Filmmaking / Directing : Brady Corbet Claims He's Broke & Fellow Oscar-Nominated Directors “Can't Pay Their Rent" by Pat Alexander

Corbet is a terrible manager of his own money.

This is a sad reality for a lot of creatives, Pat Alexander. The article did point out a sliver lining for Brady Corbet. "Regardless, his stock has considerably risen because of “The Brutalist,” and his next project, whatever it may be, will very likely result in him signing a major deal."

Maurice Vaughan yeah, that's kinda the blessing in his situation. He should be able to get bigger, better studio movies to work on from now on. So far, his 3 features have all been made for 11 million or less. While well rec'd by critics, The Brutalist is really his first movie that was latched onto by mainstream audiences, which is a great sign for him.

Dan MaxXx Tim Miller was more of a hired gun on Deadpool than the creative force behind it. As Marvel was doing that thing (which they do repeatedly) where they hire a no-name (in Tim Miller's case) or emerging young director, for the purpose of paying them as little as possible. So it's not a 1:1 comparison, as Miller's best credits to that point were in VFX and doing title sequences.

Mike Childress studios are pretty stingy with the merchandise deals. The famous ones - George Lucas on Star Wars and Downey Jr. on Iron Man - only really happened because studios really didn't believe in those projects at the time they were being made (which in hindsight of course seems crazy)

John Cassavetes classically did studio films to support his independent work. Many actors work on studio pictures and also do indie films as they go. Commercials have always been a great avenue to make money for directors, crew, actors, etc., especially in emerging markets. I definitely feel his pain in terms of marketing time and award season - that's a major time commitment - but there is nothing negative about making money doing commercials or other production projects to pay the bills. Producing commercials helped get my first indie feature made. It's great work to get IMO.

Its not that easy to get into and stay in commercials. I need to get paid if I want to direct a feature.