DirectorDamien Chazellemade a huge splash withWhiplashin 2014, and he’s been a hot topic ever since. From the love letter to old Hollywood musicals that isLa La Land(and the ensuingOscar mix-up that made pop culture history), to the polarizing but undeniable spectacle ofBabylon, Chazelle is a director who’s hard to ignore and comfortable tackling all kinds of subject matter. But while the movies he’s directed so far have been pretty eclectic,his career as a screenwriter has a surprising consistency to it: outside of the screenplays he wrote for his own movies, Chazelle started his career exclusively writing horror and thrillers. In fact,he almost helmed one of the best horror sequels of the 2010sbefore stepping down as director in favor ofWhiplash– but Chazelle’s mastery of tension is still evident in his work on the screenplay for10 CloverfieldLane.
Damien Chazelle Started As a Screenwriter for Thrillers and Horror Movies
Technically, Damien Chazelle’s feature film debut was an independent film from 2009 calledGuy and Madeline on a Park Bench, which he wrote as well as directed. But his first mainstream movie,Whiplash,wouldn’t get funding until years later, and in the interim, Chazelle broke into Hollywood by writing the script forThe Last Exorcism Part II. While the 2013 film is regarded asa very poor follow-up to its predecessor, Chazelle had more success that same year withGrand Piano, a bizarre thriller starringElijah WoodandJohn Cusack. The movie follows a talented pianist (Wood) performing a comeback concert who becomes the target of a mysterious sniper (Cusack) whothreatens to kill him if he makes a single mistakeduring the performance.
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The set-up feels like a pulpy mix ofthe claustrophobicPhone Boothand theBlack Mirrorepisode “Shut Up and Dance,”and critics generally reacted favorably, although many acknowledgedthe inherent ridiculousness of the plot. Besides the mostly positive reception forGrand Piano, the film also gave Chazelle some important lessons on directing, particularly on how to work with music.Speaking with Slashfilm, Chazelle says thathe was invited to Spain to visit the set ofGrand Piano, where he “stole a bunch of tricks from [director Eugenio Mira]." Joking aside, Chazelle praised Mira as “really generous as a director,” allowing Chazelle “to just let [him] sit there and learn.”Since the movie revolves so heavily around music, Chazelle’s experience on the set ofGrand Pianohelped him on his equally music-heavy filmsLa La LandandWhiplash.
‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ Was Almost Directed By Damien Chazelle
Undoubtedly, Damien Chazelle’s biggest success as a screenwriter outside of his own films is10 Cloverfield Lane. The movie was originallybased on a script that was unrelated to the firstCloverfieldmovie. Although Chazelle says he “can’t really take much credit” for it since it was just a rewrite, the nerve-wracking movie certainly feels like it has Chazelle’s fingerprints on it, considering it hasa similar psychological tension toWhiplashand evenGrand Piano. In fact, it was due toWhiplashthat the people at Bad Robot offered Chazelle to direct10 Cloverfield Lane– and also whyhe ultimately stepped down from the director position. While re-working the script, Chazelle also made a short film version of his script forWhiplashto show around Sundance; Bad Robot was impressed and asked him to direct theCloverfieldsequel in addition to working on the script. But he knewhe couldn’t pass up the opportunity to directWhiplashonce it got funding from Blumhouse after they saw the short.In an interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Chazelle explained, “If [the offer to direct10 Cloverfield Lane] had happened just a year earlier, I would have jumped. But it happened right when it seemedWhiplashcould get made, and I needed to hit that iron while it was even remotely hot.”
On the one hand, it would have been incredible to see what10 Cloverfield Lanewould have looked like with Chazelle both writing and directing. On the other hand,Whiplashis one of the tensest psychological dramas of our time, and it would be a shame if it didn’t exist (or failed to live up to Chazelle’s vision). Besides,10 Cloverfield Laneis still a great watch under the direction ofDan Trachtenberg, so in the end, audiences got to experience two incredible and haunting movies.
10 Cloverfield Lane
NEXT:‘Whiplash’ 10 Years Later – Damien Chazelle and J.K. Simmons Discuss How They Made Their Masterpiece in Only 20 Days [Exclusive]
