Elizabeth Banks is a beauty mogul on the verge in Austin Peters’ feature directorial debut “Skincare,” out Friday, August 16 from IFC Films. You know her from her roles in “30 Rock,” the “Hunger Games” franchise, and “Pitch Perfect,” but she’s also a director/producer who heads up Brownstone Productions with her partner Max Handelman. Banks this week joins the IndieWire “Screen Talk” podcast to talk “Skincare” and her career behind the camera — including how she believes her directing effort “Charlie’s Angels” was mismarketed and why she still loves that movie even despite Kristen Stewart’s recent comments about not quite enjoying the experience.
Movies she has shepherded include “Cocaine Bear” ($89 million worldwide, and which she directed) and the “Pitch Perfect” films to even bigger business (she directed the sequel in addition to starring in all three). Plus, her producing role on “Bottoms” helped turn Emma Seligman’s queer high school comedy into a cult classic in the making. On “Screen Talk,” we chatted about the ethos of the company and the types of films she seeks out as a producer.
Elsewhere on this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” regular co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio dish on the drama involving Joaquin Phoenix exiting Todd Haynes’ explicit gay romance mere days before filming (and which IndieWire scooped!). There’s no one who can replace him, and production company Killer Films is not looking to recast, so what’s next for the project that Phoenix himself developed and brought to the “May December” director? Haynes and author Jon Raymond were writing the script with Phoenix.
We also discuss a recent Hollywood Reporter story about Oscar blogger and Awards Daily founder Sasha Stone that looks at the awards-prognosticating veteran’s public pivot toward right-wing politics. Plus, what does it mean for the exhibition space as specialized theater chain Landmark now faces a possible foreclosure? Other chains will fill the void if the rest of its Cohen Media Group-operated theaters shut down.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
