Coralie Fargeatbet big on herself and won, as her decision to turn down a big MCU director gig to focus on her passion project,The Substance, led her to an Academy Award nomination. Fargeat’sThe Substancehas become one of the ultimate underdog stories of the awards season race, as the movie’s original financer, Universal Pictures, dropped the project before being picked up by a smaller distributor, Mubi. The body horror film, starring Demi Moore, seemed like a tough sell on paper, but it has since gone on to gross $76 million worldwide and defied expectations.The Substanceis a full-throttle gore fest that scored a Best Picture nomination at the 97th Academy Awards, with Fargeat earning a Best Director and Best Original Screenplay nomination.
Things might have gone very differently if Fargeat had considered Marvel Studios' offer. According toVariety,Fargeat was in consideration to directBlack Widow. Despite being broke at the time, maintaining creative control was important to Fargeat, and she focused on her passion project. Variety notes that part of Fargeat’s conflicts withThe Substance’s original financial partner was that she would not budge when it came to studio notes and didn’t even consider conversations about them on her film. With Marvel Studios having a reputation for being very controlling on a project, Fargeat stepped away from the MCU film and focused on developingThe Substance.
While Fargeat might not seem like the type of filmmaker one would consider for a blockbuster film, it makes sense that Marvel Studios would approach her.Black Widowwas a high priority for the company, and with Scarlett Johansson heavily involved in the project as both star and producer,they went after some critically acclaimed filmmakers to helm the prequel. These names included Amma Asante (Where Hands Touch), Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Kings), Maggie Betts (Novitiate), and Lynn Shelton (Humpday). Chloé Zhao was in talks but pulled out of consideration to pitch Marvel Studios’Eternals. Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome) would eventually be hired to directBlack Widow.
Coralie Fargeat’s Decision Paid off in the Long Run
For context, Coralie Fargeat would likely have been offeredBlack Widowin 2018, shortly after her feature directorial debutRevengeopened in theaters. While the idea of pulling a director from a low-budget filmmaking background into a blockbuster has been practiced for quite some time, Marvel Studios truly popularized the idea by giving some of the biggest franchises to less established directors with few blockbuster titles. Jon Watts went fromCop Car, which had a budget of $5 million, to the$175 millionSpider-Man: Homecoming. Before being hired to direct the $236 budgetEternals, Chloé Zhao’s movieThe Riderhad a budget of $80,000, while her Academy Award-winningNomadlandcost $5 million. In theory, this is a good practice to bring on exciting directors with bold creative visions, but it also has the optics of Marvel Studios hiring filmmakers with less power to push back against the studio’s notes and have full control over their films.
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Have you ever dreamt of a version of the Oscars that recognizes horror? ‘The Substance’ could make that happen.
Of course, Fargeat is not the only director to pull out of consideration forBlack Widowbecause of potential creative differences with Marvel Studios' mode of operation. Lucrecia Martel, who directedThe Headless WomanandLa Ciénaga,famously turned downBlack Widowwhenthe studio told her they would handle the action scenes and let her focus on the character-centric scenes. With how much Fargeat valued her creative vision, she likely would have clashed with Marvel had she accepted the job. It might have seemed like a risky move at the time, but in the long run, it paid off as Fargeat’s passion project is one of the most talked about movies of 2024, and she is now an Academy Award nominee. Any blank check that the box office ofBlack Widowmight have afforded her can now likely be written byThe Substance.
The Substance
