Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 20 april 2017

Denise Di Novi wants to be

called a ‘female director’

LINDSEY BAHR “I love to see female char- “I’m not snobby. I just love
AP Film Writer acters put in really complex movies. I love every kind of
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Men situations and overcome movie. I respect every kind
pick the movies. Women them. They make mistakes of movie. I don’t think one
only go to movies that their and they’re flawed and kind of movie is better than
husbands choose. And they’re crazy. I like the full another and I love to pro-
men definitely don’t see spectrum, the messiness of duce every kind of movie,”
movies about women. the female experience,” Di Di Novi said. “I’m a ‘why
Director Denise Di Novi arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of That was the prevailing line Novi said. “I found it inspir- not’ kind of person.”
“Unforgettable” at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, April 18, of thought at Hollywood ing when I was young and Di Novi doesn’t bristle at
2017. studios not too long ago. I wanted to make a movie the “female filmmaker”
Associated Press Denise Di Novi, a prolific like that.” conversation either. She
producer behind every- Di Novi knew she didn’t embraces the distinction
thing from “Batman Re- want to mimic other di- and believes her chance
turns” to “The Sisterhood of rectors, though. One thing to direct this film is the re-
the Traveling Pants,” heard she’s learned from produc- sult of the heightened talk
it for years when she was ing is that bringing your au- around the glaring disparity
starting out. Back then, she thentic point of view to a in the business.
mostly felt lucky to be one project is always going to “I wish I could have worked
of the few female produc- be better than homage. with more women direc-
ers around. Directing didn’t “She was a natural,” said tors.
seem like a possibility. In producer Ravi Mehta. “It There was an assumption
fact, Di Novi said, it felt “in- felt as if she’d been direct- that women can only di-
surmountable.” ing her entire life.” rect movies about women
Now, nearly 30 years af- Di Novi found her way into and if it’s not about wom-
ter she made a name for producing almost by acci- en, they’re usually not on
herself as the producer of dent. the list,” Di Novi said. “I
“Heathers,” Di Novi is mak- She started out as a journal- want women coming up to
ing her directorial debut ist in Toronto, but would get see that there are female
with the thriller “Unforget- in trouble for personalizing directors and it is possible
table.” Out Friday, the film every story, often ending and there is a path.”
is about a woman driven to up in tears. She laughs that She’s already got another
madness when her ex-hus- she got fired from every job directing project lined up,
band brings a new fiancée she’d ever had until she “Highway One,” for Am-
home. started working on movies. blin Entertainment, which
Starring Katherine Heigl as She tried out publicity and will go into production in
the Hitchcockian blonde screenwriting but it was September. It’s about an
unwilling to let her ex, Geoff producing that stuck. Afghanistan veteran who
Stults, move on, and Rosa- Her work on the still shock- goes into “warrior soldier
rio Dawson as the girlfriend ingly dark high school com- mode” when her daughter
with a traumatic past, Di edy “Heathers” put her on is kidnapped.
Novi had been developing the map and led to a fruit- Di Novi is optimistic that
the script to produce when ful meeting with Tim Burton. things are changing. Stu-
Warner Bros. suggested The bonded over feeling dios and producers, she
that she direct. like outsiders in Hollywood, said, do seem committed
“I’d been champion- and went on to make films to hiring more women for
ing women directors for like “Edward Scissorhands,” directing jobs in movies
years and speaking about ‘’Batman Returns,” ‘’Ed and television.
the need for more and Wood” and “Nightmare There is work to be done,
thought, ‘I should put my Before Christmas.” however, and until 50
money where my mouth In her over 40 credits, Di percent of movies are di-
is and direct a movie,” Di Novi has dabbled in all rected by women, Di Novi
Novi said. genres from superhero pics, thinks it’s important to keep
She also loved the genre. to classic literary adapta- talking about it.
In the films of Alfred Hitch- tions like Gillian Armstrong’s “There is still a stereotype
cock and Adrian Lyne, Di “Little Women,” modern that women will only go to
Novi liked that the women rom-coms like “Crazy, Stu- women’s movies,” Di Novi
were always especially in- pid Love,” and everything said. Most expected “Un-
teresting and layered. in between. forgettable” to be in that
category, but Di Novi hap-
pily reports that it’s tracking
at 50/50.
“Some of that is the genre.
It’s scary and thrilling. But
I think that there’s a fas-
cination with the female
characters,” she said. “And
men are just as fascinated
as women.”q