In the last week or so, director Colin Trevorrow controversially addressed the topic of the lack of women directing large-scale tentpole films in Hollywood. As he perceives it, women seemingly “lack the desire” to do so, preferring their own stories. Of course, his comments are only anecdotal to his experience, but it’s safe to say there are plenty of female filmmakers who would jump at the opportunity to direct a CGI-heavy action spectacle. But they’d have to break through some very thick barriers. In a new video clip from “Funny or Die,” we get a glimpse at what a pitch meeting might feel like were the studio heads looking to solicit the talents of female directors rather than male ones. The results, it must be said, are more revealing than you’d think.
The pitch is a (hopefully) fictional action flick with the terrific title of “Space Cops 4” (makes you wonder what happened to 1, 2, and 3). Our smug suits (including "New Girl" star Max Greenfield) sit down with a who’s who of modern-day Hollywood’s female directors, including Catherine Hardwicke, Shira Piven, Nisha Ganatra, and Anne Fletcher. It’s all played for fun and laughs, but there’s something uncomfortably prescient about how the production executives in the video simply refuse to listen to their female counterparts, even when their ideas are solid. Fletcher, who helmed this year’s Reese Witherspoon/Sofia Vergara-starring “Hot Pursuit,” is a director who, regardless of what you think of her output, was able to stage some adequate and occasionally fun action in that movie, and she probably deserves her chance at taking on a bigger, more ambitious property. But from the sounds of it, the men who call the shots need a little more “boom.” It’s an amusing little clip, but not one without some degree of social resonance. Check out the video below.
This video would be a lot better if they had chosen people with more talent. The directors of Twilight and Hot Pursuit? Are you kidding me?
Here\’s a problem, in additional to the much ballyhooed Hollywood sexism: treating \’women directors\’ as if they\’re one big undifferentiated group. As in, ALL WOMEN DIRECTORS NEED THIS OR DERSERVE THAT. I guess that\’s a sad side effect of talking about marginalized groups — everyone gets lumped together. But – news flash – some women directors are better and worse than others, more capable or less capable. Not every woman director in this video deserves the same chances as the others — they\’re all different people with different experiences and skill levels.