Nathan Fielder Negotiated a ‘Kill Switch’ on ‘You Can See Everything,’ Says Lance Oppenheim: ‘If We Didn’t Find Something, We Could Just Throw It All Away’ — SkimNews
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- A24 agreed before filming of “You Can See Everything” to fund Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, leave them alone and let them abandon it if no distinctive story emerged.
- Nathan Fielder said the kill switch allowed him to deliver nothing if the project did not work out, removing pressure to hold back with Holmes or A24 while looking for an angle.
- Lance Oppenheim said the provision “changed everything,” giving the filmmakers room to explore without anyone looking over them and allowing them to operate from curiosity.
- Elizabeth Holmes was set to go to prison with just 34 days left as Fielder and Oppenheim remained unsure how the documentary would come to fruition.
- The Dropout joined a popular podcast, a best-selling book and an Alex Gibney documentary as existing treatments of Holmes’s scandal before production began, amid Fielder’s concern that the story had been told too many times.
Why it matters: For A24, the pre-production safety net reduced the risk of funding a documentary about a story Fielder worried had already been told too often. With 34 days before Holmes’s prison date, the option to deliver nothing gave Fielder and Oppenheim room to pursue a distinct angle without pressure to force a finished film.
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