Kathleen Kennedy got justifiably criticized this weekend over a Variety interview she gave regarding (among other things) whether or not any of the Star Wars films would be directed by a female director. As you probably know, painfully few movies, whether they're big or small, male-centric stories or female-led films, are directed by women. It has been a subject of conversation and controversy for as long as I can remember, and yet the end result is mostly just more talk.
To wit, the quote that got everyone (rightfully) upset was one regarding her (well-intentioned) attempts at Lucasfilm to basically mentor young female filmmakers and groom them for their shot at the big time. “We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do Star Wars, they’re set up for success,” says Kennedy. “They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.”
First of all, the idea of bringing in young female talent and giving them the badly needed and elusive experience is as valid an idea as anything. The issue, as you might guess, is that Hollywood has absolutely no problem giving young and inexperienced male filmmakers the keys to a franchise castle almost as a matter of course. You and I can name off countless examples without even looking it up.
Walt Disney gave Joseph Kosinski the $170 million Tron: Legacy sans any feature experience of any kind. Ditto Robert Stromberg who was hired to direct Maleficent sans any directing experience whatsoever, and come what may the film had to be rescued via John Lee Hancock-directed reshoots. Rupert Sanders got to make his feature film debut on Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman back in 2012, while the likes of Marc Webb, Colin Trevorrow and Josh Trank snagged big franchise properties off of one well-liked lower-budget picture.
Here's a fun example: CBS Films opened Jordan Vogt-Roberts' The Kings of Summer in just four theaters in May of 2013. The film never went wider than 65 theaters, and the relatively well-received "teen coming of age" film earned just $1.315 million. A month later, CBS Films released Maggie Carey's The To-Do List in 591 theaters. The relatively well-received "teen coming of age" movie earned $3.491m. Maggie Carey has yet to make another feature. Jordan Vogt-Roberts is directing Kong: Skull Island for Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.
Now this isn't to say that Carey should have been handed the keys to Skull Island, or that Kings of Summer's forest-set melodrama wasn't a better fit for a King Kong prequel than a "bumming around a small town" sex comedy. But it does highlight that not even would-be box office success is a factor in these hires. Robert Schwentke was rewarded for the box office disaster/critical misfire that was R.I.P.D. ($77 million worldwide on a $130m budget) with the last two Divergent sequels.
Speaking of which, not only do women struggle to be taken seriously as would-be directors of male-driven pictures, they aren't even considered reasonable picks for female-driven dramas, comedies and fantasies. Both Sex and the City movies, all three Divergent films, all four Hunger Games movies and the majority of female-driven comedies you can think of offhand (The Other Woman, The Ugly Truth, etc.) were directed by men. Men are offered the presumption of competence regardless of experience. Women are considered a risk regardless of experience.
And yet, even when everything goes right, it still can go wrong. Catherine Hardwicke directed the first (and still best) Twilight movie to a $391 million gross on a $35m budget in November of 2008. The four sequels were all directed by men and Hardwicke was basically sent back to the minors after one slight misfire (Red Riding Hood) even as the Amanda Seyfried horror fantasy earned $89m worldwide on a $42m budget in 2011. Yes, she still works (Miss You Already is an underseen gem), but she didn't get the million second chances that her male peers tend to receive.
Meanwhile Bill Condon directed Breaking Dawn part I and Breaking Dawn part II to blockbuster success and is now directing Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
Sam Taylor-Johnson was the rare case of a relatively inexperienced female filmmaker being given the keys to a franchise, in this case Fifty Shades of Grey. Even when the $40 million, R-rated, adult-targeted and female-centric film earned $571m worldwide, behind-the-scenes squabbles with a micromanaging author (E.L. James) led to Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel departing Fifty Shades Darker. Marcel was replaced by E.L. James's husband Niall Leonard while Universal hired James Foley (The Corruptor, Glengarry Glenn Ross) for the next two chapters.
As much as I like most Foley movies, the proverbial powers-that-be amazingly couldn't find any female filmmakers willing to helm the surefire blockbuster sequel. Oh, and notice how the obviously talented and professional Taylor-Johnson wasn't immediately courted/snatched up for a follow-up gig in the same manner in which Tim Miller was after creative conflicts led him to exit the Deadpool sequel. And when Elizabeth Banks left Pitch Perfect 3, it was a relief when Gold Circle and Universal went with Step Up: All In's Trish Sie as opposed to a young and hungry male filmmaker.
So even in a best-case-scenario situation, the female-fronted franchise goes from having a female writer and female director to having men penning and directing the next two chapters. And no one is rushing to give the director of said $591 million-grossing hit another big (or even mid-sized) movie. This is all why Kennedy's objectively logical comments stung this past weekend.
Yes, it makes sense that you don't give a relative novice the keys to a Star Wars-sized franchise. But Hollywood has had no problem giving male directors with little to no experience the keys to any number of Star Wars-sized franchises with little change in attitudes no matter what the result. In the meantime, too few people with power are willing to just do what Ava DuVernay (who Disney hired to helm A Wrinkle in Time) did with the first season of Queen Sugar or what Melissa Rosenberg plans with the second season of Jessica Jones and just hire a full slate of female directors with the same expectation of competence afforded to male filmmakers.
Oh, and because it doesn't have to be a zero sum game or a headline news event, Fox's terrific Pitch has had female helmers for three of its eight episodes thus far. There are countless female directors out there with varying levels of experience, and they don't need mentoring, workshops, or in-depth studies highlighting the painfully obvious disparities to be able to take that swing. They just need to be hired with the understanding that they will most likely deliver at least something as worthwhile as the countless good-to-mediocre male filmmakers working on any number of various movies.
And, if they strike out, they need to be treated more like Josh Trank and less like Mimi Leder.
In grooming a batch of young female filmmakers and (presumably) giving them experience that can be harder to come by as a result of across-the-board disparities, Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm are doing the right thing. Moreover, I will even give her the benefit of the doubt that the "problematic" comments came from a very real fear in that they had actually hired the "relatively inexperienced" Trank for a Star Wars Story film before the Fantastic Four melodrama caused a separation of parties.
Even in that best-case-scenario reading, the irony is that an inexperienced male director's franchise flameout may have adverse repercussions for inexperienced female directors who may well have been courted by those like Kennedy who see the gender imbalance. Female directors don't need mentoring or grooming. They just need to get hired with the expectation that they will deliver at least as much as their male peers. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gaping head wound.
