page_title: Nightcrawler (film)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Nightcrawler (film) / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Gilroy at Fantastic Fest 2014
context_page_description: Nightcrawler is a 2014 American neo-noir black comedy thriller film written and directed by Dan Gilroy. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis "Lou" Bloom, a stringer who records violent events late at night in Los Angeles and sells the footage to a local television news station. Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Paxton also star. A common theme in the film is the symbiotic relationship between unethical journalism and consumer demand.
  Gilroy originally wanted to make a film about the life of American photographer Weegee but switched focus after discovering the unique narrative possibilities surrounding the stringer profession. He wrote Lou as an antihero, based on the ideas of unemployment and capitalism. Gyllenhaal played a pivotal role in the film's production, from choosing members of the crew to watching audition tapes. Filming took place over the course of four weeks and was a challenging process that included over 80 locations.
  To promote Nightcrawler, Open Road Films utilized viral marketing strategies, including a fictional video résumé on Craigslist and fake social media profiles for Lou.
context_section_description: Gilroy conceived the idea for Nightcrawler in 1988, after reading the photo-book Naked City, a collection of photographs taken by American photographer Weegee of 1940s New York City residents at night. Often lewd and sensationalized in content, Weegee would sell these photos to tabloid newspapers. Intrigued by what he described as "an amazing intersection of art and crime and commerce", Gilroy wrote a film treatment with a "Chinatown feel". However, when The Public Eye (1992) was released, a film loosely based on Weegee's life, Gilroy shelved the idea. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles, and noted the predominance of violent crime stories on local news stations. "I suddenly became aware of and intrigued by the idea that it must be a powerful force for a TV station, when they realize their ratings go through the roof when they show something with the potential for violence, like a police chase", says Gilroy. Sometime later, he discovered the stringer profession, and considered it to be the modern day equivalent of Weegee. Unaware of any film that focused on the livelihood of stringers, he began writing a screenplay.
  Gilroy spent several years trying to write a plot that would fit the setting, and experimented with conspiracies and murder mysteries as central story elements. Eventually, he decided to instead start by designing the characters, and attempted to create a standard literary hero character. Unable to create an interesting hero, he then envisioned an antihero as the lead character. Gilroy felt antiheroes were a rarity in films, because they are difficult to write, and usually devolve into psychopaths; in an attempt to break from the stereotype, he thought of writing an antihero success story. Several films, including The King of Comedy (1983), To Die For (1995), and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), were used as research on how to write antiheroes.
  To create Lou Bloom's character, Gilroy explored the ideas of unemployment and capitalism. He wanted to portray Lou as someone who perpetually focuses on the precepts of capitalism, and how these thoughts not only give him sanity, but also push him over the edge. Gilroy did not give Lou a character arc, as he believed that people develop their ideals at a certain point in their life, and that they stay that way regardless of what happens. This is depicted in the opening scene of the film, when Lou attacks a security guard, which informs the audience that Lou is a criminal, and not someone who lost his morality as a result of the job. Lou's backstory was purposefully left out of the script, as Gilroy felt that without one, the audience would create their own backstories for Lou, and become more engaged with the character. Gilroy remarked that Lou eventually became a vehicle for the ideas and themes that he wanted to express in the film.
caption: Nightcrawler was the directorial debut for Dan Gilroy, who had previously spent several years as a screenwriter.[19]
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