Curry Barker, Alex Gibney, Siân Heder, Rachel Morrison & Bassam Tariq On Taking Chances & Conquering Obstacles – Deadline & DGA’s Art Of Directing At TIFF — SkimNews
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- Alex Gibney revealed Elon Musk refused an interview for his new documentary and called him "a douche" in a tweet, prompting Gibney's team to production-design and animate an avatar of Musk built from existing audio and video footage
- Siân Heder's Apple film "Being Heumann" — about disability-rights activist Judy Heumann who led 100 people to storm a federal building in 1977 — required building accessible trailers, hair and makeup trucks, and "Ramp Villages" from scratch for its 12 disabled leads and 60 disabled background actors
- Curry Barker shot a 130-page Focus Features/Blumhouse horror script in 26 days while directing and starring in "Anything But Ghosts," ignoring his manager's and Zach Kregger's advice to cut 30 pages
- Rachel Morrison fought the studio trend of tax-incentive-state shooting by filming the Prime Video romantic drama "Love of Your Life" — starring Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre, Gabriel Basso and Patrick Schwarzenegger — across London, Portugal, New Orleans and Boston
- Bassam Tariq completed the Mahershala Ali action movie "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother" — about an American Muslim hitman — in 30 days with five action set pieces; it debuts in cinemas September 25, while Heder's film hits Apple TV November 13 after a one-week theatrical run starting November 6
Why it matters: Siân Heder's revelation that only one accessible trailer exists in all of North America — while her Apple film Being Heumann cast 72 disabled actors — exposes how underbuilt Hollywood remains for inclusive productions. Her team's from-scratch approach to ramps, trailers, and accessibility staffing now becomes a de facto template other productions will have to follow when casting disabled talent at scale.
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