The nice thing about Interstellar is that even if you try to spoil it, it’s hard to do so. “Well, it’s about space and time and wormholes and Jessica Chastain is really pretty … um … you guys wanna smoke a bowl before seeing it?” That — “space and time and wormholes and Jessica Chastain is really pretty” — is probably all you should know coming into Christopher Nolan’s latest ambitious blockbuster that cost $165 million, not including millions more in marketing and promotion. Like your mom and grandparents in a diner deciding who gets to pay, rival studios Paramount and Warner Bros. footed the bill. That’s actually a rare arrangement, and one that involves South Park, Friday the 13th, AND Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Interstellar‘s development dates back to 2006, when Steven Spielberg and Paramount Pictures announced they were making a film based on concepts by theoretical physicist/Contact guru Kip Thorne. Eventually, Spielberg bolted (his DreamWorks signed a distribution deal with Disney), but even when Christopher Nolan signed on, the rights remained with Paramount.
Thing is, every movie Nolan’s made since Insomnia was with Warner Bros. (The Prestige was a co-production with Buena Vista) — would he be able to take on Interstellar? Obviously, yes, though not before some dealing amongst millionaires. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Warners, which released Nolan’s mega-grossing Batman movies and maintains an overall deal with his Syncopy label, wanted in on Interstellar so badly it gave Paramount its rights to co-finance the next Friday the 13th horror film as well as its portion of a future South Park movie. Also part of the deal was an agreement to let Paramount co-finance a to-be-determined A-list Warners property. (Via)
Why did Paramount want the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise so badly? #Brand recognition for one thing, but also, the 2009 reboot only cost $19 million to make. It made more than $91 million at the box office. (Also, although Interstellar is getting good reviews and will make hundreds of millions, it was once a super-risky project, and studios hate risks — their thinking is, the casual moviegoer doesn’t want to think about relativity; they want to see Kevin James fart on Adam Sandler’s face. A single studio is unlikely to foot the bill for the whole thing, hence Paramount getting into bed with Warner Bros.) The collaborations don’t end there, though.
Legendary Pictures, a former partner with Warner Bros., traded their stake in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a Warner Bros. production, for financing roughly 25% of Interstellar. In other words, Legendary thinks Interstellar is going to be a bigger cash cow than Dawn of Justice, so they’d rather be attached to Nolan than Zack Snyder. Can you blame them?
The thing to remember about all this is that when you’re thinking to yourself, “Jessica Chastain is even prettier in IMAX,” remember to thank Butters. Couldn’t have been done without him.
