Mark Millhaud has a unique gift: telling stories that show empathy for the wealthy as they treat the world as their playground.
“We, of course, recognize that we ourselves are flawed and we can’t help but see, if not the same bank balance, some level of ourselves in those characters in our follies,” said the Emmy-winning executive producer of “Succession” and director, “Filter’s Edition in November 18th.
In the ultra-black comedy, Anya Taylor-Joy plays a woman who joins her boyfriend (Nicholas Hoult) on an exclusive food trip to a remote island, where an obsessive chef (Ralph Fiennes) cooks a meal visitors won’t forget. . While there is criticism of the film’s more clueless characters, Melhaud says it was crucial to understand the diners, played by a sharp ensemble of character actors including Judith Light, John Leguizamo and Rob Yang.
“It was important to me that we get to have fun and enjoy these characters and their excesses and consumerism,” he says. “But also, we’re going to get to spend a very intense few hours with these characters. I wanted the audience to do as I did reading the script: judge them at first, but then question it somewhat.”
He worked hard to develop the right mix of comedy and thriller, blending satire with an anthropological sense for the characters. Also central: making the restaurant’s kitchen as specific to the food world as possible. He read an early script by Dominique Crane, the French chef whose restaurant Atelier Crane earned three Michelin stars, making her a collaborative partner in the film. She helped design the menu, train the film’s kitchen crew, and educate Fiennes on the mindset of a dynamic chef.
“The key to the film was the literal element of how Asala reflects a world where people are real foodies,” says Milhaud. “I wanted to respect them and feel authentic. My worst-case scenario would be people saying, ‘Well, that’s never going to happen. Why do they do that then? So there was a level of obsession around that.”
For the next season of Succession, Milhaud can’t spoil anything, but he’s optimistic fans will be enthralled by another round of Roy family intrigue.
“We’ll make it a musical in Season 4, I hope,” he quipped, laughing. I’ll tell you about my experience with Season 4 so far. We’re very much a part of filming it, and I had the same experience after Season 2, and also with Season 3, where it was really well received. So William Earl Jesse [Armstrong] And the whole team and I are going into next season just paranoid, afraid of not wanting to lower the bar. I feel really good about what we’re shooting. That concern has just fallen off my shoulders, because I look at the early cuts as we work in post-production and I think we’re leveling up. I feel really good because it is a good “Caliphate”.
Another giant, HBO directed by Melhaud, returned several episodes of “Game of Thrones” via the previous series, “House of the Dragon.” Melod said diverse At the red carpet premiere of “The Menu” in New York City, it will be a game to return to the world of George R.R. Martin.
He said, “I like it.” “I’ve been pretty busy with Caliphate and List, but maybe I’d love to rejoin that gang.”
Additional reporting by Ethan Shanfield.
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