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Morgan Neville on Steve Martin and the Glut of Celebrity Documentaries: ‘We Are Emerging From What Was Peak Production of All Things’

Filmmaker Morgan Neville speaks with Variety about his unusual, two-part doc on Steve Martin and the future of celebrity documentaries

(Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces” about the writer and comedian wasn’t deliberately made as a marketing device tied to a new TV series or movie. In his review of the docu Variety critic Peter Debruge wrote, “Cultural tastes change so quickly, especially when it comes to what makes people laugh, that there’s a built-in challenge to recapping any comedian’s early career — which no doubt explains why Neville steers clear of “King Tut ” (a song that younger listeners find problematic).” Do you agree with this assessment? The reason Steve wrote that song and the context around it, which was totally lost, was that he was actually making fun of the consumerization and fetishization of ancient cultures in the West and all that.

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