Tim Blake Nelson & Sam Waterston talk about 'Anesthesia' & mention Kristen with AOLBuild

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Tim Blake Nelson and Sam Waterston start talking about Kristen from 13 minutes.

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Video: Tim Blake Nelson & talks about 'Anesthesia' & Kristen at a Q&A w/ Sam Waterston for SAG

Tim Blake Nelson mentions Kristen at 9.50mins.

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Audio: Tim Blake Nelson talks about 'Anesthesia' and mentions Kristen

Tim Blake Nelson is the writer, director, producer and co-star of the new film “Anesthesia,” which following a successful run on the film festival circuit opens in theaters and on demand this Friday.  

We discussed the general theme of the film, what it’s like to be involved in every aspect of a film’s production, and the message Tim hopes we’ll take away from the movie.  Tim also talked about the strong cast, especially Kristen Stewart, whom he calls a “fantastic actor” who has a “Jodie Foster-like career ahead of her.”

Listen to 'Anesthesia' director Tim Blake Nelson's interview here. 

He mentions Kristen from 3.17mins.

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Video: Tim Blake Nelson mentions Kristen at the Q&A at Tribeca Film Festival - 23 and 25 April 2015

At the 2nd screening of 'Anesthesia' at the Tribeca Film Festival on 23 April.

At the 4th screening of 'Anesthesia' at the Tribeca Film Festival on 25 April.


Tim Blake Nelson mentions Kristen at 3:26 minutes.

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Tim Blake Nelson talks about 'Anesthesia' and Kristen + FIRST clip (no Kristen)

While studio executives often gripe about the gamble in mounting dramas, Nelson has a knack for getting his feature ambitions off the ground, topped off with a number of notable prestigious actors. Some indie filmmakers have to wait years to get their films funded, or have to grin and bear an actor’s unavailability before rolling, however, Nelson admits, “I have not found it incredibly difficult to get my movies financed with one exception, my project Seasons of Dust. At a certain point it seemed to be financed, but then fell apart, but I intend to make it. I have a sense of how to get my indie projects off the ground.”

Nelson doesn’t wince at the industry’s whining about dramas. For Nelson, no indie drama is stigmatized when it come to financing. “I think at the right budget with the right cast, and the right vision you can make a movie. It’s not necessarily going to make a lot of money, but none of us are making money as we work for scale. But when we get our movies made, we all end up subsidizing because the market is so squeezed.”

His latest film Anesthesia was funded from all private equity, “a combination of somewhat sophisticated movie financing and first-time investors” says Nelson giving a shout out to his producers Julie Buck and Josh Hetzler who handled the money-end. Anesthesia was funded before Nelson secured his cast which doesn’t happen that often in the indie finance world . “My financiers knew because of my track record that I would deliver a good ensemble, and that made them feel safe about their investment,” says the director/actor.

In general, Nelson makes his films for seven figures. His first film Eye of God was made below seven. “My attitude is you have to make the movie for a price where investors have a good shot at making a little bit of money.  All of us working on the film are subsidizing it.  I’m not asking investors to do that. I feel very responsible, grateful and beholden to the people who invest in my movies.”

Anesthesia takes place over a 24-hour period and follows a Columbia University professor, Walter Zarrow (Sam Waterson) who is mugged on his apartment doorsteps. The film follows the chain of events that triggered the attack, while bringing together a number of people in Walter’s life including his son (played by Nelson), his daughter-in-law (Jessica Hect), a troubled student (Kristen Stewart), a cheating spouse (Corey Stoll) and a drug addict (K. Todd Freeman). Glenn Close, Michael Kenneth Williams and Gretchen Mol round out the cast.  Even though Manhattan has been a safer place since the Mayor Rudy Giuliani era, Nelson says that muggings “happen near the Columbia University area. I live on 104th Street and this film is about my neighborhood. While you can walk around New York and feel safer than than you did during the ’70s and ’80s there are still areas where you can get mugged in the city, like any city in the world.”

Casting is also a painless process for Nelson, thanks to the actors, as well as their reps, that he has gotten to know over the years. Not to mention, Nelson isn’t above cold-calling a manager or two to get who he wants. His golden rule is “I don’t go out with a script unless I know the roles are going to appeal to the sorts of actors that will attract financing.”  When it came to landing Twilight actress Stewart in his film, “it wasn’t challenging at all. I just texted her and sent her the script. She read it and texted me back ‘Yes'”, says Nelson who is an acquaintance of Stewart’s. The cast for Anesthesia was assembled in two and half months, with casting director Avy Kaufman leading the charge, particularly with the younger actors.  Nelson didn’t know Waterson, rather met him over lunch after being pursued by the actor’s manager Keith Addis.

In the past, Nelson has landed such top-shelf talent as Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon, Kerri Russell and Richard Dreyfus for his 2009 directorial Leaves of Grass about an Ivy League professor who returns to his Oklahoma hometown, only to contend with his pot-growing twin brother.  For his 2001 Holocaust film Grey Zone, Nelson landed Harvey Keital, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne and Mira Sorvino. It grossed $518K at domestic B.O. for Lionsgate. Nelson’s highest grossing directorial is his millennial version of William Shakespeare’s Othello, entitled O which made $16M stateside for Lionsgate in 2001 and starred Josh Hartnett, Mekhi Phifer and Julia Stiles.

However, Nelson emphasizes again, “I will not send out a script that is going to get passed on. I’ll sit on it and write for months and months. I know when it’s not ready. I know when a script is not working. I’m very patient. You only have one chance for actors and their reps to read your material, and I let folks know that if I’m sending out a script, it’s well worth reading. Even lesser known actors can be quite choosy.”

As a filmmaker though, one thing Nelson is picky about is that “I still want my movies to be seen in movie theaters”. While Nelson understands indie distributors’ needs to make their release models work with theatrical-VOD day and date; it’s not an auteur’s ideal deal.

Says Nelson, “When we are all making the movie, the production designer, the DP — we’re all thinking of our film for the big screen where a lot of strangers have gathered for a collective experience with great sound and beautiful, immersive colors. That’s what I’m still after. I’m less interested in home viewing experience when it comes to film.”

In addition to its premiere, Anesthesia is also showing at the Regal Battery Park Stadium on Thursday, April 23; Friday, April 24; and Saturday, April 25. UTA and Gray, Krauss, Stratford, Sandler Des Rochers are handling sales.

Source: Deadline

Tim Blake Nelson talks about 'Anesthesia' with Indiewire

What's your film about in 140 characters or less?

A disparate group of New Yorkers coalesces around the mugging of a Columbia professor on the eve of his retirement.

Now what's it REALLY about?

How each of us finds some way to anesthetize him or herself in a society plagued by callous and often blameless self-interest, and whether there's room any more for real introspection.

Biggest challenge in completing this film?

Shooting on location in New York City, often at night, for very little money, and with scant resources.

What do you want the Tribeca audience to take away from your film?

We would love for them to leave the theater seeing the city of New York and their fellow New Yorkers in a slightly different light.

What cameras did you shoot on?

Alexa.

Did you crowdfund? If so, via what platform. If not, why?

We did not crowd fund. We found private equity based on script and cast.

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Tim Blake Nelson talks about 'Anesthesia'

Recently wrapped on his latest film, Anasthesia – which Nelson wrote, directed and also stars in – Nelson stopped by Ringling to meet the students, share stories and guest-instruct, workshopping scenes with budding artists. Before sitting with students, Nelson took a moment with SRQ to talk Anasthesia, the importance of education and why he loves James Franco.

However, it was in reaching back to his days as a student in graduate school in New York that Nelson found inspiration for Anasthesia. Starring Sam Waterston (Law & Order, The Newsroom) and Kristen Stewart (Twilight, Snow White and the Huntsman), the film follows the intersection of strangers brought together when a college professor is attacked and seeks refuge in a nearby apartment building, ringing buzzers and hoping for help. As a student, Nelson lived in a very similar building.

“I would sit often and just listen to what was going on out in the street and I wondered what would happen if one witnessed some violent episode over one of those intercoms,” said Nelson. It’s not an autobiographical film, but Nelson won’t deny that much of his own life did go into the story. Grown and a father, he wanted to explore marriage and family, just as he wanted to honestly reflect New York, where he made his home for 20 years. Still, he was careful not to force anything. “The story just built itself,” said Nelson. “That’s the way I write – I choose a central event and build from there.”

Nelson hopes to release Anasthesia in New York City in the coming months.

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