Mendes Feels Effects Of Recession

SAM MENDES insists Hollywood movies are now “almost impossible to make” as a result of the global financial crisis.

The director admits the economic downturn means leading film studios will struggle to finance “serious” movies like his 2008 hit Revolutionary Road, which starred his wife
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mendes reveals Dreamworks has “basically folded and rebuilt itself in another form” and Paramount Vantage “doesn’t exist any more”.

And he is adamant dramas and period movies are suffering most: “They’re serious films, they have something to say, they’re the ones that are almost impossible to
make… the movies in the middle are almost getting squeezed out, which is the big dramas, the movies that do cost a bit of money… with well-known actors in them.”

As a result of the recession, Mendes has been careful about the way he now makes movies - he created forthcoming picture, Away We Go, “very cheap” as he hired
smaller name stars and no “serious money” was spent.