{"id":609287,"date":"2026-09-23T14:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609287\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:20:08","slug":"brad-pitt-says-indie-cinema-feels-as-strong-as-in-the-90s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609287\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Pitt Says Indie Cinema “Feels as Strong as in the ’90s”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAhead of what will likely be a rabid San Sebastian Film Festival<\/a> premiere, Brad Pitt<\/a> joined his Heart of the Beast<\/a> director David Ayer<\/a> for a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tJournalists and attendees swarmed the room at the town\u2019s Kursaal Theater, where a jovial Pitt made his first San Sebastian appearance since the 2009 presentation of Inglourious Basterds alongside filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. He delighted reporters by touching on man\u2019s bond with dogs, the consolidation of Hollywood and the current independent film climate.<\/p>\n

\n\tPitt was swiftly asked about his producing outfit and what he makes of the indie film landscape. The star was buoyant: \u201cI think the current setup has actually been really conducive to independent [films], in a really cool way because more eyes are getting on these projects. It feels even as strong as in the \u201990s,\u201d he said, before asking Ayer for his own opinion.<\/p>\n

\n\tAyer chimed in: \u201cI think there\u2019s new pipelines of discovery out there, new auteurs. We have people coming in off YouTube or the internet,\u201d he said, referencing young horror directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, \u201cbut now we\u2019re seeing what I believe may be the ascent of it, as we find filmmakers in that space, but also as young people matriculate into the industry. They have much different tastes, and they grew up on a different sense of media than we did. So I\u2019m actually very excited about the future and future opportunities and future stories that are going to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPitt was asked straight out of the gate about the consolidation of Hollywood, with the Paramount-WBD merger looming<\/a> and in a climate where the streamers reign supreme. \u201cWhat I love about what streaming has brought to us is so many more opportunities for actors, writers, directors,\u201d replied Pitt. \u201cAnd because of that, we have a greater plethora of really interesting stories and really interesting talents, and that\u2019s been amazing. Of course, we had a dip \u2014\u00a0and we\u2019re seeing that come back; we\u2019re seeing the communal experience being embraced again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cBut what happened is movies got so expensive. We always talk about this. The very big tentpole movies were able to recoup, and the more independent, lower-budget, or anything in the middle ground \u2014\u00a0anything from maybe 30, 40, 60 [million dollars] \u2014\u00a0has a really difficult time getting made, even movies like ours, because it\u2019s very difficult for the studio to recoup that middle budget. [\u2026] I\u2019m hoping these movies still have a lot [of support], because that\u2019s usually where I end up most,\u201d he laughed. \u201cThe middle ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPitt was also asked about the emotional bond between his character, James, and the dog, Odin, and why those bonds are so important in real life. He replied: \u201c[The characters] James and Odin are both extremely capable creatures. They\u2019ve been trained. They\u2019ve been hardened. They\u2019ve been proven. But it was more their bond between each other [\u2026] we would fight more for another than we would even for ourselves, and that kind of care and love and loyalty kept them both points in our film, and I think that\u2019s also true love. When I think of the darker days, certainly my close relationships, I relied heavily on friends, dear close friends, handful of close family, and was very open about my growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the final question (it\u2019s a room full of European journalists, after all), Pitt was asked about how it\u2019s possible to cope in a \u201csad world full of hate, wars, politics, and racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe U.S. star replied: \u201cI think we could spend more time on where we are the same\u2026 What binds us, what connects us, and I think we can listen better through these divisional lines. But you know, maybe we just start taking care of the people that are around us and making sure they\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Heart of the Beast the Oscar-winning star plays a former Special Forces officer who, accompanied by his retired combat dog, must survive in the Alaskan wilderness following a harrowing plane crash.<\/p>\n

\n\tAyer\u2019s credits include Training Day, Suicide Squad, End of Watch, The Tax Collector and Sabotage. His latest feature is written by Cameron Alexander and reunites him with Pitt (who starred in Ayer\u2019s Fury). The film\u2019s cast also includes J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe. Pitt produces the film alongside Olivia Hamilton, Marty Bowen and Ayer, with Damien Chazelle among its executive producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2026 San Sebastian International<\/a> Film Festival runs Sept. 18-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of what will likely be a rabid San Sebastian Film Festival premiere, Brad Pitt joined his Heart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33932,430,48909,156,198924,1019,111,139,69,300214,31801],"class_list":["post-609287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-brad-pitt","tag-celebrities","tag-david-ayer","tag-entertainment","tag-heart-of-the-beast","tag-international","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-san-sebastian-2026","tag-san-sebastian-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}