The Hollywood Reporter - 21.08.2019

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 37 AUGUST 21, 2019

T

he future of filmmaking is

unfolding in a drab office

park near a Whole Foods

in Playa Vista. It’s where Jon

Favreau assembled this summer’s

$1.5 billion-grossing The Lion

King using a gaming engine and a

warehouse of cutting-edge artists

and technicians, and it’s where

the actor-writer-director-pro-

ducer is sketching out season two

of The Mandalorian, a Star Wars

TV series set to debut Nov. 12

on the new Disney+ streaming

service (and to be teased at the

D23 conference Aug. 23). Favreau,

52, invited THR to a conference

room lined with pictures of

Tatooine’s finest to unveil his

new endeavor, Golem Creations,

named for the man-made crea-

ture from folk lore that represents

an artistic creation brought to life

by magic. It’s a logical next step

for a multihyphenate who, since

writing and starring in Swingers

in 1996, has carved out a unique

(and lucrative) niche combin-

ing storytelling and technology,

launching the Marvel Cinematic

Universe with the tech-heavy

Iron Man and developing immer-

sive video walls to use with live

actors on Mandalorian. A mar-

ried father of three teens (wife

Joya is a physician), Favreau still

acts (Spider-Man: Far From Home

recently passed $1 billion) and

is making an Apple docuseries

featuring dinosaurs, the VR expe-

rience Gnomes + Goblins as well as

the Alien Xmas stop-motion ani-

mation special for Netflix, which

airs his Chef Show.

What is the focus of the new venture?

A lot of it is focusing on the

opportunities that new produc-

tion technologies have to offer

and also what technology offers

in the form of platforms, distri-

bution. It could be anything from

The Mandalorian, where we’re

using game engine technology,

virtual camerawork and virtual

production that we developed

on Lion King, applying those

learnings to designing a project

where you could use virtual sets

and virtual set extensions using

real-time rendering, which is

something that people talk about

but we’re the first to apply it.

There will be people who hear “digi-

tal production” on The Mandalorian

and think, “We saw the Star Wars

prequels, and they didn’t look very

good.” How is this different?

Well, I would argue that the

prequels are — and [George]

Lucas in general is — the bed-

rock that all of this is built on.

He is the first person that had

digital photography, first to do

completely CG characters. Not to

mention EditDroid, which turned

into Avid, Pixar was spawned

out of their laboratories there at

Lucasfilm, so he is arguably the

center of the Big Bang for every-

thing that I’m doing.

So the answer is this is 20 years

later than the prequels?

This is 20 years later, and also

there’s been a democratiza-

tion of the skill set too. When

George came to our set on The

Mandalorian, he said, “Oh, we did

this,” and what he meant was,

“We had greenscreen and we were

building small sets and expand-

ing upon it.” Now we have video

walls, NVIDIA video cards that

allow a refresh rate that allows

you to do in-camera effects, we’re

in there taking advantage of the

cutting-edge stuff.

People might assume that Disney

asked you to figure out what Star

Wars looks like on TV, but you came

to them.

I wrote four of the episodes before

I even had a deal. When I was

working on Lion King, it was a full-

time job, but there was a lot of

time when I just had to be avail-

able for three very focused hours

a day. The TV model allowed me

to be an executive producer [on

Mandalorian], which allowed me

to, on my own time, write every-

thing. It’s a lot like being a chef.

You write the menu, you staff up

with people who are great at what

they do, you help guide the people

who are actually cooking the food,

working the line and then at the

end, you plate.

So that’s why you didn’t direct

the episodes?

That’s why it worked well for

Disney. Plus, Disney+ is emerg-

ing and there’s an opportunity

to tell a story that’s bigger than

television, but you don’t have

the same expectations of a big

holiday release.

But Bob Iger says Disney+

is the future of the company. So

there is some pressure on this

anchor show.

This feels to me like when we

made Iron Man. It didn’t feel

like the future of Marvel was

resting on it, [even though] the

future of Marvel was resting on

it because if we failed they would

have lost their characters that

were collateral.

How do you think the current

entertainment ecosystem

is positioned in the competitive

landscape that includes

Facebook, Fortnite and all the

others battling for attention?

We have to be very keyed into

what people really want. My com-

pany is called Golem Creations

because the Golem could be used

to protect the village or you could

lose control and it rampages.

Technology is that way.

Do you think companies like

Disney are getting too big and

too powerful?

Compared to who, Amazon?

Compared to where it was 10,

15 years ago. There’s leverage and

a balance of power that impacts

creative people.

But also there are new people

who are financing things. I

couldn’t make a documentary

with Apple 10 years ago. I couldn’t

do a cooking show as director

and on-camera talent for Netflix.

Even talking to somebody like

Quibi about doing shortform stop

motion, working with Netflix

on a stop-motion Christmas

special. Yes, it’s consolidation,

certainly of IP with Disney, but

Disney is finding themselves in

a position where they have to

be competitive with companies

that are playing by a different

set of rules in the financial space

because they’re tech companies

and growth companies.

Have you talked to Downey

about his post-Marvel life? What

is he thinking?

I don’t know what he’s thinking,

but he’d better direct. Otherwise,

I’m not going to be his friend

anymore. He’s the star of the

biggest movie of all time. He did

it. So now, you’d better do stuff

you love.

Interview edited for length

and clarity.

Character

models from the

Favreau-produced

The Mandalorian,

the Star Wars series

that premieres

on Disney+ in

November.

RÉSUMÉ

CURRENT TITLE

Actor, writer, director,

producer and principal,

Golem Creations

BIG HIT

As a director, The Lion King

($1.44 billion global); as

a star, Avengers: Endgame

($2.8 billion global)

Favreau hands

out these “challenge

coins” to the cast

and crew on all of his

projects: “I’ve been

making them since

Iron Man 2.”

GROOMING BY MAKIKO NARA AT WALTER SCHUPFER MANAGEMENT.