“For 3 hours I was making that movie” Tony Gilroy exclaimed about “Nightcrawler,” his brother Dan Gilroy’s electric and disturbing serio-comic look at a sociopathic success story. Gilroy, the director of “Michael Clayton,” “Duplicity,” and “The Bourne Legacy," was on “The Moment,” filmmaker Brian Koppelman’s (“Solitary Man”) excellent new podcast discussing myriad topics, but mainly the creative process and screenwriting (Gilroy began as a screenwriter and made his name writing the ‘Bourne’ trilogy among many, many, many other projects). So when Gilroy first read his brother’s screenplay, he immediately thought this was his next directorial effort. Until his brother told him that he had intended to direct it himself. Fine, Gilroy took a producer credit and helped his sibling bring the movie to the screen. So what’s next for the filmmaker?
Well, he’s decidedly left the ‘Bourne’ world and it doesn’t look like he’ll be coming back for either the Jeremy Renner or Matt Damon version that are both currently brewing. But most assumed he was done after ‘Ultimatum,’ and look how that turned out, so never say never. But in the meantime? Well, two things (and a third that looks like it’s gone away). For one, Gilroy told Koppelman that he is acting as a consultant on the third season of on Netflix’s “House Of Cards” from writer Beau Willimon. “It’s just so much hard work,” Gilroy said, discussing the nature and pace of TV. “I work on ‘House Of Cards’ now as a consultant and I watch what Beau is going through and oh my god, you’ve got to be really young and strong and into it.”
Considering many of us felt “House Of Cards” lost its way in season two, this sounds great. Now if only we could get Gilroy to actually write the show. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Meanwhile, it also appears that the Gilroy brothers’ “Monsieur De Paris” TV project is dead, or at least not happening for the moment. “Danny and I took a huge project out last year,” he told Koppelman about a TV gig that he did not name. “That you almost made…” Koppelman said, sounding like he knew the back story. “We had an offer for it, but it had to be perfect,” Gilroy explained. “We were very persnickety about how it had to be and it was a huge life-changing thing and very daunting.”
Of course Gilroy didn’t name the project and we suppose it could be anything, but “Monsieur De Paris”—set in the 1930s Paris and chronicling the story of the official guillotine executioner of France—is the only reported TV project the brothers were working on together, so that’s likely the one in question.
Lastly, Gilroy said he is working on a feature-length script, but failed to share any kind of details at all. “Duplicity 2”? Not a chance, but whatever he’s cooking up, we’ll hopefully find out about it soon.