Already celebrated at the Oscars—seven nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Lead Actor, with a Best Supporting win for Tilda Swinton—Tony Gilroy’s award-winning drama “Michael Clayton” somehow only grows further in stature each year since its 2007 release.
“’Michael Clayton’ is a masterpiece,” screenwriter Beau Willimon recently said in a forthcoming Playlist interview for the “Star Wars” series “Andor” which he co-wrote on. “I still study it and watch it each year.”
The industry agrees too, and in a recent “Andor” interview with The Playlist (listen to the entire thing below), Gilroy revealed to us that a studio—presumably Warner TV, since WB proper released the film— approached him into turning “Michael Clayton” into a series a few years back, but he refused.
“Yeah, they tried that a couple of times, ‘Can we do a TV show’ [of ‘Clayton’],” Gilroy said, you could practically hear him rolling his eyes at the idea. “Yeah, a ‘Micheal Clayton’ prequel TV show.”
Gilroy said the studio behind “Nightcrawler” tried the same thing with his brother, writer/director Dan Gilroy, but he also turned them down and did so with a little pique.
READ MORE: Dan Gilroy Talks ‘Andor,’ Tyranny, Writing Mon Mothma’s Fiery Speeches, Bix’s Great Sacrifice & More [The Rogue Ones Podcast]
“They tried to do it to Danny too, they tried to do a ‘Nightcrawler’ show,” he admitted. “But we both took the same position. It’s like, really? You want me to take the one perfect thing we’ve done and piss on it? They did everything that they could, but ultimately, I was like, ‘Do what you want to do, but if you do this, I’m going to be a problem for you,’ [laughs] They finally [let it go].”
Looking ahead, Gilroy teased “Behemoth!,” his potential next project starring Oscar Isaac. “I’m dying to make this movie It’s a movie about movie music. It’s a movie about scoring [movies]” he reveale. Girlroy said Isaac plays a cellist child prodigy, third-generation studio musician whose been a nomadic gun for hire for 20 years and returns to L.A. and begins recording again, with each cue triggering flashbacks that tell his story. “The whole movie is surfing on music. And you find out through the flashbacks why he left [LA],” Gilroy explained. “‘Behemoth!’ is the fake name of this huge movie at the end. It has to shoot in L.A. and feature live musicians. It’s very expensive, but a lot of people want to help because it’s shooting in L.A. which is a coral reef about to die.”
What many people don’t realize is “Behemoth!” is rather personal to Gilroy, as he started out as a musician and wanted to be a session guitarist for rock bands before he pivoted back to the screenwriting trade that was in his family [Gilroy’s late father was the playwright and screenwriter Frank D. Gilroy who won a Best Play Tony Award and dramatic Pulitzer Prize for his play “The Subject Was Roses.”]
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“I’ve been obsessed with movie music since they let me have a hand in it,” he remarked, “So I’m really into this. [However], it’s very financially difficult; we’re way more expensive than one would hope, so, that’s the trick, but I’m still hopeful and I’d love to make it.”
Rumors have it that Searchlight Pictures have already greenlit “Behemoth!” but no official word has been released yet. Fingers crossed. Listen to the entire podcast conversation below.