Back in May last year, it was announced thatNo Time to DiestarBilly Magnussenwould bemaking his journey into the world of directingwith his first feature project,The Ridge. Featuring a strong trio including hisGame NightandReunionco-starsLamorne MorrisandChace CrawfordalongsideJordan Firstman, the film is a survival thriller set in the Wyoming mountains where a trip to a bachelor party turns into a fight to stay alive against the rugged terrain. Since the initial announcement of the title and its cast, however, there’s been little word about the status of filming or when it could be released. Collider’sSteve Weintraubasked Magnussen about the project during a wider interview for his filmCoup!withPeter Sarsgaard, and the first-time director detailed why the process has been so long and when cameras will finally get rolling.
According to Magnussen, the long wait between the announcement and production can largely be attributed to legal issues, though it was also deeply important to film at the right time to capture the feel he wanted forThe Ridge. “We were in some legal battles because a company that was helping produce had some issues, and then it was the scripts were locked for a little bit,” he explained. “But right now, we’re hopefullygonna be shooting by the end of this year into nextbecause it has to be during the winter we shoot it.” Such a schedule could see the film start making the rounds by the very end of 2025 at the earliest, but nothing is certain.
Part of the difficulty in breaking into directing is finding the time to do it. Filmmakingis a long and arduous process, even for a smaller indie project like Magnussen’s. Factor in a busy schedule of other projects he’s contractually signed on for, the number of projects that pop up throughout the year, and his work with his HappyBad Bungalow production banner, and things get crowded very quickly. Recently, he’s had to turn his attention to two massive projects, the star-studdedA Big Bold Beautiful Journeyandthe live-actionLilo & Stitch. Being able to carve out most of a year to dedicate solely to one project, then, is no small feat, as he explained:
“It’s funny, when I’m contracted, I have other opportunities and jobs that come up, and contractually I am prioritized in some locations that I don’t have a window to do it. So, it’s like finding the right place to put it in that I could actually pull it off. Doing a film like that, it’s a six-month commitment, especially directing, because it’s pre-production, getting everything ready, shooting it, and then just editing. It’s a lot of time to put these things together. So, carving out six months a year, it’s a lot to ask.”
‘The Ridge’ Addresses What It Means to Be a Man
The Ridgewas written byMike Anderson,John Clavier, andWill Lowell, while Magnussen also worked with the former two to pen the story. The crux of the film is based on the conflict between Dez (Morris), a sensitive city-dweller who’s getting married and is ready to party with his friends, and Grady (Magnussen), his fiancé’s brother and a true man of the woods who instead puts his soon-to-be brother-in-law to the test. Their differences spark a bitter feud that ultimatelystrands them in the wildernesswhen their truck crashes, forcing them to put aside any grievances to make it out alive. At a time when masculinity has been increasingly brought to the field of political culture wars, Magnussen wants his debut feature toconfront the differences in idealsand measure them against one another. He told Collider:
“The Ridgeis about three friends heading out to the Wyoming mountains for a bachelor party. Secretly, the man getting married is meeting his brother-in-law for the first time, andit’s a confrontation of blue-state versus red-state types of living. What is it to ‘be a man?’ Am I more manly having a car, having an apartment in a big city, paying my bills, going to the grocery store, buying my chicken, or the guy out in the wilderness hunting his own food, cutting down his own trees to build his own house? Who’s more of a man? Are they still the same? Is there a scale there? So, it’s a confrontation about what it is to be a man, especially in these these days. I don’t know anymore. I think that that conversation has been lost a little bit.”
While fans wait for more updates onThe Ridge, Magnussen’s latest,Coup!, is set to hit digital platforms on September 3. Originally released during the 2023Venice International Film Festivaland later in theaters this August, the feature occurs during the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak as a rich and famous Progressive journalist (Magnussen) hides away on his island estate. When he and his wife (Sarah Gadon) hire a mysterious cook (Sarsgaard), they wind up embroiled in class warfare asthe man rallies an insurrection against the couple.Austin StarkandJoseph Schumandirected the film.
Stay tuned here at Collider for everything Magnussen has coming up fromThe RidgetoLilo & Stitch,The Franchise,Violent Ends, and beyond.
