{"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":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"disable_comments":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[41530,5999,28520,35889,413],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-1172429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-breathe","tag-common","tag-jennifer-hudson","tag-milla-jovavich","tag-quvenzhane-wallis"],"primary_category":{"term_id":12,"name":"Interviews","slug":"interviews","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/archives\/interviews\/"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol.jpg","author_name":"Sonya Alexander","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/61f74f9f106846c42ba728de653f1797?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/sonya-alexander\/","post_categories":["Interviews"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"With Breathe, Stefon Bristol Aims for Spike Lee Meets Steven Spielberg","url":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/breathe-stefon-bristol-jennifer-hudson\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/breathe-stefon-bristol-jennifer-hudson\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1024,height=576,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jennifer-Hudson-Breath-Stefon-Bristol.jpg"},"articleSection":"Interviews","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sonya Alexander"}],"creator":["Sonya Alexander"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MovieMaker Magazine","logo":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mm_site_logo-2.svg"},"keywords":["breathe","common","jennifer hudson","milla jovavich","quvenzhane wallis"],"dateCreated":"2024-04-24T19:07:19Z","datePublished":"2024-04-24T19:07:19Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T11:51:04Z"},"rendered":"