual Sundance Film Festival market or populous as Cannes' Marche du Film, TIFF is a pedigreed springboard for solid indies. Here are this year's hottest films for sale.
"I, Tonya" [UTA / CAA / Miramax] Arguably the hottest title for sale at TIFF 2017, producer-star dynamo Margot Robbie offers up a drama about U.S. Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding and her notorious involvement in the beating of teammate Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Olympics. Buyers are dying to see this one.
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"The Children Act" [CAA / FilmNation] Richard Eyre’s drama has an attractive cast in the firebrand Emma Thompson (who wouldn’t buy this movie simply for the joy of watching her promote it?) and Stanley Tucci, reunited after the recent box office smash “Beauty and the Beast.” The film is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s same-named novel, about a British judge asked to intervene when a minor refuses a blood transfusion over his religious beliefs.
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"The Cured" [WME] High-brow horror is hard to do, but a category critics and select audiences adore for delivering chills without the tackier conventions of the genre. “The Cured” would certainly check that box, thanks to a clever and unsettling premise: A portion of the population became zombies but were cured. They suffer extreme judgment in a recovering society for, well, eating other people.
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"Hostiles" [CAA / WME] Christian Bale reunites with his "Out of the Furnace" director Scott Cooper for this gritty Western -- already putting Bale in the Oscar conversation after an earlier festival debut. Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster and Jesse Plemmons co-star.
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"Submergence" [UTA] Perhaps the dreamiest trio at TIFF, auteur Wim Wenders will offer up a romance between Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy. The former plays a deep-sea researcher, the latter a water engineer, attempting to connect across continents and oceans while a civil war rages.
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"Mom and Dad" [CAA / XYZ] Giving a fabulous middle finger to helicopter parents, Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair star in writer-director Brian Taylor's super-dark comedy about a 24-hour hysteria that sees parents attempt violence against their own children.
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"Papillon" [CAA] Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek star in a remake of the 1973 thriller that starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman -- where two men plot an escape from a prison island.
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"Three Christs" [CAA / Highland Film Group] Jon Avnet sets about the ambitious task of creating both a black comedy and a film that gets mental illness right. Richard Gere stars as a doctor treating three paranoid schizophrenics (Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins, Bradley Whitford) who all believe they are Jesus Christ.
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"My Days of Mercy" [UTA / WME] This politically charged gay love story pits Kate Mara and Ellen Page against each other on two sides of a capital punishment debate. It also brings them together romantically. Trivia: The official TIFF festival guide labels Page a "powerhouse Canadian," which just makes us smile.
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"Eating Animals" [CAA] Natalie Portman produces this well-received doc about the horrors of meat consumption based on a memoir by Jonathan Safran Foer.
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"Marrowbone" [CAA / Lionsgate] Screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez makes his directorial debut in a buzzy, supernatural thriller about four children orphaned by the loss of their mother. The lost brood take refuge in an abandoned house only to find sinister forces lurking there.
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"Woman Walks Ahead" [CAA] Jessica Chastain and Michael Greyeyes lead this substantive drama about New York artist Catherine Weldon, who became the trusted confidante of legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull.
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Toronto film market has awards bait, high-brow horror and sweaty Charlie Hunnam
Though it's not as robust as the annual Sundance Film Festival market or populous as Cannes' Marche du Film, TIFF is a pedigreed springboard for solid indies. Here are this year's hottest films for sale.
TIFF
