[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Greg Kwedar, Writer/ Director/Producer: I’d never met him before or I didn’t have a relationship to him. I didn’t know how that would happen but I just knew that it was supposed to happen.
Film Courage: How many years of working on the project [Sing Sing Movie] did you then attach Colman Domingo as the main actor?
Greg: I mean when a movie’s time is right happens when we finally landed on that it would be a story of this friendship and that breakthrough brought a very complete picture of what that story could look like. I had this revelation with the story and opened up a notebook and wrote in about 10 minutes this treatment that were the kind of major plot points that are now in the movie that you see.
At the end of that in my journal, kind of through instinct, I can’t really explain it, but I wrote Colman Domingo as Divine G into my notebook. We ended up (through my manager) reaching out to his team and just shared this Esquire article. A few months later in February of 2022, his team wanted to set a meeting for us to meet him. So Clint and I got on Zoom with him and he was like I just read the article. I’ve got a million questions for you. We were like We found that article 6 years ago and let us tell you what’s happened since then and told him the story of our journey with the project and the experiences we had and what this new story was going to be. He was listening and he was like You know, I’m realizing at this point in my career there are some projects that are seeking you to teach you something. You don’t know what it is, you just know that it’s trying to and I’m saying yes to that at this point in my life…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
SING SING in Theaters Now!
About:
Greg Kwedar is a writer, director, and producer. He made his feature directorial debut with Transpecos, which premiered in competition at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. He co-wrote and produced Jockey, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition where it won the Special Jury Award for Best Actor (Clifton Collins Jr.). Jockey also won the Audience Award at the AFI Film Festival and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for theatrical release. The film was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and the John Cassavetes Award, and was one of the National Board of Review Top 10 Independent Film of 2021. Kwedar also produced Rising From Ashes, Running with Beto (Winner: SXSW Audience Award 2019), and was co-producer on Ghost Fleet (Telluride & TIFF, 2018). He has spoken to thousands of students across the country and sat on panels about his work at SXSW, Sundance, UNESCO, the United Nations, and more. His latest film Sing Sing, over seven years in the making, which he both directed and co-wrote, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by A24 for theatrical release.
MORE VIDEOS WITH GREG KWEDAR
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