On The Line with Tony Gilroy...Part 4

The financial boon that was “Bourne,” opened new doors Gilroy didn’t know existed:  “When you hit it, and all of a sudden the head of the studio’s calling you over the weekend, which you never had before…I thought I was really there, but I really wasn’t.  There’s another room here:  Another writer’s room.  I wasn’t aware of that.”

Tony Gilroy:  Writer and Director

Even through the “Bourne’” movies Gilroy also his sights on accomplishing another feat:  Directing one of his scripts himself.  Why?  “I just got sick of directors f***ing up movies,” he says.  Fair enough.  So, he developed “Michael Clayton” with the intention of sitting at the helm from beginning to end. 

His only regret is that he waited so long to go for it.

“I’ve been very careful and very risk averse in a lot of ways, and I should have probably been a director earlier – if I’d been braver and more adventurous.  There was another picture before “Clayton” that I really should have done, and it’s a very large regret.  I just couldn’t’.  I kept saying I wanted to do it, but I didn’t bring the crazy, the real level of passion and insanity that you have to bring to get a first movie made.  I just did not.  I didn’t fire those extra engines because there was something resistant.  For “Clayton,” I did.  But it still took five years.”

He took the idea to Castle Rock, who bought it based on what Gilroy calls “a very loosey-goosey idea.”  So he set to writing, but that took time – time that found Castle Rock in a different financial position than when Gilroy had begun.  “They couldn’t gamble as much as they could when I started it.  But they liked it and wanted to maintain the relationship, so they gave it back to me to set it up someplace else.”

For the next four years, Gilroy chased the money, but the money wouldn’t stick until George Clooney entered the picture.  “It really finally came down to George.” 

And signing with new representation…

“I went to CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and two weeks later, everything started happening,” says Gilroy.  “They helped me get the meeting with George.  After that it didn’t really matter – anyone would pay for it.”

“I very much wanted to go right away (after “Clayton”) because I didn’t want to get into this ‘what are you going to do next situation’… like I’m in now.”

Now, Tony Gilroy spends his days thinking about what he is “going to do next.”  Frankly, so do the many people who worked for him on the previous two films.  Not to add undue stress, it’s a simply a testament to the strong, positive and lasting impression he’s made on his crews. 

I leave him to his work, though every inch wants to stay a moment more.  Just one glimpse…a taste…a hint perhaps?  Alas.