How do you compress 100 years of boundary-pushing filmmaking, behind-the-scenes drama and technological advancement into four hour-long installments?
That was the challenge posed to Leslie Iwerks and her new documentary, “100 Years of Warner Bros.: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of.” Iwerks, a unique documentary filmmaker responsible for Disney’s amazing “The Imagineering Story,” commissioned Morgan Freeman to tell the story of a small studio that would soon become the leader of Hollywood and its ever-growing film production slate. Will conquer, which allowed the people to flee to another. Hold a mirror up to the world or our own.
TheWrap talked to Iwerks about how he turned a sprawling, century-long tale of Hollywood myth-making into highly digestible episodes, focused on storytelling rather than corporate turmoil, and what his favorite Warner Bros. movie is (hint : This is not a doctor). Iwerks was in Cannes at the time, where the film was being thrown out of competition.
Where did this project come from? And what was it like wrapping your mind around such a big subject?
You know, it came to me after “The Imagining Story” came to me. I met with an executive from Warner Bros. and they asked if I would be interested in doing a multi-episode show for 100 years of Warner Bros. I said of course, I was thrilled. And he also asked if I would do a documentary series on the history of DC Comics. Both projects immediately went into development. And then DC going first. And then Warner Bros. came in the middle of DC. We were really engaged for a long time and immersed in this great, rich history of Warner Bros. this was good.
I was really honored to tell the story. But to answer your question, how do I keep my head around 100 years of movies, it was definitely a challenge. I think I spent part of post-COVID watching Warner Bros. movies, which is kind of funny. I had a real purpose in looking at these films and really studying them and trying to understand what was a connective tissue or line through over 100 years of film. And where do they fit into the buckets or themes. But once we really started to understand the history of the studios through the eyes of the executives and the different regimes, that really helped clarify the types of movies they were making. And because of those movies. And the reason he had the vision for the films was that he would be flagging off. Every episode has its own logic or theme of what they went through and how the various executive leadership steered the ship.
It must have been fascinating to make this documentary during a crazy regime change at Warner Bros. How did that kind of process affect your process?
I think. I think the question really becomes, are you stuck in executive turnover? Or do you focus on what was really going on in the world at the time and how that affected movies and theatres? And so COVID was really more of a story than it was about infections of various officials. Because that was happening industry-wide, pretty much. There was a lot of shuffling during that time, with a lot of studios going through a lot of turmoil.
And like any technology, things change when you innovate, like with the sound technology that Warner Bros. innovated. This became a tectonic shift for the entire industry, which had to adapt and move completely from talkies to sound. Warner Bros., you also know, was a huge innovator with the DVD market and really pioneered DVD technology at a time when a lot of other studios were wary of it and were asking how it would affect the theatrical business model ? And not only did Warner Bros. convince these other studios, but the DVD itself became a bigger money maker than theatrical movies.
The way I looked at it all, it was 100 years to go through the ups and downs of not only technological change, but economic change in the world, cultural change in the world. These movies either made you think about things you never thought about before or they took you into territory that was a little scary, not talked about, that was forbidden. Or they took stories that jumped out of the headlines, they were everyday stories that you might not believe were real. Warner Bros. loved to take these real life stories that reflect our own humanity and transport you into those worlds. They weren’t just make-believe or fantasy or fun, although they did that too, but they were also like Errol Flynn’s “Robin Hood” with a flamboyance, these movies also always had a gritty to them, they had There was always a social edge, or a social component that forced you to think beyond the face of actual action or fiction.
The documentary is being released as part of the Warner Bros. 100 initiative. How do you thread that needle of giving something that they will be happy with that also serves as part of this larger corporate priority? It seems uncertain.
I never felt unsure about this film.
I think it’s easy to see that if you go right, there are all these different changes of leadership here over the last decade, which is probably the most intriguing. However, the way I look at it is that you have to look at it through the lens of the time. And you could argue that there used to be all kinds of turmoil and corporate drama in the ’20s and ’30s that we’re not even going into.
But you really want to look at the big picture here and say, what is it that Warner Bros. is known for? And what were the highs and lows? And where are the emotional moments? And where are the things that inspire them to achieve something beyond others? What made them different? What made them unique? And there are a lot of movies out there that were just that. And there were a lot of films which were okay in a way. And people are honest about it.
What makes a good doc, to me, isn’t about whether it’s supported by studios. But he gave me complete autonomy to tell the story. Not that there weren’t notes, but they weren’t like, “You have to do this” or “You have to do that.” All the notes were really good. And I really enjoyed working with Warner Bros. And I worked with a great group of historians who knew a lot about Warner Bros. history – much more than I did. And I picked their brains for months and we really ended up putting together movies that were really going to talk about this whole 100-year story. This also helped a lot. And then you just have to keep whipping it. how we did it
What is your favorite Warner Bros movie?
This is a good question. I’m probably a “flaming saddle”. i love it I was asking my crew members,If you were to work on any Warner Bros. movie in history, if you were on set, and you were there every day, you could see, you know, be a fly on the wall, what would it be?, And a lot of people said they wanted to do a Kubrick film. And I thought that was interesting. It’s clear that people want to see how he did it, but I’d probably say “the flaming saddle”. I mean, how fun would that be?
The first two parts of “100 Years of Warner Bros.: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of” are out now on Max. The other two parts stream on Thursday (June 1).
