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Veteran and provocative Facebook filmmaker Paul Schrader has announced a month-long sabbatical starting August 3 after it was posted on the social media platform.
The timing was no accident: he has a new movie and the distributor has asked him to cut it. “[Focus Features] asked me to chill on FB for a month. No problem. See you on the other side, “he wrote.”Card counter opens September 10.
This is not the first time that a distributor has asked Schrader to “relax”. In 2018, the request came from A24, his partner on the critically acclaimed film. First reformed, a film that earned Schrader an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. To avoid jeopardizing a podium piece, Schrader suspended publication from November to February after catching fire for a post that revealed he hoped to cast disgraced actor Kevin Spacey in a new film project. “I believe there are crimes in life but not crimes in art,” Schrader wrote in the deleted post. “Spacey should be punished for all the crimes his real person has created. But not for art. All art is a crime. Punishing him as an artist only diminishes art.
Schrader’s Facebook posts are relished by thousands of fans and followers. A Twitter account – @paul_posts – organizes its reflections for some 14,800 subscribers, but seems to have missed a recent one that preceded the break. Earlier in the day of August 3 – the same day of an explosive report accusing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of misconduct and harassment against female staff members – Schrader asked this question: “Is- is it really so hard not to touch attractive women in your presence if they work for you? Yes it is. The evidence seems conclusive. But this can be done.”
Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread production shutdowns, Schrader used Facebook to call his team in the most delicate way. “Production was shut down five days before the end by my pussied producers because a player of the day from LA had the coronavirus,” he posted. “Myself, I would have shot through hellish rain to finish the film. I’m old and asthmatic, what better way to die than on the job?
Focus Features did not respond to a request for comment.
A version of this story first appeared in the August 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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