The Big Picture · Interview
March 2, 2018/ 26 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean Fennessey talks to director Francis Lawrence about Red Sparrow, his fourth film with Jennifer Lawrence.
7 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
In conversation
The subject. A hard-R spy thriller adapted from ex-CIA officer Jason Matthews's novel; the Ringer office took to calling it 'sex spies.' Lawrence pitched studio president Emma Watts on an R rating over the phone and changed the book's ending. He pushes back on calling it an action movie, saying that's a common misread.
The first of his films with Lawrence, a role he inherited coming onto the series' second installment.
Part of the roughly five straight years he spent inside the franchise.
He was in post on the last Mockingjay when Fox sent him the Red Sparrow book.
His example of not assuming an audience knows anything: a quarter of critics thought he'd left the city's power on because he never showed Will Smith kick-starting the pantry generators.
His stated favorite film of all time; he'd caught it on TV the day before and sat through the whole thing again when asked for the last great thing he'd seen.
His pick for a recent great, another Paul Thomas Anderson film, a director he says inspires him.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Spy films, name-checked Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
R-rated studio hits cited to the studio Gone GirlLoganDeadpool
Steve Knight scripts Eastern PromisesLocke
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Peaky BlindersWestworldThe BachelorBachelor Winter GamesBachelor in ParadiseThe Challenge
Podcasts The WatchBachelor Party
In development (unmade) Battlestar Galactica (Lawrence's mooted movie)Women's Battalion of Death (Maria Bochkareva project)Untitled Steve Knight sci-fi series for Apple
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