Interview (Written): Phil Lord and Chris Miller

A THR interview with Phil Lord and Chris Miller:

Where they were Based on their success with the animated film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ($243 million worldwide), Lord and Miller had persuaded Sony to let them make the rare leap to live action with 2012’s 21 Jump Street reboot. “We kept saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if this movie was good?’ ” says Lord, who met Miller at Dartmouth College. “That was the joke of that movie: I think we can surprise people by making it not be terrible.” Additionally, they had just turned in the first draft for their next animated adventure: The Lego Movie for Warner Bros., which would go on to earn $469 million worldwide.

Where they are The duo’s to-do list is a dizzying mix of franchises, for both film and TV. Lord and Miller, both 40 (Lord is in a long-term relationship with jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth; Miller is married with two young kids), are producing the next batch of Lego films, including The Lego Batman Movie, and future Jump Street movies, including a female-centered spinoff. They’re writing and producing an animated Spider-Man movie for Sony, and they created the beloved Fox comedy series The Last Man on Earth, now in its second season. There’s a Son of Zorn live-action/animation hybrid Fox comedy coming and a potential TV series based on the Serial podcast, too. But all those pale in comparison to the Han Solo Star Wars spinoff, which the pair has signed on to direct. Says Miller, “Now, somehow, we’re 10 times busier than we were when I thought we were too busy and I was going to die.”

Some excerpts:

Biggest change to our lives since 2010:

LORD People’s expectations have dramatically changed in a strange way. It’s not that people expect us to do a good job now. We’ve made a career of outperforming expectations, so now people expect us to outperform expectations — but instead of it being on something that seems really stupid, it’s on a Star Wars movie.

Weirdest misconception people have about us:

MILLER People think we do a lot of drugs because we put a lot of drug references in our movies. Our stuff is very easily enjoyed in an altered state, and we are second-generation “stoney” filmmakers. But the truth is, we don’t really do drugs, which is evidenced by how inaccurate our visual representations of drug trips are.

LORD And if you look at any of the sex scenes we have directed, it would appear that we also are celibate.

Last project we turned down:

For the rest of the interview, go here.
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