The Big Picture: Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37)

Published 2017-11-22; 0:28:07 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37)”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: Joe Wright.

Subject films: Darkest Hour (2017).

On the transcript: Auto-transcribed, no speaker labels; only host and guest present, and interviewer lines are inferred from questions.

Films that came up

anecdote (6)

Pan · Pride & Prejudice · Atonement · Black Mirror (TV episode directed by Wright) · The Soloist · Stoner

subject (1)

Darkest Hour

compared (2)

Anna Karenina · Dunkirk

passing (3)

Nil by Mouth · Birdsong · Hanna

recommended (2)

The Killing of a Sacred Deer · Lady Bird

Claims (30)

  1. career (career): Pan → Darkest Hour. Wright says Pan's failure and his own doubt are what made the doubt-ridden Churchill script resonate.
    “I had made a film called Pan, which had lost about $100 million, and had been slated, really, by most everyone, and I was suffering my own crisis of confidence”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:02:29 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Pan → Darkest Hour. After Pan he decided he was not cut out for big studio movies and wanted to return to his wheelhouse.
    “I realized after Pan that I wasn't cut out necessarily for the kind of big studio movies, and I wanted to return to something that was closer to my wheelhouse.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:03:05 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): Charlie Brooker → Joe Wright. Brooker's script brought Wright back to why he makes films.
    “I got this amazing script from Charlie Brooker, which was just people talking to each other in rooms.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:03:33 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. career (career): Black Mirror (TV episode directed by Wright) → Darkest Hour. A Charlie Brooker script of people talking in rooms re-engaged him, and Darkest Hour arrived while he shot it.
    “whilst I was out in South Africa shooting the Black Mirror episode, Darkest Hour came across my desk”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:04:10 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. theme (theme): Darkest Hour → Black Mirror (TV episode directed by Wright). Both are scripts of people talking in rooms, which challenged him to find cinema in conversation.
    “it was men in rooms talking to each other, the creative challenge of that thrilled me.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:04:10 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. contrast (contrast): Darkest Hour → Anna Karenina. Darkest Hour's stripped-back look is a reaction against Pan and Anna Karenina.
    “as a kind of reaction to what I've been doing before, including Pan, but also, you know, Anna Karenina and movies like that.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:04:41 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. craft (craft): Darkest Hour → Max Richter. Wright says he wanted a cinematic equivalent of the minimalist music he was listening to, including Max Richter.
    “I was also listening to a lot of minimalist music at the time, Max Richter and Niels Fram and, of course, the great Philip Glass and so on.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:05:00 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. craft (craft): Darkest Hour → Nils Frahm. Wright says he wanted a cinematic equivalent of the minimalist music he was listening to, including Nils Frahm.
    “I was also listening to a lot of minimalist music at the time, Max Richter and Niels Fram and, of course, the great Philip Glass and so on.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:05:00 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  9. craft (craft): Darkest Hour → Philip Glass. Wright aimed for a cinematic equivalent of minimalist music by Richter, Frahm and Glass.
    “I wanted to try and achieve some kind of cinematic aesthetic equivalent to that music.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:05:08 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. craft (craft): Bruno Delbonnel → Darkest Hour. With DP Bruno Delbonnel he developed a simple, honest, truthful style.
    “together we we developed a style that was trying to just be as simple and as honest and as dramatic as possible”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:05:23 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  11. craft (craft): Joe Wright → Darkest Hour. Wright thinks film is like music, happening in time, and gives actors rhythm notes by singing them.
    “Film for me is most like music.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:06:18 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. people (people): Gary Oldman → Darkest Hour. Wright cast Oldman for Churchill's essence rather than his look, over more obvious choices.
    “you can fake the exterior, but you can't fake the interior necessarily, Gary had the essence.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:09:49 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft): Dario Marianelli → Darkest Hour. He sent Marianelli a photo of Oldman walking as Churchill, to write music with a TikTok tempo, before shooting.
    “I took a picture of Gary walking as Churchill in one of those early sessions and sent it to Dario Marianelli.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:10:08 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. people (people): Nil by Mouth → Gary Oldman. Nil by Mouth is a favorite of Wright's, and made Oldman his first actor who is also a filmmaker.
    “nil by mouth is one of my favorite films.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:10:51 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  15. theme (theme): The Soloist → Darkest Hour. On real-life stories: you cannot change events, so The Soloist got a smaller ending of friendship; Darkest Hour seeks truth over fact.
    “you're not necessarily wanting the facts, you're wanting the truth, and they sometimes are different things”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:12:20 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  16. lineage (lineage): Darkest Hour → Andrei Tarkovsky. Wright wants his work called cinematic and cites Tarkovsky's 'sculpting in time'.
    “as Tarkovsky put it, sculpting in time.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:15:27 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  17. craft (craft): Robert Bresson → Joe Wright. Wright keeps Bresson's notes by his bed while shooting to remember he is making film, not painting or theater.
    “I read a lot of breasts on, you know, his notes on the cinematographer and I keep that by my bed whenever I'm shooting”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:16:25 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  18. contrast (contrast): Darkest Hour → Dunkirk. Wright avoided watching Dunkirk until his own film was done, then found both going minimalist.
    “I purposefully didn't watch the film until I'd finished ours.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:19:59 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. industry (industry): Dunkirk → Darkest Hour. Wright says success is not finite and more good films mean more audiences.
    “success is, you know, is not finite.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:18 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. career (career): Sarah Greenwood → Joe Wright. The host notes Wright's production-design and costume collaborators have been nominated for awards while Wright has not.
    “Particularly your team, Sarah Greenwood, Jacqueline Duran, who both worked on this film, have been nominated.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  21. career (career): Jacqueline Durran → Joe Wright. The host notes Wright's production-design and costume collaborators have been nominated for awards while Wright has not.
    “Particularly your team, Sarah Greenwood, Jacqueline Duran, who both worked on this film, have been nominated.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  22. career (career): Atonement → Joe Wright. Atonement earned seven nominations including Best Picture, but not one for him, which gnawed at him.
    “When Atonement got 7 nominations, including Best Picture, and I didn't get nominated, it didn't really bother me at the time.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:55 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  23. career (career): Pride and Prejudice → Joe Wright. His producer warned that few first-time directors get to make a second film.
    “only one in 101st time filmmakers ever makes a 2nd movie.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:21:38 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  24. lineage (lineage): Joe Wright → Martin Scorsese. Wright's aspirational filmmakers were Kieslowski, Clarke, Loach, Altman, Scorsese, Lynch, Coppola, not superhero fare.
    “Robert Altman, Scorsese, David Lynch, and Coppola, and those are the people that I aspired to be.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:23:12 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  25. industry (industry): Black Mirror (TV episode directed by Wright) → Netflix. Wright worked on Netflix via Black Mirror but values theatrical communal viewing.
    “Black Mirror was Netflix.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:23:37 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  26. career (career): Pride and Prejudice → Atonement. Choosing between Birdsong and Atonement next, his agent told him to pick the one he knew a secret about.
    “do the one that you feel like you know a secret about.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:24:45 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  27. theme (theme): Stoner → Joe Wright. His planned next film, Stoner, is about finding beauty in details, disappointment, love, and grace.
    “I think Stone is about grace, and I'd like to make a film about grace.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:25:55 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  28. craft (craft): The Killing of a Sacred Deer → Yorgos Lanthimos. Wright is fascinated by how Lanthimos gets disassociated performances, reportedly from scripts translated literally from Greek.
    “I'm fascinated by how he gets those strange, almost disassociated performances out of people.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:26:17 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  29. verdict (verdict): Lady Bird → Greta Gerwig. He loves Lady Bird and calls Gerwig a heroine who thinks about form.
    “she's thinking about form rather than just performance or words.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:26:57 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  30. people (people): Saoirse Ronan → Hanna. Wright found Ronan at 11 as a fully formed actress.
    “when she was 11, she kind of appeared as a fully formed actress.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:27:18 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)

Fun items (23)

  1. fun, about Pan: Wright says Pan lost about $100 million and was slated by most everyone; it drove him toward giving up.
    “had lost about $100 million, and had been slated, really, by most everyone”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:02:29 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Joe Wright: Dyslexic, he watched hours of television as a kid before finding a way to read and thinks of film as time.
    “I'm dyslexic and dyslexics have a problem with time”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:06:26 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Joe Wright: A slow reader, he takes about four hours per script, while his agent reads one in thirty minutes.
    “My agent can read a script in 30 minutes.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:07:22 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Darkest Hour: The opening: Churchill is heard before seen, in a dark room until a servant opens the curtains.
    “you hear him before you see him.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:08:08 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Gary Oldman: Churchill prep started with how he walked, smoked, and snuffled.
    “he smoked a lot, and he had this kind of snuffle in his breath.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:09:57 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Darkest Hour: Wright says he sent Marianelli a photo of Oldman walking as Churchill and asked for music from it.
    “you should write a piece based on this photograph.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:10:17 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Darkest Hour: English newsreel style: a wide shot of a street that holds until a man crosses the road, then cuts.
    “a wide shot of a street and it holds and then a man crosses the road and then it cuts.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:14:06 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Darkest Hour: Wright researched at the Imperial War Museum on a Steenbeck; German, French and English newsreels each have a national style.
    “A nation has its style.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:14:21 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Joe Wright: He claims lying on the sofa visualizing the film is some of his most important time.
    “lying on the sofa staring at the ceiling in a state of relaxation”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:14:38 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Joe Wright: He dislikes 'painterly' and wants cinematic; still prefers it to rubbish or ugly.
    “I'd rather people said my films were painterly than rubbish.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:15:52 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Joe Wright: He sits beside the camera, cries at emotional scenes, and plays loud Chemical Brothers and dances for energetic ones.
    “I play loud Chemical Brothers music and I dance”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:17:34 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Darkest Hour: On set he plays Major Lazer; Oldman as Churchill danced to Bubble Butt.
    “We played Major Laser bubble butt a lot.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:17:40 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Darkest Hour: 500 extras sang Hey Jude at 7:30 a.m. before Oldman arrived, so he walked into a swell of cheering.
    “the entire room sang together, the Beatles, hey Jude.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:18:06 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Sean Fennessey: The host adopts the set sing-along idea for his job.
    “I will start applying the Friday sing-along.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:19:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Dunkirk: Wright deliberately did not watch Nolan's film until finishing his own.
    “I purposefully didn't watch the film until I'd finished ours.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:19:59 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Atonement: Seven nominations including Best Picture, yet no director nomination; it gnawed at him.
    “And then it kind of gnawed at me a little bit.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:21:05 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Pride and Prejudice: Producer's warning that most first-time directors never make a second movie still hangs over him.
    “And I still have that hanging over me.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:21:38 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Joe Wright: He only needs a 100 percent return; not interested in 5000 percent profit expectations.
    “if I can get 100% profit, I'm good.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:22:50 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Joe Wright: No superheroes: you have to have loved them as a kid.
    “I think to make those films, you have to have loved them as a kid, and I didn't love them as a kid.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:22:57 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Atonement: His agent picked Atonement over Birdsong: do the one you feel you know a secret about.
    “it was as if I knew a secret about it.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:24:58 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Stoner: His hoped next film, an adaptation; he calls it a midlife book about grace.
    “It's quite a midlife book.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:25:43 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about The Killing of a Sacred Deer: His last great thing seen; he says it is deeply frightening on a subconscious level.
    “deeply, deeply frightening on a deep psychological subconscious level.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:26:09 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Saoirse Ronan: He is skeptical of genius myths, but says if ever, it would be her.
    “my god, if I ever did, then it would be her.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:27:36 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)

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