THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 89 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
We needed the
Beatles. It was an
audacious idea to put
hysterical footage of Germans at
Nazi rallies against a German
version of “I Want to Hold Your
Hand” — to illustrate what it was
like to be in Germany in the late
’30s and why our young protago-
nist might think the way he does
at the start of the film. [Director]
Taika [Waititi] came up with the
idea while watching Hitler Youth
documentaries and seeing crowds
gushing for Hitler. The Beatles are
complicated to clear in any
situation, but this was an unusual
use that could easily be taken the
wrong way if seen in isolation.
During the edit, a few people
asked about our backup plan. We
didn’t have one. I believed the
intention of the film would be
understood. Our composer,
Michael Giacchino, knew Paul
McCartney and wrote to him
explaining our belief in the film.
At the same time, we approached
their label. We showed the label
the whole film several times, and
Taika sent letters to Paul
[McCartney], Yoko [Ono], Ringo
[Starr] and Olivia [Harrison],
explaining his hopes for it. After
several steps, they agreed to put
the song in the film. — MIA GALUPPOCARTHEW NEAL
JOJO RABBITWe needed to shoot in
L.A. Obviously, it’s a little
bit more expensive, but
Annapurna saw the value in being able to
shoot in the city where this movie should
take place. [Director] Olivia [Wilde] said, “I
really think that aesthetically and visually,
this needs to be set in L.A. and not Atlanta
for L.A. or Canada for L.A.” They agreed,
and that doesn’t happen all the time. Most
of the time we’re just happy that we get
to make our movies and our TV shows.
But this is a real victory. Los Angeles does
play into this movie — you can feel it. It
was just something that isn’t necessarily
a no-brainer and typically doesn’t always
happen, but it wasn’t even a fight [to get to
film in L.A.]. — S.D.JESSICA ELBAUM
BOOKSMARTThis project took since ’97
to get out there, and it was
probably one of the longeststruggle[s]. It was constant: To get the
right financing, to get all of that out of the
gate, and then to be able to work with our
team on the digital effects because that
hadn’t been done before. The de-aging had
never been done before. It took testing
and refinement and working with Pablo
Helman from Industrial Light & Magic
when we were on set. — HILARY LEWIS
JANE ROSENTHAL
THE IRISHMAN