Producer review
Producer Craig praises lab-grown diamonds, the movie’s educational action form, and DiCaprio’s issue-driven stardom, while noting that similar stories have moved away from theatrical stars.
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:35Read transcript
- Lab-grown diamonds are added as the clearest thing that aged well.
- The producer had not seen the film and responds positively to its mix of action and difficult subject matter.
- Modern difficult-topic awards movies are contrasted as smaller and sadder rather than large star vehicles.
- Kanye West’s Diamonds from Sierra Leone was the producer’s first exposure to conflict diamonds.
- A modern Zwick might make a documentary because a hundred-million-dollar studio feature is hard to greenlight.
- DiCaprio is praised for still using stardom to mount expensive issue-oriented films.
- The Siege is used to show how quickly current-affairs films can be overtaken by history.
- Global studios’ need for broadly marketable antagonists is cited as another constraint.