Every year, a number of films come out of the woodwork to challenge for industry awards and year-end recognition, and in 2021, ’s was perhaps the ultimate example of this trajectory. The Neon-released pic about Nicolas Cage’s reclusive truffle forager subverted the past decade’s uptick of revenge films, ending in an empathetic gesture and emotional appeal rather than a bang. The aching drama reminded this town that Cage is still a force to be reckoned with, making Sarnoski, in turn, a filmmaker to watch and meet with over bottled water.
One person who certainly kept tabs on the situation was franchise co-mastermind John Krasinski. He eventually invited the Wisconsin native to bring his sensibility to — a prequel depicting how the alien invasion initially played out in New York City. “I was actively avoiding big studio movies just because it’s become a little bit of a trope where an indie director moves to some big studio movie, blah, blah, blah.
But [John Krasinski] came to me and said, ‘What would happen if you brought some of that touch to the universe?'” Sarnoski tells . “It just felt like something I couldn’t say no to. And a lot of that came from Krasinski being willing to say, ‘Hey, this is a Michael Sarnoski film.
Make it how you want to make it. We want a different vision in this universe so that all of these movies don’t start feeling the same.’ So I just couldn’t shake it.
” Sarnoski supplanted another acclaimed filmmaker in , who exited.
