In fact, Columbus has been helping produce the eerie, unsettling work of writer-director Robert Eggers since the filmmaker’s first feature, 2015’s The Witch, which was followed up by his 2019 madness-at-the-edge-of-the-sea drama, The Lighthouse. “Just because I make a certain, specific kind of film didn’t mean I wasn’t in love with every other genre of filmmaking,” Columbus tells Vanity Fair.
People would expect, based on my surface career, that maybe I would be pushing him away from that sort of thing. But I was pushing him toward as much violence as possible, to make it as bloody as possible. I do love that stuff. But you didn’t push back when Gremlins became more comedic and lighthearted? I felt that, at the time: Who am I? I certainly did not have enough ego or experience to tell Spielberg, “Oh, you’re wrong. We need to make it as violent as possible.” He was absolutely right.