Jon Watts made some news in Malta. The blockbuster filmmaker — responsible for the successful Spider-Man trilogy of Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home — touched down at the Mediterrane Film Festival to headline a storytelling masterclass held Thursday afternoon at the historic Fort Ricasoli, which has hosted such high-profile Hollywood productions as the Gladiator franchise and Napoleon. While Watts did reveal some script tips (be quick and not precious about a first draft, revise the third act more than the first two), the bulk of the conversation (moderated by Collider’s Steven Weintraub) covered the buzzy parts on Watts’ impressive resume. Highlights from the 90-minute conversation are below.
Pandemic-Related Fatigue Led Watts to Drop Out of Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25 from director Matt Shakman. Watts had been on board to helm the Marvel Studios project but dropped out in 2022, after he had delivered the third Spider-Man film. In what marked his first comments about his departure, Watts revealed that “he was out of gas” after No Way Home and needed to take time to recover from a grueling pandemic shoot and post-production process. “The emotional strain of having to go through all of those COVID protocols while also trying to make something creative while also trying to make sure that your cast and crew were all safe — literally people could’ve died if you did things wrong — that and the post-production process was very difficult. When you’re doing [visual effects work], there’s a whole international component to it where you’re using vendors from all over the world, and the supply chain had been interrupted because of COVID. It was really hard to get effects done in a traditional way.”
Instead, he went on to direct Wolfs for Apple, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
He had committed to Fantastic Four in between the second and the third Spider-Man films. When it came time to shift focus to First Steps, he realized, “I am out of gas. The COVID layer on top of making a giant movie layer, I knew I didn’t have what it would’ve taken to make that movie great. I was just out of steam, so I just needed to take some time to recover. Everyone at Marvel totally understood. They had been through it with me as well, so they knew how hard and draining that experience has been; in the end, very satisfying, but at some point, if you can’t do it at the level that you feel like you need to for it to be great, then it’s better to not do it.”
That said, Watts can wait to see what Shakman and crew came up with, admitting that “it’s going to be totally surreal experience for me to go and watch that movie.”
Is There More Star Wars in Watts’ Future?
After conquering Marvel with the Spider-Man franchise, Watts joined Disney and Lucasfilm to create Skeleton Crew starring Jude Law with his best friend and writing partner Christopher Ford. The show delivered one season and Weintraub asked Watts if there is more Star Wars in his future though he resisted offering a definitive answer. “I love Star Wars,” he said with a grin. “I would love to do more Star Wars and I can’t say anything more. I always get in trouble when I do these interviews and I always end up saying something, like, I get in trouble and shouldn’t have said that.” Weintraub noted how so many Star Wars projects get put into development with directors attached that never come to fruition and whether that made Watts hesitant at all with working on something. But the filmmaker said he loves the universe so much and has had such a great time working in his “corner of the Star Wars universe” and using his imagination on such projects that he would do it for free. Pressed about whether that love would produce another Skeleton Crew season, Watts said, “I can’t say exactly what it might be if it were even a thing.”
Watts on Final Destination Fandom and Bloodlines Success
Final Destination: Bloodlines has been a critical and commercial smash, a coup for Watts who is credited as a producer and with a story by credit. Weintraub asked how his involvement came to be, and Watts said that an executive from New Line reached out to his wife, fellow producer Dianne McGunigle, to ask if she knew anyone who would be interested in working on another installment in the horror franchise. She knew someone who lived at her same address. “I love Final Destination. I’ve always been a huge fan,” he said, adding that when the studio asked him for ideas, he was stoked to oblige and offer up an outline for the story. “I genuinely loved those movies.” Because the Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein-directed pic has been such a hit, Weintraub asked if he’s been approached again to help craft another installment. “Everywhere I am, I’m looking around for new Final Destination scenarios,” he quipped, though he added that he hasn’t talked to anyone at New Line just yet about what a sequel to that film might be or could be.
Watts is “Staying Away” From A.I., Prefers “Human Beings That I Work With”
Asked about the use of artificial intelligence in movie-making, Watts was careful to “wade into it too deeply” but did say that people should be wary of labeling everything machine-created. “The first thing that people should think about when it comes to A.I. is they should stop calling everything in A.I.,” he explained. “There’s so many facets to this conversation. It feels like back when people talk about like the internet, ‘How is the internet going to change everything?’ Like, ‘How is World Wide Web going to affect politics? A.I. is a very complex thing that can be used in various different ways. I think the first thing that everyone should do is be a lot more educated on the topic before talking about it rather than oversimplifying it.” That said, Watts continued by saying, “Personally, I don’t mess around with it. I like the human beings that I work with, and I’m not interested in replacing any of them. I look forward to working with human beings. Right now, I’m personally just learning about it, but I’m staying away from it.”
Hollywood is a “Welcoming Creative Place” for Directors
Weintraub asked Watts to detail something surprising about what it means to be a director in Hollywood. “That it’s not a machine that people pick up,” Watts explained. “I think there’s this idea that you come in as a director and there’s all these producers and people behind-the-scenes pulling strings that make you want to do things and force you do things. I haven’t had that experience at all. At least personally, I find that my experience has been like a really welcoming creative place where people are looking to the director to guide the project and have ideas to write and guide the story.”
More Original Films, Less Groundhog Day Remakes
Weintraub then asked Watts if he could change one thing about Hollywood, what would it be? “I guess wish was there were more original movies in theaters, original movies at a medium scale. I think we built a system where you have these giant tentpole movies that are like so expensive that people feel like they have to be based on something that you already recognize,” he said. “They can’t be too risky. And I think that’s created a hole in the middle of just interesting new movies, like we’re still ripping off Groundhog Day. Let’s make new Groundhog Days. Let’s make new medium sized ideas that get everyone excited about going to the movies again.” Weintraub noted how a new original movie like Elio from Pixar underperformed at the box office recently and that leads to less original projects.
“That’s the other thing that I think is stressful in Hollywood right now,” Watts continued. “They’re not given the space in theaters to grow. You used to be able to let these movies start lower and slowly accumulate over time. Now if it isn’t a huge hit immediately, people start talking about it like it’s a huge flop and that’s not necessarily true.”
Watts’ Rule When it Comes to Script Meetings: Start in the Middle
One thing that Watts has learned throughout his time in Hollywood is that when it comes to poring over scripts with studio executives, they usually have to leave for other meetings halfway through. “No one gives enough time for readings,” he said. “People generally only read the first half of the script. ‘Wait, we should get all the way to the end to see if that’s working too.’” That has led him to instituting a rule that they start in the middle. “So we always get to the end and if we like where the end is going, then we go back and start it again.”