“Deadpool 3” and “Stranger Things” director Shawn Levy is showering praise on this weekend’s box office ruler, Taylor Swift, calling her a“generational voice and creative force” and likening her directorial vision to that of Steven Spielberg.
Swift, whose cinematic rendering of the blockbuster Eras Tour is poised to rake in north of $100 million this weekend, directed Levy as an actor in her 2021 short film, “All Too Well,” which also starred Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. The pop star has set her feature directorial debut project with Searchlight Pictures.
“Taylor, the depth of her vision for how she wants a creative piece to be, whether it’s a lyric, a melody, a bridge, a concert tour, a video —it’s profound. It’s profoundly vivid and she has the strength of her convictions,” Levy said told Entertainment Weekly. “Spielberg was on the set of a movie he produced that I directed, called‘Real Steel,’ and I said to him, ‘How do you know it’s the right shot?’ His answer was, ‘The way you see it, that makes it right.'”
Levy continued, “I feel like that’s something Taylor Swift has figured out really well, because that’s about trusting your instinct.”
Levy made headlines recently when he attended a Chiefs-Jets game with Swift, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively to cheer on tight end and Swift’s rumored beau Travis Kelce. Pictures of the A-list squad rooting for the Chiefs in a MetLife suite dominated social media.
“I could make 50 more hit movies and shows and I’ll still be known as the guy in the orange suede jacket going to the Chiefs-Jets game with Taylor and others,” Levy told PvNew about the media frenzy. “Ryan invited Hugh and I to go to the football game. Nothing prepared us for the frenzy of attention that was that outing. Very fun night… I’ve known famous people, but Taylor is definitely a culture magnet unlike anything I’ve seen.”
Swift’s “Eras Tour” movie, directed by Sam Wrench, has already become the highest-grossing concert film of all time, besting Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” based on advance ticket sales alone. Distributed by AMC Theatres, the movie opened to $2.8 million in Thursday night previews.
