Brady Corbet’s touched down at Dublin’s Storyhouse screenwriting festival on Thursday where he teased details of his next feature film following his Oscar-winning 2024 title The Brutalist.
“My new film is a film that is sort of about American mysticism and the history of the occult in America and I’ve been reading tons and tons of material about the migration of the cultist belief systems and structures,” Corbet told an audience at the Light House Cinema on Thursday. “I’ve started working with this fascinating guy called Mitch Horowitz, who is an occultist historian of America.”
It was intimated that audiences could expect this next film to also be a lengthy one: The Brutalist clocked in at 3 hours and 35 minutes from a 165-page script. The script from Corbet’s newest film, he told the audience, is 200 pages long.
When pressed about how precise his scripts are and whether he leaves room for improvisation, Corbet said: “I’ve always been a little limited because of how short the shoots are. So, Vox Lux was 22 days and The Childhood of a Leader was 24 days…The Brutalist was 33 days but it was a 165 page script.”
He continued: “I would let people do whatever they wanted for a few takes but I’ve never really had time for it. But I’m not against it. I usually try to have a conversation with everyone in as loving a way as possible where I say, ‘If you have any ideas, tell me now’ because when we start shooting…Also I don’t think I’m a tyrant or anything at all. I think hopefully it’s the opposite. But I’m very focused when I’m under those conditions. You have to be. And frankly, they don’t want to work with someone who wouldn’t be.”
Corbet said his latest film is a 50-day shoot which he is “so happy about” but revealed the script is 200 pages. “It’s basically two, 25-day shoots for 100 pages,” he said. “So, I don’t know. I’ll report back in a few months
During the wide-ranging conversation, which was moderated by A24’s Rose Garnett, Corbet discussed his approach to writing, his craft and why he thinks filmmakers are becoming “less and less dangerous” in the current marketplace.
“When I was growing up, people wanted to watch great films and I’m not that old, so it wasn’t that long ago,” he said. “There was an audience for great, radical movies. Even if we look at a movie like The English Patient, you know, that was a really popular movie. It was also a very poetic one and the very scale of it was kind of insane. So I grew up with examples of things that were popular and well-received.”
He continued: “I think that basically as a result of the financial crisis in 2008 and also because of what’s happened with the consolidation of power and streaming…that things have become less and less dangerous by those deals.”
Corbet added: “I’m not trying to be negative because I actually do think the pendulum is swinging the other way already. But we have been living during a moment in time over the last 15 or 20 years where there is less great stuff. And that is systemic. I only feel that like I have the authority to say something like that because of how much I watch. I watch good stuff, I watch bad stuff, trash, arthouse and outhouse. I do all of those. And when I revisit films that made me want to make film, they are still transcendent. So I am capable of still being moved by something really exceptional.”
Corbet cited Harry Lighton’s debut feature Pillion as “one of the great films of last year.”
“The performances were amazing and it reminded me of a bygone era.”
Storyhouse runs April 16-17.