Matt Johnson on Tony, Feeling Trapped, Safdie Advice
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- Matt Johnson appeared on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss 'Tony,' starring Dominic Sessa as a 20-year-old Anthony Bourdain working in a Cape Cod kitchen; A24 expands the film nationwide on Friday, August 21
- Johnson said the planned, performance-driven shoot of 'Tony' — his first American film — left him feeling 'trapped,' contrasting with his usual run-and-gun pseudodocumentary approach built on improvisation, story reinvention, and shooting with friends in Toronto
- Johnson is developing a 'Magic: The Gathering' studio trilogy based on the collectible card game he grew up obsessed with, with Vulture reporting he would inherit aspects of Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' production apparatus as that trilogy concludes
- Josh Safdie offered Johnson the working principle that 'my job is to transfer enthusiasm from myself to the other people making this movie' — framing Johnson said matched his own instincts exactly, and the two are now collaborating on a comedy about the TSA
- Johnson praised Safdie — calling the 'Marty Supreme' director 'the best young filmmaker in the world' — and specifically credited Safdie's ability to preserve his production ethos as his films grew in scale
- Johnson, who recently turned 40, said every film he's made has been 'about a bunch of young men making a movie' and conceded: 'until I have some new experiences, I'm afraid that's all you're going to get from me'
Why it matters: For indie directors eyeing bigger budgets, Johnson's admission that shooting the scripted 'Tony' left him feeling 'trapped' captures a real crossroads between his guerrilla roots and studio scale; inheriting Villeneuve's 'Dune' apparatus for a 'Magic: The Gathering' trilogy shows he's consciously borrowing Safdie's playbook of slowly building an infrastructure brick by brick.
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