Jeff Nichols today launches Bikeriders , a drama he wrote from a book of photographs by Danny Lyon. Inspired by the emotions that a generation of motorcycle riders found in the ’60s, Nichols created a narrative around that and a three character struggle between Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer, surrounded by a great ensemble featuring Norman Reedus and Michael Shannon, a fixture of Nichols films. RELATED: Here Are All the Songs In ‘The Bikeriders’ Shannon starred in his debut, Shotgun Stories, but Nichols found his breakout in Mud , a coming of age drama that starred Matthew McConaughey, and Loving with Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga.
He is among a group of filmmakers who prefer to direct their own scripts, and while his upcoming projects will be bigger in scale, he will come to them a fully formed filmmaker because of the path he has taken. Here, he takes us under the hood of how he developed such a personal and distinctive storytelling style, and explains the profound impact that Billy Bob Thorton’s indie classic Sling Blade had in building confidence in telling stories grounded in his own reality. That film was set in Little Rock, AR, where Nichols grew up, and as you’ll see here, Thornton’s well drawn characters were people he felt he knew.
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