By In 2012, Lee Daniels delivered “The Paperboy” – a sweaty, sleazy, absurd and campy Southern Gothic tale starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack, David Oyelowo and Macy Gray.
McConaughey plays a Miami reporter who returns to his hometown in Florida to investigate a murder case involving a death row inmate (Cusack).
At the time of release, the film was widely lambasted following a disastrous Cannes press screening from which it never really recovered – generating just $3.78 million in box-office from a $12.5 million budget.
Today it’s mostly remembered for several key scenes, most famously where Kidman pees on Efron’s character to combat a jellyfish sting.
Daniels, out promoting his noir film “Deliverance,” tells IndieWire he almost quit filmmaking following the hostile reception to “The Paperboy”:
“That movie doesn’t get any love. I was going to give up directing after that, because it was so trashed, and reviewers didn’t get the world. I felt like it was my Black version of my white version of ‘The Paperboy.’
I was offered all these Black roles, Black jobs, Black films, and I was like, ‘No, I’m a f—– filmmaker. I’m not just a Black filmmaker. And I really want to work with white actors. How can you label me like this?’ I was like, OK, I’m never going to direct again, because they just came for me.”
He adds he stands by the film to this day, saying it remains ‘misunderstood’ and will eventually find its audience:
“I love all of my work equally, but the ones that were kicked to the curb are the ones that I hold dear to my heart, and [‘The Paperboy’] is something I hold dear to my heart.”
In the wake of the film’s release, Daniels stuck to safer fare and has since directed “The Butler” and “The United States vs Billie Holiday” which saw box-office and awards success respectively.
The post Daniels Reflects On “Paperboy” Disaster appeared first on Dark Horizons.
