Miramax Presents The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. This week’s subject is Bill Pohlad, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who just saw the release of his second consecutive film he directed based on a real music tale. Dreamin’ Wild is the story of Donnie Emerson (Casey Affleck), a tyro who saw early success, but whose dreams just didn’t come true. Until years later, when his signature song was played on the radio and caught fire. Pressed to be who he was as a youngster, his comeback story is plagued with hopes dashed, and mixed in is the complications of his family, who helped his initial rise. Pohlad made this movie after directing the superb Love & Mercy, the story of genius Beach Boys songwriter/singer Brian Wilson, who needed to be brought back from the Svengali-like hold exerted by his shrink.
Pohlad still runs River Road Entertainment, and has been a producer and distributor of the cornerstone prestige films Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years A Slave, Into the Wild, The Tree of Life and numerous others. Find out how Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now paved showed him the way.