The movie business “needed Netflix to wake up”, according to Edward Berger, but the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front director predicted it could be the Hollywood studios inspiring the streaming service in years to come.
Speaking today during a fireside chat at the MIA Market in Rome, Berger offered an assessment of how Netflix, which greenlit Oscar winner All Quiet, had impacted Hollywood with its global streaming model.
“The movie business needed Netflix to wake up,” he said. “They needed a real disruptor. They had probably become complacent and thought, ‘Okay, let’s do this because it was successful [before]’.”
Netflix last week underwent its largest round of layoffs since 2022 – around 1,000 – incidentally the same year World War II pic All Quiet released. With Paramount and Warner Bros. recently becoming one under the Skydance banner and David Ellison promising to make 30 films a year, the wheel could be turning the other way.
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Berger didn’t comment directly on the market, but noted: “Maybe we are now entering a period where the relationship works the other way around, with Netflix being inspired by the movie business. I think the two worlds are additive.”
Berger recalled how Sasha Bühler, Netflix’s Director of Film for German-speaking Europe at the time All Quiet was on the market, gave him a simple assessment of how the streamer would handle the film.
“She said, ‘If the movie’s great, we’ll support it. If it’s not, we won’t.’ That’s so scary, but I really love that,” he added.
Berger called his experience with All Quiet and Netflix “singularly great, with no stress at all.” He praised the streamer for giving “a considerable amount of money for a German film – money we could not have raised in that environment through local or international sales,” coming just as the Covid-19 outbreak was beginning. “Without that support, we might not have been able to make the movie,” he added.
The film ultimately won the Best International Film category at the 2023 Oscars. Bühler, who helmed it for Netflix, exited the streamer in August this year, as we revealed at the time.
How an Italian actor changed ‘Conclave‘
Conclave director Berger charmed a room of Italian delegates today at the MIA Market with a humorous tale from the set of the Oscar-nominated pic, which filmed in Rome. He and his team were searching for a male Italian actor over the age of 65 who spoke English. “The list was very short,” he recalled to laughs from the room.
Sergio Castellitto was recommended to play Cardinal Tedesco, and soon given the role. It quickly became clear that Castellitto’s English was limited, but this lead to an unexpected change of direction for the movie.
Castellitto began changing lines from English into Italian, and with just days to go before filming, the decision was made to add the language. “We had an all-English cast and Sergio was speaking basically only Italian,” he laughed.
Ralph Fiennes, who was leading the cast as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, then decided he would need to quickly learn Italian, so he could respond naturally. “No one was going to go and say, ‘We’re going to stop the film,’” said Berger.
It has been a busy few years for Berger, with another bustling period coming up. We were first with the news that Berger had given the World War Z sequel impetus by being attached as director, with Brad Pitt returning to star.
The original film, released in 2013, was based on Max Brooks’ bestselling 2006 novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are producing the sequel on behalf of Plan B Entertainment. Berger will also executive produce. Dennis Kelly will write the script.
Berger is also attached to direct the untitled Lance Armstrong movie package starring Austin Butler as the disgraced cyclist, with Apple winning a heated auction. He will also direct Itamar Moses’ Netflix pic Stradivarius.
Berger is headlining this year’s MIA Market in Rome alongside the likes of Jane Tranter. The event begins today and runs until
