A Shared Experience with ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ Producers Remi and Noor Alfallah

Based on a true story, the 1977 kidnapping of a prominent banker grips the nation and turns the abductor into an outlaw folk hero. As the media frenzy peaks, the standoff becomes a spectacle of desperation, defiance and blurred justice, which resonates even today.

Meet powerhouse producing team and sisters Remi and Noor Alfallah. These are two names you’ll start to see more and more of, especially in the indie space, but also names backing powerful storytelling. In this discussion, they give insight into how and why they came aboard their latest feature film Dead Man’s Wire, what kind of stories resonate with them, their unique filmmaking journey’s and how those jobs heavily influence their approach to producing, and the importance of a shared experience behind the scenes and as moviegoers.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: How did you two initially get involved with this particular project?

Noor Alfallah: I had known Cassian Elwes for a while, and I called him and I said, 'What are you working on?' Because he finds very good projects. And he said, 'Well, I have this one project that Werner Herzog is attached to.' It was Dead Man's Wire. And I said, 'OK, let me read the script.' And funnily enough, I went to USC Film School with Austin [Kolodney], we were in the same year.

And then I read the script and I was like, 'Cassian, I want to help you produce this. I love this script.' And then with Werner Herzog, it didn't work out. So, then Cassian called two months later, and he's like, 'Gus Van Sant is going to do it.' Then they were raising money. So, I brought it to my sister, Remi. I said, 'I love this script. Let me know what you think, and if you like it, let's try to help raise money.'

Remi Alfallah: … My sister and Cassian had been friends a lot longer than I had been. We've been working together, my sister and, I for a couple years, but definitely she's more tapped into the LA producer world, because I came from more of an SNL background, a New York background. So that was more where all my friends were.

Noor: We had only started working together two years before. We got a pod deal from Brian Grazer and Ron Howard at Imagine, and that's when we decided to get together. So, this was our first film independently of Imagine.

Remi: I think it was also an important time for us, because when you're under Imagine or under any banner, you kind of are looking for things that also fit yourselves, but also, of course, speak to their company. I think for our first true producing project, outside of that, it was really important to us that we obviously both liked it, because that doesn't always happen. And then beyond that, I mean, how do you not [want] to work with somebody like Gus...

Noor: A legend! And also, my favorite movie is Dog Day Afternoon. So, when I read this, there's obviously some similarities and some homage to that movie...

Remi: We started by raising the initial financing for the project, which isn't necessarily producing, but, of course, without money, there's no movies, unfortunately that's how it is. And so, I raised the initial couple of millions of dollars. And then after that, it just kind of snowballed. Now we need this amazing house in LA to be like Miami. So, we found the locations. And then, beyond that, then it was like, 'OK, we have this amazing role and who could it be?'

Noor: So, Al Pacino is the father of my son. And any movie I do, of course, everybody wants Al Pacino, but I love to find a part for Al, even if it's small...

Remi: We like to keep it in the family.

Noor: This was a smaller part, and then they expanded it, because Al read it, was like, 'I can do something with this.' And then him and Gus and Austin collaborated a bit. They expanded the role. I don't know if you read some of the reviews, but they wanted Al's role to be even more developed and bigger.

Sadie: I thought it was spot on, because there's something about that character that you love and hate him at the same time.

Remi: Totally.

Sadie: And as that father figure, you're thinking 'your business is more important than your son at this moment?' You know that he's playing a game, and there's this other game that's happening with the shooter... I thought it was a great role.

Remi: I agree, and I'm happy that the role wasn't any bigger, because even that the small sort of way that they kept it, it still felt to me like one of the more powerful parts... anytime he would come back on screen, I was excited for the scene, whereas I think sometimes if you overdraw it out, you lose what makes it so special.

Sadie: Right. Producing, as we all know, you're getting ready to put out fires essentially before they even start. And I'm curious for you two, what was the biggest challenge that you two were up against, but also excited to tackle? You’re dealing a period piece, the costumes, the music, a shootout and winter weather elements.

Remi: Time constraint, also. This was shot in under three weeks, which I think is kind of a crazy concept for a movie… of this caliber. And also, we were talking about it the other day, this is true independent cinema. We're competing this year with films like Marty Supreme, and you have these amazing films…

Noor: And I loved Marty Supreme, and Frankenstein and One Battle After Another... but we made our film for $10.8 million dollars. It's indie for this cast and this level.  That's why there's so many executive producers on it, because I think there's room for everybody. I think it's better to have 70 EPs and get it made, then have an ego about it, and have only three producers and not maybe have it happen. It's good to keep independent cinema alive, because those are the stories that they're not made for

$120 million, but they're important stories.

Sadie: Let’s take a step back and dive into your filmmaking journeys. Remi, you worked on SNL, were Lorne Michae’s assistant. How much of that world and expertise has carried over into how you produce?

Remi: I think I work really well under pressure. Sometimes maybe too well, a little too direct. I think we have very different approaches to our work as well. I'll call Noor at 11... and it's nice that we're sisters, because we don't have that boundary of work hours, it's always work hours. And so last night, I called her at midnight, and I was like, ‘Can you believe this?!’ And she was like, 'We should just not do this. If it's gonna make you this stressed.' And I'm like, 'You need to get stressed too!' [laughs] So I think the pressure of SNL has definitely carried with me, and I think that's where sometimes we have a very different approach, because Noor is a little more LA in the way that she handles things.

Noor: Since I was eight years old, I loved film. I knew I was going to be in the film business. I wanted to be a director. I felt lucky in that I knew my passion from when I was a little kid. And I never had any hesitancy. If I didn't work in the film industry now, I wouldn't even know what I would do. It's just part of my life.

I think also, growing up mostly in LA, the business is around you. My friends that are like my family are in the business. It's just that kind of thing. I started at like 15 doing internships. I was in high school, but I would do internships and beg companies to take me, and I'm like, 'I can leave class early, and I know I'm younger, I'm not in college.' I would work for free - back when I was an intern, you didn't have to pay the interns. I would do all the script coverage. I worked at Universal. I worked for the director Bennett Miller, on some of his commercials.

I graduated USC film school. I had produced a short film there that now is made into a film called Little Death that Darren Aronofsky produced with us... I went to do my Masters at UCLA in Film Producing, because I graduated and didn't have a job, and I'm like, 'I don't know if I want to direct, and now I need to find a job.'

And then when I graduated UCLA, I got my first job working for Lynda Obst. I was vice president of her company, and she was a very tough boss, but I learned so much...  those two years I hit the ground running.

Remi: Yeah, you did.

Noor: She was more old school, Lynda. But that ingrained a good discipline in me. It taught me a lot about different aspects of the business that I didn't know just from interning. Like, I knew script coverage, I knew working on a set, but I didn't really know the ins and out of developing a project and then going to pitch it, and how important it is to keep in touch with the agents and call and see what they're working on. So then after that, then we took the job together for Brian Grazer.

Remi: I was at SNL at the time, like, what you were saying, just to go back to that, I think people don't talk about it enough, the luck that... knock on wood, the luck that it takes to really know what you want to do from a young age. I didn't necessarily have that. And I think that for me, it's hard when you don't have that North Star as clear, because for Noor, like when she said, ‘If I didn't do this, I don't know what I'd do”. Now I feel that because of this sense of the relationships I built and the work that I put into it, but it wasn't like this obvious thing that I was going to do.

And I think for me, SNL was that. I didn't want to work in a certain industry. I wanted to work at a certain show. And that's a lot harder, obviously, because it's such a narrow thing to find, but I think that show gave me so much purpose, and I think that was why it was so difficult. I didn't automatically say yes to going to Imagine, even though it was more money and all these perks, and all these people want. I think for me, it wasn't an obvious choice. It took me a little bit of time to become OK with leaving something that felt like a trauma bond almost. [laughs]

Noor: But also… to get our own production overall deal at 27 and 24, for me, I was like, 'Yeah, I'm gonna do that.' And I was telling her, ‘Come on, let's do this!'

Sadie: What are you looking for when you’re reading scripts, especially from the producer standpoint?

Remi: The beauty of having two of us is that we'll always kind of find the beauty in something that the other maybe doesn't see.... For me, what's really important is… my desire to finish a script.... if you get a quarter through, you want to push through. But if you genuinely have this feeling of, 'I'm so involved already that I need to see this through. I want to know what happens.' I think that, for me is, even if it's a totally random story, if I have a desire to know and because I feel committed, that's a really good sign for me. But I think true stories are really important to us. That's kind of what we've done.

Noor: We trust our gut a lot. I've been lucky that so far, a lot of the films we've done, which are actually not that many, but every film has either been in a film festival or Apprentice had two Oscar nominations for the actors... but I feel like I set the bar for myself kind of high.

Sadie: Where do you two hope to see the industry in the next five years, especially with female leaders like yourself, as producers, filmmakers, tackling bigger films and budgets?

Noor: I still support the movie theaters. I go to the movie theaters. I’d love for people to buy movie tickets, sit, have the experience there. I think nothing beats that experience even if you have the best TV at home... I want to encourage people to still go to the movies. I would hate to see movie theaters go out of business.

Remi: I think that's really important to us. And I hope we're making good movies. And also, like, what you're saying about women, this is not to generalize, because there are nice girls and mean girls the same way that there are nice men and not nice men, but the projects that I do have with female producers, working with us and female writers and directors, they're a lot smoother. They're a lot more collaborative. There's a warmer environment. I'm not saying that's the rule... but for me personally... with the specific women I've encountered and worked with, I like that, and I think that's something I would like to do more of. Surrounding myself with that, because it's a shared experience.

Dead Man's Wire is in Theaters on January 16, 2206.