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Celebrity documentaries are commanding lofty price tags at the moment, even though “star power” itself seems to be losing its sizzle.
The facts are nasty: Superstar endorsements carried zero clout in the presidential elections. Further, studios have lost their zeal for the once pivotal pre-opening star interview circuit. Superstar vehicles like Wolfs (George Clooney and Brad Pitt) drifted before audiences with limited exposure to blurbdom. Sequel numbers (Moana 2, Gladiator II) carry greater weight than festival fervor.
Defying this algorithmic blur, Apple TV still felt its Billie Eilish caper was worth $27 million, and Disney forked out $32 million for Elton John: Never Too Late. Disney also paid handsomely for a new/old doc titled Beatles ’64 from Paul McCartney, premiering this week. Could Taylor Swift be far behind?
Intriguingly, audiences still register an appetite for docs about past legends like Humphrey Bogart as well as semi-present ones like Bob Dylan — even litigating about their validity. Martha Stewart claims that director R.J. Cutler didn’t respect her “notes” on her doc Martha, for which Netflix paid seven figures.
So are docs credible? Are they really “documentaries” at all?
The mainstream stars of the past have always been skilled at re-invention. Famed “tough guys” like Bogart or Lee Marvin erased their true backgrounds as heirs to blue blood families, exchanging their smile for a snarl. They’ve thus managed to control their narratives.
“When a star is involved in the making of their films, is it a sellout?” asks Sheila Nevins, who as HBO’s former chief of docs won myriad awards for her work. It depends on who’s in charge.
An increasing number of docs rely initially on private funding, and thus usually exercise control of their facts. Matt Tyrnauer followed that route with Carville, telling a vivid personal and political story that triggered competitive bidding from distributors: CNN won over Netflix.
Private funding for a doc on Kim Novak is being assembled by Sue Cameron, a credentialed columnist and producer working with director Alexander Philippe, who did a doc on Billy Friedkin. Now a gifted painter, Novak’s hits inclcuded Vertigo (1958) and Picnic (1955) and she wants to tell her own story.
All this can create peril for doc directors. Cutler’s work has ranged from Marlon Brando to Anna Wintour, and he worked hard to accommodate Stewart, who has a lot to say about everything. Despite Martha’s peeves, “The lens figuratively and literally remains mine,” he insists.
While celebrity docs proliferate, the market for celebrity interviews has become marginalized. Superstars are understandably confused whether their projects will play theatrically or in streamerville. The podcast and late-night TV route can be frustrating and time-consuming: Mark Ruffalo said he once spent five months promoting a film on which he’d worked five days.
Actors often face contradictory demands on the interview circuit, their interviews contradicting the characters they play. Kieran Culkin’s character is excruciatingly obnoxious in A Real Pain opposite Jesse Eisenberg, who also directs, but he’s all charm for interviews on the film, and may even nab a nomination.
Bogart’s crusty personality is clearly registered in his interviews for the new doc Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes… . It’s also key to his on-screen persona in movies like To Have and Have Not (1944). “I don’t trust any bastard who doesn’t drink — people who don’t drink are afraid of revealing themselves,” Bogart declares in the doc.
Yet Kathryn Ferguson, the doc’s director, also reveals the star’s gentler and more patrician side: He married co-star Lauren Bacall after completing Have Not.
A doc built around another legendary star will premiere this week. Ken Burns calls Leonardo da Vinci ”the person of the millennium” in his riveting PBS tribute.
That title may be disputed when a new doc about Swift makes its debut. It has not as yet been scheduled.
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