“Rebel Ridge” writer-director Jeremy Saulnier remembers the exact moment that he realized his Netflix thriller was a hit.
He had been invited to attend a fight in Las Vegas. As he was walking through the casino behind Aaron Pierre—who stars in “Rebel Ridge” as Terry Richmond, a Marine veteran who uncovers corruption in a small Louisiana town—he could tell that everybody recognized the actor. (Previously, Pierre appeared in the series “Krypton” and “Genius” and Barry Jenkins’ miniseries “The Underground Railroad.”) “Heads would turn,” Saulnier said. “Bartenders, valets, gamers, whoever it was, everyone was turning their heads. I was able to bear witness to the birth of a star, in real time. And that was amazing.”
The filmmaker was shocked by just how many people had watched the movie already—129 million views, to be exact, topping Netflix’s big-budget, Eddie Murphy-led sequel “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.” It became the third most-watched film on Netflix from July to December last year.
“Everywhere we went, someone had just seen it,” he said. Saulnier is used to his movies having a small but vocal following. Earlier projects like “Blue Ruin,” a grungy revenge tale, and “Green Room,” about a group of punks facing down some bloodthirsty neo-Nazis, may not have been runaway hits, but they engendered cult-like devotion. His last project for Netflix, 2018’s “Hold the Dark,” was a bleak man-versus-nature thriller in which Jeffrey Wright hunted down wolves responsible for the death of a young child. Again, mainstream acceptance remained out of reach, but those who were on the same wavelength found much to love.
“Rebel Ridge,” though, was a worldwide smash from the beginning. Saulnier was shocked when it popped up as the biggest movie in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Israel and Morocco. As a young filmmaker, he had been told that certain movies—for instance, a super-specific American tale set in the South—just don’t translate overseas. The success of “Rebel Ridge” “obliterated” that conventional wisdom. “It had a cultural impact,” he said. “I think it was about seeing somebody pushed against pressure. Having that resonate globally was really cathartic.”
What made the success even sweeter was that it came after a prolonged (some would say tortured) development process. Saulnier cast the movie in 2019, with production scheduled to begin in April 2020. The pandemic pushed back the start date to May 2021, but a month later the movie’s original star, John Boyega, dropped out. Saulnier was left scrambling to find a replacement and slot in new supporting actors when others departed. (David Denman, for instance, replaced James Badge Dale.) Finally, once Pierre signed on, production began for real in April 2022.
“If I had any superpower in filmmaking, it’s fortitude,” Saulnier said. “And to stick with this project—I always had faith in it. But for any creative person to be stuck with something for five years, there’s great risk of falling out of love. I was very excited, but we waited a whole year before we regrouped and shot the movie in the third and final attempt.” To keep things fresh, he made storyboards for the more elaborate set pieces, but he refused to read the script again from start to finish, “for fear of finding flaws that I would get hung up on and rewrite and start to tinker. I really do value the gut instinct that gets you excited about a film and to not question it, to just trust that instinct and carry it forward.”
At the end of post-production, Saulnier nervously watched the entire finished cut of “Rebel Ridge” for the first time. Usually when he watches his own movies, all he sees are the flaws. But he had a different experience this time. “I was so happy,” he said. “It was the first time in my career where, before a film was released, I had extremely high confidence in its quality. Usually I’m calling my agent saying, ‘My career is over. Get me a gig.’ And this time around, I was like, ‘No, we did this.’”
While nothing has been announced and no script exists, Saulnier imagines a world in which Terry Richmond rolls into another backwoods town and sets things right there as well. “Aaron loves the character. I love Aaron,” he said. “Netflix is so excited about its success. It’s certainly part of a conversation.”
This story first ran in the Limited Series & TV Movies issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the Limited Series & TV Movies issue here.
