(upbeat music)
- Ironically, Brad was attached to "Ford v Ferrari"
at one point.
- Right, and Tom Cruise was also in talks.
- [Peter] Tom Cruise was attached, Brad was attached.
It's had like five directors, I think it's about fifteen
years in development, the movie.
- Did Tom fall out because he wanted
to make it about planes?
(laughter)
He's like "Guys, I have a great idea."
- He's a race car driver, Tom, right?
- Tom just wants to do anything fast.
- [Debra] Yeah, it's true, right?
- So, Peter, tell me how you deal with that, when someone
like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt drops out of a project.
Does it feel like a loss,
or it's just part of the system for you?
- This was one of those things where we were,
different people, it's one of those things
where you're just trying to line up a couple of actors,
a director, a studio, financing,
and drive a nail through it at the right time.
And so, people were coming in and out.
It was originally Michael Mann's project for a long time,
and so people, it was just sort of trying to get them all
to line up and it wasn't so much people dropping out,
as you were just trying to get it all to be in sync
at the same time.
- It's never easy to get a movie made,
they can sit in development for years and years and years.
How do you know when a movie is worth fighting for?
- Ultimately, you have to bet on your own gut
on these things.
(other guests agreeing)
I'm not an alien, I'm a human, I'm emotional, I want
to laugh, I want to cry, I want to be moved by things,
and take a sense of responsibility, I believe that this is a
responsible telling of this story.
It may indeed be controversial but I believe it's
controversial for a reason.
And then, hell with it, hopefully it will work,
and it may not work.
But you can't, you can't, sort of, second guess.
I always used to say that these jobs are wildly subjective
with one exception, which is you know your own thoughts
and feelings remarkably well.
And it's the one thing you know with certainty.
And you know when you read the script for the first time
that this thing moves me, or this thing is exciting,
or this thing is funny or whatever those things are.
And that's the least subjective thing in the whole process.
And, y'know, you may know that, look,
I've got a blind spot for certain things,
I probably shouldn't do movies about this or I shouldn't,
but in general, in a world of complete subjectivity,
your own gut is the one thing you know objectively.
And you should listen to it and bet on it. (upbeat music)
Making something great is a battle.
Light disappearing, the actors aren't getting along.
(group laughs)
The script isn't quite working in this moment.
Y'know, it's--
- Not enough money.
- What you come to realize is these things are so fragile.
Every moment has to be near perfect, and you only get that
by sort of just being relentless about
sort of struggling with it.
And the struggle is noble,
y'know, without sounding too high-falutin',
It's what you're supposed to do,
it's not supposed to be easy.
(upbeat music)
- What is the one film you would tell
every aspiring producer to watch?
- Probably, I'd say, "Titanic."
Just because it was such an extraordinarily
impossible production.
- Right, it was a tall order (laughs).
- It was an insanely difficult, challenging,
and sort of, threw every imaginable problem at,
at trying to make a movie. And, y'know, at the same time,
had as big an impact as arguably any movie in history.
And so it sort of both shows you the promise
of what you could potentially achieve, but it was hell.
- It's still one of my favorites.
- Hell on a level unimaginable.
- Even now, you still feel that, many years later.
- When was the last time you saw it?
I haven't seen it in awhile.
- I see bits and pieces of it.
When I greenlit it,
it was the most expensive movie ever made.
We went more over budget than the budget was.
- Oh my gosh.
- Is that right? - Wow.
- Just in production, or with your--
- Most in production.
We went $105 million
over budget. - That's a director
who would not take no for an answer.
(group chuckles)
- But it was also a great lesson because it was a,
it was, sort of out-of-body experience,
which is everything public about the movie, was a disaster.
And every personal interaction I had,
I thought it was phenomenal.
It was a phenomenal pitch, it was a phenomenal script,
it was phenomenal dailies.
He showed us an hour of footage and so you'd sort of.