{"id":1172429,"date":"2024-04-24T12:07:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T19:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1172429"},"modified":"2024-04-25T04:51:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T11:51:04","slug":"breathe-stefon-bristol-jennifer-hudson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/breathe-stefon-bristol-jennifer-hudson\/","title":{"rendered":"With Breathe, Stefon Bristol Aims for Spike Lee Meets Steven Spielberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breathe<\/em> director Stefon Bristol\u2019s love for sci-fi began with Jurassic Park. <\/em>As he grew up and thought about how, as a Black man, he fit into society, Spike Lee\u2019s Do the Right Thing<\/em> spoke to him and helped him decide to become a filmmaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Breathe<\/em> and his last sci-fi film, the time travel heartbreaker See You Yesterday<\/em>, Bristol tries to combine the influences of both Spielberg and Lee \u2014 the latter of whom has become a mentor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ve already seen every sci-fi movie that’s out there so how do you make it fresh and different?\u201d Bristol says. \u201cThrough characters and the culture that they represent to make it very specific and unique.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathe, his second feature, is about a woman named Maya (Jennifer Hudson) and her daughter, Zora (Quvenzhan\u00e9 Wallis), who are forced to an underground bunker when Earth runs out of oxygen. Soon a mystery couple arrive, claiming to know the fate of Maya\u2019s husband. She tentatively lets them in. The cast also includes Common, Milla Jovovich, and Sam Worthington.

Bristol, a Brooklyn native, attended community college for a while before going to Morehouse College, where he studied English Literature. Then he moved home to New York to attend NYU\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts, where Lee is a professor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an undergrad and graduate student, he devoured the work of the Do the Right Thing<\/em> and Malcolm X<\/em> mastermind. One of his key lessons from Lee was to shoot economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI use a lot of his technique and a lot of his storytelling sensibilities, especially regarding Black people in history, and I apply that to the subject matter of my films. I try to have that influence but in the sci-fi genre, thriller setting because that’s the lane I like to go to,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look at what Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee have done and try to connect that together.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stefon Bristol on Breathe<\/em> and Jennifer Hudson Fans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Stefon Bristol on the set of<\/em> Breathe. Courtesy of Breathe Productions Inc.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bristol\u2019s co-wrote his first film, Netflix\u2019s See You Yesterday<\/a><\/em>, with Frederica Bailey, whom he met at NYU. Breathe<\/em> was written by Doug Simon, whose past credits include Demonic<\/em> (2015) and Brotherhood<\/em> (2010). Bristol found the script on The Black List and provided some input \u2014 starting with the setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also Read:<\/strong> George Miller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth on the Madness and Medicine Behind Furiosa<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story was initially centered around a white family on a farm in upstate New York. But Bristol suggested moving it to Brooklyn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it would be cool if it was set in Brooklyn with a Black household. They all loved the idea, but we all agreed upon one thing…how can we elevate it to really say something?\u201d Bristol says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reading the script multiple times, he decided the theme was children\/family. His agent at the time said it adhered to the Native American proverb, “We don’t inherit the land from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Milla Jovavich in <\/em>Breathe, directed by Stefon Bristol.<\/em> Courtesy of Breathe Productions Inc.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Simon had left the spec script open for interpretation and welcomed Bristol\u2019s input. \u201cDoug was very warm and welcoming, and I hope to work with him again,\u201d Bristol says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film was backed by Thunder Road Pictures, which thrives in the action-thriller genre \u2014 \u201cso it was just a matter of blending our artistic pursuits,\u201d says Bristol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathe<\/em> shot in Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, where a few fans were so passionate that they tried to pretend to be crew to get closer to Hudson, the film\u2019s EGOT-winning lead. Bristol had to curb the local enthusiasm, though, because they had a limited amount of time to shoot and there were also COVID restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next for Bristol? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod willing and the creek don\u2019t rise,\u201d he says, his next project will be Gordon Hemingway and the Realm of Cthulhu<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a movie about an American gunslinger who teams up with an Ethiopian princess to rescue an important Ethiopian figure from the hands of Italy’s fascist army,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatriz and Lloyd Levin and Spike Lee are attached to this Netflix production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathe, a Capstone Global\/Warner Bros. release, arrives in theaters and digital Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main image: <\/em>Breathe, courtesy of Breathe Productions Inc.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breathe director Stefon Bristol\u2019s love for sci-fi began with Jurassic Park. As he grew up and thought about how, as","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":1172432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"cm_data":"","cpt_newsletter_id":0,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":[],"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[41530,5999,28520,35889,413],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1172429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews","8":"tag-breathe","9":"tag-common","10":"tag-jennifer-hudson","11":"tag-milla-jovavich","12":"tag-quvenzhane-wallis"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol-428x241.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol-428x241.jpg","fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol-788x444.jpg","author_name":"Sonya Alexander","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c738bb317bfb3fa85e4ba8e92959687c8f90e108391ef9be8e14962ed210b459?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/sonya-alexander\/","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":12,"name":"Interviews","slug":"interviews","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/archives\/interviews\/"},"featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol-788x444.jpg","post_categories":["Interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1172432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172429"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1172429"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=1172429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}