The spectacular ‘The man from the north’ may be one of the most unique and atypical studio films we have seen -and probably will see- in a long, long time and, as such, the experience was far from being a bed of roses for Robert Eggers and his team, who had to deal with the odd creative clash and what the director called “the most painful thing of my life.”
The hard life of the author in Hollywood
But after going through the ordeal of not having control over the final cut of a feature film for an author, Eggers is taking things in stride. This has been demonstrated in an interview with The Daily Beast in which, among other things, sand asked him about the weak box office results of the film; a subject that he treated jokingly and with perspective.
“I think it lived up to expectations in a bad market. Am I disappointed that three or four weeks later it’s on VOD because that’s how things are done in the post-COVID world? Yes. But it’s doing very well in VOD, so there you have it.”
However, the one from New Hampshire is fully aware that you have to change your perspective if you want to continue working with the big Hollywood companiesalthough that does not mean that it will fall into the networks of the great franchises and marvelite superheroes.
“I need to change my strategy when it comes to what I’m selling to a studio. Like, ‘How can I be myself and survive in this environment? Because even if they weren’t going to cast me anyway, I wouldn’t want to direct a movie. Marvel, and I’m also not going to try to get the rights to ‘Spawn’ or anything. I’m going to keep doing what I do. But I know everybody’s nervous right now, you know? Everybody’s nervous, and it’s understandable “.
Despite everything, Eggers seems that, deep down, has finished proud of his ‘The Northman’ and, the truth, is that it is to be.
“My collaborators and I stuck together, and we just said we weren’t going to end up with something we weren’t proud of. So we did. But there were certainly times in post production where it was difficult.”