“The Little Things” Director Talks The Film’s Long Road To Production

John Lee Hancock (The Founder) has had an eclectic career in the film industry. He’s helmed critical success stories, such as the Oscar-winning sports drama, The Blindside, as well as box-office flops, like 2004’s disastrous and costly historical war epic, The Alamo. But there was one film, 2021’s The Little Things that he’s actually been trying to get made since the 1990s.

Apparently, Hancock wrote the script shortly after the film A Perfect World released back in 1993 and Steven Spielberg was attached to direct. That, however, fell apart, and the project would go on to bounce from helmer to helmer before Hancock decided to do the job himself. Speaking on the long journey the movie has had with Deadline, Hancock said that:

Steven was attached for a bit and then felt it was too dark for him. He had just done Schindler’s List and wanted to do something else. Clint was attached for a bit, I went through many discussions with Warren Beatty about it, then Danny DeVito when he was directing a lot. I started directing in earnest with The Rookie around 2002. Mark Johnson had always been the producer, and he would come to me every two or so years when someone was interested. He’d ask, do you want to direct it? I had little kids at the time and wasn’t sure I wanted to live in that dark a place for two years. Then I had conversations with two friends, Scott Frank and Brian Helgeland, both were big fans of the script, and they encouraged me to direct it. They loved the script. So, I went back and read it. I didn’t know if Warner Bros would necessarily be interested in making it. But they owned it and there was no underlying material. It was something I made up, and way back then, they didn’t pay me a lot to write it. So, there wasn’t a lot of money against it. I had just done a movie for Netflix and I thought if Warner Bros doesn’t want to do it, Netflix might, and Warner Bros might let me take it out of there. Then, Warner Bros read it; Courtenay Valenti was the only one who was still around from back then who read it before. She said, before we even consider giving it away in turnaround, we all have to read it. Two weeks later, Courtenay came back and said, I’ve got bad news and good news. Everybody loved the script, but if they don’t make it, I’m not sure they will let it get outside the walls. Then it had a life of its own after 30 years, and next thing you know we were making it.

It’s good to hear such passion regarding a project. Often times it seems that these dream films just fall through the cracks, so it’s nice to hear about one coming to fruition, especially after so long. Hancock is a very capable director and it seems that it was destined for him to helm the production. The Little Things stars Denzel Washington as a sheriff investigating a serial killer in Los Angeles. It will be released by Warner Bros. on January 29th, 2021 in theatres where available and on HBO Max.