Anyone with more than a passing interest in the weird and wonderful will have seen, if not heard of, the Patterson-Gimlin footage, the cryptoozological equivalent of the Zapruder film. Shot in 1967 in the forests of Northern Carolina, it purports to show a large, ape-like creature with an elongated forehead striding purposefully into the trees. Unlike an ape, the creature walks upright, and, unlike the furtive behavior of any other forest creature, it has the casual air of the average human being popping over to the 7-11 to pick up a gallon of milk. Most people who see the footage wonder what the hell this damn thing is, but the sibling directors of Sasquatch Sunset have a couple more questions that they’d like answered. Like, where is it going? And what does it do all day?
Benny Breaks Out: The Safdie Brother on Going Solo, Making You Squirm With ‘The Curse’ and What He Learned From Christopher Nolan and PTA
04.01.2024 - 17:01 / variety.com
Benny Safdie is late. Frantic and a bit sweaty, he arrives at Westside Restaurant 40 minutes past our 10 a.m.
breakfast, and just five minutes after I email his publicist, “Did Benny forget about the interview?” Benny forgot about the interview. Out of breath, he profusely apologizes, offering a Mad Lib of an explanation: “I was spray-painting a Tin Man costume in Central Park.” (Hours after we meet, he’ll visit “The Tonight Show” covered head to toe in sparkling silver, an absurdist comedy bit that seems to puzzle even Jimmy Fallon.) Before that, Safdie spends three and a half hours answering my questions, legs cramping in a tight booth, metallic-smudged hands dancing around a heated corn muffin.
“This place is awesome,” he says after a stack of plates shatters on the old tiled floor, as servers bark omelet orders across the narrow restaurant. Safdie, 37, grew up bouncing between his divorced parents in Queens and the Upper West Side, and says he’s been coming to this particular spot since his teenage years, when it used to be open all night.
“Diners have had a lot to do with the things I’ve created,” he says. Those things include 2017’s “Good Time” and 2019’s “Uncut Gems,” the gritty, heart-pounding crime thrillers he directed with his older sibling, Josh, which turned the duo into the bro idéal of indie filmmaking.
But now — with major acting roles in Chrisopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic “Oppenheimer,” Kelly Fremon Craig’s coming-of-age dramedy “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” and Showtime’s “The Curse,” which he co-created with Nathan Fielder — Safdie is going solo. Last year was a pivotal one for Benny Safdie, and though he worked with Josh as executive producers on an Andy Kaufman documentary and the HBO
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‘The Boy and the Heron,’ ‘Suzume’ and ‘The Peasants’ Prove Mature Storytelling in Animation Can Be a Box Office Hit
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The Golden Bachelor's Kathy Went Wedding Dress Shopping With Theresa—and Fans Are Confused
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The Safdie Brother’s Baseball Memorabilia Film Starring Adam Sandler Is “On Pause,” Says Benny Safdie
Another day, another rumor essentially confirmed. So, you’ll remember that in April 2022, it was reported that Adam Sandler and The Safdie Brothers (“Good Time”) were going to make a follow-up film to their critically acclaimed collaboration “Uncut Gems.” The movie, for Netflix, was supposed to shoot in the late winter of 2023 for a 2024 release.
‘Uncut Gems’ and ‘Good Time’ directors the Safdie Brothers are no longer working together
Variety, Benny – who helmed several films with his brother Josh, the duo being dubbed the Safdie Brothers – confirmed that the brothers aren’t working together, and that their split has been “amicable”.“It’s a natural progression of what we each want to explore. I will direct on my own, and I will explore things that I want to explore.
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