Filmmaker Brady Corbet has confirmed that his new 3.5-hour epic biographical drama “The Brutalist” was shot for just $10 million – around 1/10th of what a major studio film costs. “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux” director’s new film has been hailed as a masterpiece during the Fall Film Festival circuit and with 56 reviews counted it currently sits at 96% (8.
9/10) on . A24 bought the over three hour film which was shot on VistaVision 35mm film stock before being finished on 70mm. The plan is said to be for a major Oscar push.
Earlier reports suggested the budget was as low as $6 million, but the $10M figure has seemingly been confirmed by Corbet himself whilst speaking about keeping the budget tight with . He tells the trade: “We cut every corner we could to make sure that every single cent was on screen. It was a Herculean effort, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, because it was just years and years of essentially working for free.
” That makes it one of the most cost-effective but impressive-looking films of this type since “Godzilla: Minus One,” which was made for only $15 million. Corbet spent seven years struggling to cobble together financing with the project collapsing multiple times before finally being made in Hungary. He adds he never dreamed of doing the film on a bigger budget as there’d be too much compromise: I never thought, ‘I wish I had $30 million more’.
There’s a lot of strings that come with that kind of money..