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DGA QUARTERLY 7 PHOTO: DAN DOPERALSKI Dear Members: As a fairly new employee of the Directors Guild of America, what strikes me most is the cross-gen- erational influence members have on each other. Unlike a lot of organizations, it's not a one-way street of elders passing on their wisdom to relative novices. The inspiration flows both ways. Hence, we have Sam Mendes, the subject of our DGA Interview, paying his respects to Stanley Kubrick and Barry Jenkins with equal enthusi- asm, or in the case of the recent DGA Awards, 37 first-time nominees on a level playing field with established vets. Whatever entrenched sense of entitlement that may exist in the entertainment business was not in evidence for at least one bright, shining evening. Within the pages of this Quarterly, old, current and new masters share the spotlight. Nevertheless, tradition—and even nostalgia—is hard to shake, with directors like Bill Condon and Jon Favreau acknowledging the power of vintage classics as a foundation for reinterpreting timeless tales; or Patty Jenkins tipping her hat to Richard Donner's Superman as a springboard for bringing her own comic book hero to life. And it's no coincidence that David O. Russell cites Singin' in the Rain and West Side Story as references for his riveting dance sequence from Silver Linings Playbook, or that Sofia Coppola and her production designer Anne Ross looked to such critics' darlings as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Tess in designing the look and color palette of Coppola's upcoming The Beguiled, itself a remake of a Don Siegel film from 1971. In the television realm, we're treated to a reunion of sorts with four alums from the thirtysomething cast talking about how they parlayed their experiences on that seminal primetime series into prolific directing careers. We're also given an inside look at the pressure-cooker world of cooking competition shows from the directors who choreo- graph the action and help stoke the drama. And speaking of drama, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood talk about how real-life events add both intensity and authenticity to their new series, Shots Fired, which shows how the shooting of an unarmed teenager by a policeman can rever- berate far beyond the act itself into a macrocosmic study of racial strife in America. There's more, of course, but as you'll hopefully discover as we did in putting it all together, the beauty is in the details. Sincerely yours, Steve Chagollan schagollan@dga.org Steve Chagollan Editor in Chief Nancy Duckworth Art Director Jovita Dominguez Photo Researcher Brandon Kyle Goco Becca Nadler Editorial Assistants Tricia Noble Design Associate Carmel Dagan Copy Editor Mike Chapman Assistant Copy Editor Darrell L. Hope Editor, www.dga.org Contributing Writers Adam Dawtrey, Rob Feld, Whitney Friedlander, Michael Goldman, David Heuring, Anthony Kaufman, Rick Kissell, Thomas McLean, Margy Rochlin, Emily Zemler Publications Committee Paris Barclay, Chair Michael Apted, John Badham, Cameron Crowe, Mark Frost, Pamela Fryman, Randal Kleiser, Donald Petrie, Gene Reynolds, Arlene Sanford, Thomas Schlamme, Kevin Sullivan Print Production IngleDodd Media (310) 207-4410 Advertising IngleDodd Media (310) 207-4410 DGA@IngleDodd.com www.IngleDoddMedia.com Editorial Offices 7920 Sunset Blvd., 5th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90046-0907 (310) 289-5333 • Fax (310) 289-2029 dgaquarterly@dga.org Subscription Information (310) 289-5333 NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION Curtis Circulation Company (201) 634-7400 DGA Q U A R T E R L Y E D I TO R' S L ETT E R