After a long stint as GQ editor and direct the card 2017, “Trapeze, USA,” Mark Anthony Green Debuts with feature Direction with A24’s “Opus,” game Available AYOJohn Malkovich, Juliette LewisMurray Bartlett and Stephanie Suganami.
2025 Sundance Film Festival Premiere fits somewhere between thriller and celebrity satire. The story follows pop star Moretti, played by Malkovich, who resurfaces after 30 years off the net. He mysteriously invites a group of journalists and previous connections to an association, where cult -like chaos is slowly starting to loosen.
“I think my attitude towards filmmaking so far has been the same as two buckets,” Green told IndieWire. “There are a bunch of different observations and things that I want to say about the world, curiosity that I have, take, statements, whatever. Then in the other bucket there are actual visual worlds that I want to spend time in, which I want to play with and create. So if a thing from a bucket seems as if it were to be served by the other bucket and vice. film. ”
During his term of office on GQ snucked close friend Lionel Boyce a screener of “The bear” Season 1 to Green, and he immediately knew he wanted Ayo Edebiri to start in “opus.” “We’ve always had a big creative report,” Green said about throwing Edebiri. “She read the script, we sat down and we talked about it.”
“It always felt very family -like,” he continued. “You know, friends, family, who surely – that’s what I want to do with this movie. That’s how our conversations were the first day, and that’s how they were the last day. I’m such a fan. I think she is so, so talented, and I look at her in ‘opus’, and I constantly see new things she does and impressed with her performance. It’s one of the things just to see her in another tool. I feel that there are many reasons why people should watch this movie, but watching Ayo in another equipment is worth $ 20 or $ 15 or whatever (your ticket is). “
With such a strong role of movie veterans, I was curious to see if Green had beaten someone else in the film. “I really wanted to Nikki GiovanniWho is my favorite poetry and recently died, he revealed.
“I had written the scene with Ayo and the young Mazino to be with their godmother, and Nikki would play himself. My dream was to put Nikki Giovanni in an A24 movie, and I chased that woman. I talked to her partner. I sent them flowers – I read Nikki Giovanni this morning; She is really (among the five best authors who have affected me in my life. So for my first movie I really wanted to put her in it, and then I heard from a mutual friend that her health was not good, and that was the only thing that would make me relax. “
In addition to the role, the collaborators Green contracted for this was astonishing, even went as far as getting Nile Rodgers and the dream of creating original music for the project. “It was a time where they worked with Beyoncé (for” Cowboy Carter “), and then they worked with John (Malkovich) and I, and they went back and forth, which I always thought was really fun.”
“I wish that everyone who worked on ‘Opus’ got paid more, included himself,” Green said. “But no one took more of a salary reduction for what they usually get than Niles and dreams. They chose to make this clean for the creative challenge with it. Not only do they make a fraction of the money, but I (be) very demanding, in the studio with them all night and was annoying. I really wanted the whole movie to feel like a pop record. ”
With a limited budget, Green and his crew managed to shoot the film in just 19 days in New Mexico. “I give so much credit to the local crew in New Mexico. I created a very, very fleshy, stiff playing field. What I am the most gracious of is just how many who trusted me and went into conflict with me to do this and the film’s ambition. We took many really big swings with very little resources. “
With a movie that extends over genres and tones, green before said he thought the term “elevated horror” “is bullshit.” “I’m 100% pro nerd,” he said, expanding that feeling. “I hate pretentious shit. “Silence of the Lamb” is a masterpiece, “Saw” is also incredible, but they are both horror movies. “Get Out” is one of the best movies since I have been on the planet. I guess I just don’t share the need to market in the genre and it just feels like a campaign. It doesn’t feel like specification. It feels like marketing, and I don’t understand it. “
With all the latest discussion about fighting for longer theater clusivity, most recently under Sean Baker’s winning speech at the Director Guild AwardsGreen was quick to jump into the conversation. “I think Sean Baker is a genius,” Green said. “I am so happy that I live in a world where Sean Baker is celebrated. Go and watch Sean Baker’s other movies, ‘Starlet,’ in particular, is so, so good. ”
“I made the movie like a pop song. To experience it in a theater with people, with that sound and other people’s energy and reactions, it’s like going to a concert, and I guarantee that it will be one of the most fun theatrical experiences you have this year, ”Green said.
“Opus” will be released in theaters on Friday 14 March from A24. Look at the trailer here.
