He's The Secret Weapon... David Ayer IS the Director and Script Writer

[The Chris]

I don't think he had final cut on Begins. But he made such a good film that had great legs, and killed it on home media, he got final cut on TDK. Also Nolan always wins brownie points for finishing on time and coming in under budget like every time. He is a studio's dream.

I think doing Insomnia for them helped out too. I think they were confident he was the real deal after working with him on that.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Insomnia was proof to WB he could carry a movie. Batman Begins kept the budget down, and his pitch was nothing short of a revelation to the execs who were desperate to reboot the Batman franchise. It's testament to Nolan's talent and skill that he got BB off the ground the way he did.

Thing is, Nolan didn't really need to pitch Begins. All the studios were after him after Memento and Insomnia. I believe he was pitched Troy. He was the hot young prospect every studio wanted.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I think doing Insomnia for them helped out too. I think they were confident he was the real deal after working with him on that.

Insomnia was in fact a test I believe. To see how he worked.

 

[-JKR-]

Plus, in those years Jeff Robinov was at the helm of the studio, and he really did make it a director's friendly studio, setting up longstanding relationships with directors such as Nolan, Todd Philips, Ben Affleck, and more.

 

[FunkMiller]

I don't think he had final cut on Begins. But he made such a good film that had great legs, and killed it on home media, he got final cut on TDK. Also Nolan always wins brownie points for finishing on time and coming in under budget like every time. He is a studio's dream.

He pretty much did, from what I remember. From the way he spoke about his relationship with Lee Smith, and WB in general, they allowed him a large degree of freedom, even with the first film.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Plus, in those years Jeff Robinov was at the helm of the studio, and he really did make it a director's friendly studio, setting up longstanding relationships with directors such as Nolan, Todd Philips, Ben Affleck, and more.

What happened to Robinov? Did he retire, get fired, move on? If I didn't know Rothman was running Sony now, I swear he was in charge of WB.

 

[-JKR-]

What happened to Robinov? Did he retire, get fired, move on? If I didn't know Rothman was running Sony now, I swear he was in charge of WB.

He left.

 

[FunkMiller]

Thing is, Nolan didn't really need to pitch Begins. All the studios were after him after Memento and Insomnia. I believe he was pitched Troy. He was the hot young prospect every studio wanted.

Yeah, true. He already had a lot of kudos behind him before he went in with it. The strength of the concept was was put him over with them completely though. Man's a genius. I'll never get tired of,saying it.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

He pretty much did, from what I remember. From the way he spoke about his relationship with Lee Smith, and WB in general, they allowed him a large degree of freedom, even with the first film.

I am sure they did give him freedom and when they saw the movie, they were like yeah, we like this. So no need to interfere. But I also do remember talk about TDK being full Nolan, where Begins wasn't quite full Nolan.

 

[FunkMiller]

What happened to Robinov? Did he retire, get fired, move on? If I didn't know Rothman was running Sony now, I swear he was in charge of WB.

He was part of the dumb ash purge with Alan Horn, wasn't he?

 

[FunkMiller]

I am sure they did give him freedom and when they saw the movie, they were like yeah, we like this. So no need to intefer. But I also do remember talk about TDK being full Nolan, where Begins wasn't quite full Nolan.

Going 'Full Nolan'. There's a meme in that somewhere.... t:

 

[DarthSkywalker]

He was part of the dumb ash purge with Alan Horn, wasn't he?

I honestly have no idea. Where they getting rid of all his partners and he was like, "forget this, I am out too". I honestly wonder how the DCEU would look if he was around. Change nothing else, including the directors.

 

[MadVillainy]

I don't think he had final cut on Begins. But he made such a good film that had great legs, and killed it on home media, he got final cut on TDK. Also Nolan always wins brownie points for finishing on time and coming in under budget like every time. He is a studio's dream.

Thanks for clearing it up for me

 

[FunkMiller]

I honestly have no idea. Where they getting rid of all his partners and he was like, "forget this, I am out too". I honestly wonder how the DCEU would look if he was around. Change nothing else, including the directors.

Certainly things would be better under Horn, not so sure about Robinov. I don't think Horn would have allowed the headlong rush into the DCEU shared universe. The man showed time and time again that he wouldn't bow to commercial pressures a lot of the time. I think things would be in a far better state than they are. We probably wouldn't have to cope with Snyder for instance, given that Horn probably would have attracted a better class of film maker.

 

[Guts]

Which is fine. But then I don't buy that he was super serious about this project either. Abrams fought for time over TFA. Extended his window by over 6 months.

I think WB really wanted the Marvel two movies a year strategy and they wouldn't delay Suicide Squad.

 

[Consona]

Again, he was okay with this.

Are you telepath or something? Nobody of us here knows what exactly happened let alone what specific people involved in the process actually thought of the situation.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I think instead of seeing SS, I'm just gonna watch TDK this weekend. Remember in 2008 when we thought WB could do no wrong? Turns out that was built on a fluke. All of this makes me appreciate those films even more now. WB lucked out with Nolan. There's no other way to say it. And they rode that gravy train with that immense luck but it's running out and what WB have always been have become transparent.

 

[FunkMiller]

I think instead of seeing SS, I'm just gonna watch TDK this weekend. Remember in 2008 when we thought WB could do no wrong? Turns out that was built on a fluke. All of this makes me appreciate those films even more now. WB lucked out with Nolan. There's no other way to say it. And they rode that gravy train with that immense luck but it's running out and what WB have always been have become transparent.

And they chose to ignore that winning formula in order to chase the Marvel shared universe format.

 

[Marathon]

Without wanting to dogpile on Ayer, WB surely knew that his critical track record wasn't something to shout from the rooftops, with only 4 fresh movies on the tomatometer out of everything he's been involved with: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/326392049/

So, ceteris paribus, Ayer delivering a "rotten" movie isn't a huge surprise considering his mostly "rotten" back catalog. (Yes I know there are multiple factors influencing the outcome of SS, just playing the devil's advocate here.)

 

[Greens]

Without wanting to dogpile on Ayer, WB surely knew that his critical track record wasn't something to shout from the rooftops, with only 4 fresh movies on the tomatometer out of everything he's been involved with: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/326392049/

So, ceteris paribus, Ayer delivering a "rotten" movie isn't a huge surprise considering his mostly "rotten" back catalog. (Yes I know there are multiple factors influencing the outcome of SS, just playing the devil's advocate here.)

I've seen all the films he's directed and IMO the only movie that comes close to earning a "Rotten" is Sabotage. The others range from good to great.

 

[metaphysician]

Man, Warner Bros are going through rough times since Jeff Robinov left. That's probably where the 'director-friendly' iteration of the studio ended. They shuold've left David Ayer's vision for this alone, instead of worrying that the movie (about a bunch of psychopaths and criminals teaming up) is not going to be 'family-friendly' enough. I don't think Kevin Tsujihara really knows what he's doing. The studio has went through several flops, such as "Pan" and "Tarzan".

I don't know, I think it has less to do with being "not director friendly" and more to do with them having gotten onto a treadmill of doom. They set themselves a goal of "must match Marvel", used a movie they were forced to make by lawsuit as the starting point, and then put together a release schedule so fast and tight that there is no margin for adjustment. Thus, you get panicked reshoots and recuts- when the next three movies are already filming or finished filming by the time you see one movie do crappy, there's no opportunity for anything else.

 

[metaphysician]

And they chose to ignore that winning formula in order to chase the Marvel shared universe format.

Its not even like they can't have it both ways. Just have your top producers put together a basic "setting bible" for what they want in terms of a combined universe, and then let directors do what they want largely for the first couple of films. See what works and what doesn't, and go from there.

That just would require patience, which they don't have.

 

[The Shape]

Without wanting to dogpile on Ayer, WB surely knew that his critical track record wasn't something to shout from the rooftops, with only 4 fresh movies on the tomatometer out of everything he's been involved with: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/326392049/

So, ceteris paribus, Ayer delivering a "rotten" movie isn't a huge surprise considering his mostly "rotten" back catalog. (Yes I know there are multiple factors influencing the outcome of SS, just playing the devil's advocate here.)

It will be a sad day when a studio decides whether or not to hire a talented filmmaker based on his/her previous "Tomatometer" results.

 

[ManWithNoName18]

I've seen all the films he's directed and IMO the only movie that comes close to earning a "Rotten" is Sabotage. The others range from good to great.

Out of movies he's actually directed/wrote. He has ups and downs, sabotage/street Kings where a down. Fury/End of Watch where an up. And unlike Snyder who's last critically well recieved movie was in 2009. Fury was made back in 2014

 

[FunkMiller]

It will be a sad day when a studio decides whether or not to hire a talented filmmaker based on his/her previous "Tomatometer" results.

I don't think Marathon's suggesting that - just that Ayer's body of work has not been critically well received by and large. It's perfectly acceptable for a studio to look at a director's previous body of work, and the reception to it, when deciding on who they want to direct their projects. They may wish to ignore it, but to not consider it at all would be very silly.