Ever since the debut movie Crazy Heart came out in 2009, Scott Cooper came to be recognized as a filmmaker who makes thoughtful, actor-driven movies. The lead Jeff Bridges from the movies also garnered an Oscar for his exceptional performance in this film.
His movie Hostiles gained quite a limelight in 2017 as it depicted a very brutal and hard side of the American soul. Scott J. Cooper of Miami Beach, Florida directed this movie and transported the era of 1892 into his movie. The cinematography, ‘design, and costumes all demonstrated the life of a veteran American Captain perfectly who reluctantly agrees to help a dying war chief along with family to move to Montana from New Mexico.
The story moves further when Christian Bale playing as the Army Captain and the war chief comes across Rosalee Quaid who was the sole survivor along with her babies after her homeland was attacked and completely burned to ashes. The way Christian Bale depicted his role previously as brutal and dark and the sudden transformation as an empathetic soul after meeting Rosalee Quaid was a true reflection of an artist.
By any means, he did not want to dehumanize the amount of violence the film has but Scott wanted to demonstrate the negative consequences that violence can have on the lives of people affected by it.
As per Scott Cooper, editing is what brings every aspect of the film together and that is where his obsession lies. He spends more time editing his projects than the actual making of a film. Many scenes are difficult to delete but then there is so much material post-shooting that everything cannot end up on the final cut.
The new generation of smartphones have made editing an extremely difficult project. Cooper said, “They want to watch short reels, short scripts, and even movies that don’t take much of their time. Deleting scenes that make an important part of the script is very difficult for every filmmaker but we are left with no choice. As a filmmaker, we have to find a way to display the best version of our story in the end.”
Most of the films directed by Cooper are shot chronologically and therefore, require fewer efforts in editing and bringing the film together as a whole so that all the series of events make perfect sense.
Very excitedly Scott Cooper Florida exclaimed that “I am working on Antlers currently which is an exciting project and working with Guillermo is such a delight. I have received my motivation from The Exorcist, Tarkovsky’s Stalker, and John Carpenter’s work on Halloween. The audience might be able to get a glimpse of these three in the write-up of Antlers.”
He is also working on the screenplay of Hellhound on His Trail, which will move around the assassination story of Dr. King.
Scott Cooper Florida is a filmmaker who can play with different genres and involve many aspects of filmography in his films. This makes his work very exciting. Although he is very new in the horror movie genre, the audience can expect to have many horrific moments in his upcoming project, Antlers.