Ethan Hawke Explains Why His Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward Doc Became a Six-Hour Affair

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticUntil quite late in the process of crafting “The Last Movie Stars” — a six-hour deep dive into the on- and off-screen lives of Hollywood golden couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, now streaming on HBO Max — director Ethan Hawke resisted the notion that he was making a TV series.“I don’t like episodic.

I don’t like the nature of false cliffhangers. My brain is allergic to that,” admits Hawke, who unveiled an hour of the project at the South by Southwest film festival in March, then two more segments at the Cannes Film Festival in May. “When I started, I really wanted it to be short enough that you could watch it in one sitting.

I wanted to lasso it into the size of ‘No Direction Home’ or something like that.” But the more he dug, the bigger it grew, expanding beyond the couple’s career successes — which include 14 Academy Award nominations between them, a best actor Oscar, a best actress Oscar and four Emmys — to their philanthropy, political activism and unusually private (for such a high-profile pair) personal lives.

The final episode, which begins with the couple’s deaths and runs slightly more than 90 minutes, is like a film unto itself.“If I had to make one feature-length documentary about Paul and Joanne, that’s what it would be,” Hawke says.