When we think of Oscar nominations, yes, people get excited to hear the names of their favorite actors or favorite films or favorite directors. Being the producer of a movie is a weird thing because “producer” can mean a lot of things. Tim Burton was a “producer” on Batman Forever, but that was just a title that was given in exchange for Burton leaving the movie when the studio wanted to go in a different direction with their franchise.
Then there’s a guy like Teddy Schwarzman, who has been involved with The Imitation Game — the story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) who broke the Nazi Enigma code machine during World War II, then was chemically castrated by his own government for being gay — since 2011 and who financed the whole project. So, yes, here’s a guy who is deeply involved with the film and was ecstatic this morning when we spoke to him about his film’s eight Oscar nominations.
How are you?
I’m good!
It would have been weird if you had said “lousy.”
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s a rough one. I am a little tired. I’ve been up with my newborn for the last I don’t know how many hours. But, it’s an amazing day – just wonderful news for our film and everybody involved with it.
Maybe being already up is better than the phone call that wakes most people up?
I think anybody who complains about waking up this morning to be nominated has a very big problem.
Though, 5:30 a.m. in L.A., that is pretty early.
I just moved from New York, so maybe it’s jetlag that’s helping me out … and if it’s to wake up and have our film receive eight nominations, I will do it every morning.
Is it more relief than joy? The Imitation Game has been a frontrunner since September.
Well, I think there’s sort of public perception and then there’s being a part of the filmmaking team. Once the film premiered in Telluride, it takes on a life of its own. And critics and pundits start prognosticating and it goes where it will … and it wasn’t until we first screened the film when we realized that audiences were understanding its importance and feeling its impact. And you can look at predictions and see that you’re listed, but that doesn’t mean that you actually feel like it’s going to happen.
And a producer can mean a lot of things, but you’ve been heavily involved with this movie for a long time.
It was a spec script that went out to the marketplace in 2011 and I tried to option it then … and there was a lot of talk about making it with big American stars. Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
You didn’t want another U-571, which was also about an Enigma machine, but was Americanized and heavily criticized for it.
Yeah! [Laughs] That’s true. That’s true, although that is not a reference I was expecting today.
Sorry about that.
No! It’s a bold and a good one. We went and tried to find the best director that we could and was originally looking for a British director since it was an American writer and American producers, but was blown away by Headhunters — Morten Tyldum’s film. Then we needed to figure out how to cast the film … just going through every single thing that Benedict Cumberbatch has been in and then made a case to Morten. Luckily, Benedict agreed to join onto the project.
And now that nominations are over, the whole process kind of starts again to try to win.
You know, it’s my first go-around, in a way. All is Lost, to me, is not disappointing in the sense that I know the expectations were higher. Frankly, it was a 31-page screenplay with no dialogue that J.C. Chandor turned into a masterful film. But, this is really my first go this far in the game and I’m just excited that it’s going to mean more people are seeing it – because I’m not that great at these chicken dinners.
Mike Ryan has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and GQ. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
