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How Sam Mendes and Jez Butterworth Brought a New and Improved Version of “The Hills of California” to Broadway
The director and the playwright talk memory, loss and rewriting their latest Broadway play. Plus: the joys and pitfalls of franchise moviemaking.
The playwright Jez Butterworth recently had perhaps the most eventful recording session in the history of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. “In the course of this call, I have returned one dog to its owner and seen four foxes,” Butterworth said during a conversation with director Sam Mendes about their latest Broadway project, “ The Hills of California.” With Mendes recording from New York, where “Hills” opened Sept. 29, Butterworth was beaming in to the virtual studio from the streets of London after 10 p.m., and enjoying all the color that comes with the locale. Mendes said he was done with franchise films, at least for the moment — his next movie project is an ambitious, four-film series about the Beatles — but he found much to appreciate in the experience.
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