‘Casting JonBenet’ Producer: Netflix Documentary Is ‘The Craziest Piece of Community Theater’
- 7 years ago
There’s been plenty of projects about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, but according to the team behind Netflix documentary “Casting JonBenet,” their take is more of a “community project.” Director Kitty Green and producers Scott Macaulay and James Schamus stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Orville Redenbacher’s at the Sundance Film Festival to talk about the movie.
When asked about how they got “the locals” involved in the project, Green explained, “They’re very exhausted about it. There’s been so much stuff done about the case. So I mean, at first, they rolled their eyes, and then when we tried to explain what we were doing and the way we were going about it, I think they got on board in a really big way, which was really lovely.”
Schamus made a point to praise Netflix for its distribution of the documentary. “Right now, Netflix is driving some of the most spectacular documentary work in the world. And by the world, we mean the world. So for film like ‘Casting JonBenet,’ which is the unique product of a unique vision, which is Kitty’s, which is combined with, as we said, a real community. I mean, you’re about to see probably the craziest piece of community theater — I mean, it’s just insane, this combination. And to have a platform like Netflix behind this kind of wholly original work is a dream.”
When asked about how they got “the locals” involved in the project, Green explained, “They’re very exhausted about it. There’s been so much stuff done about the case. So I mean, at first, they rolled their eyes, and then when we tried to explain what we were doing and the way we were going about it, I think they got on board in a really big way, which was really lovely.”
Schamus made a point to praise Netflix for its distribution of the documentary. “Right now, Netflix is driving some of the most spectacular documentary work in the world. And by the world, we mean the world. So for film like ‘Casting JonBenet,’ which is the unique product of a unique vision, which is Kitty’s, which is combined with, as we said, a real community. I mean, you’re about to see probably the craziest piece of community theater — I mean, it’s just insane, this combination. And to have a platform like Netflix behind this kind of wholly original work is a dream.”