The Art Of The Kill

The crew behind Nightcrawler hopes to make modern art just as creepy as the late-night news scene.

- Nick Romano

AFTER NIGHTCRAWLER wrapped, Jake Gyllenhaal remembers director Dan Gilroy promising, “We’re not done.” They had other stories to tell. More than three years later, they reunite with Rene Russo and cinematographer Robert Elswit for Velvet Buzzsaw, a dark satire set against the shady Los Angeles art scene, where everyone is looking to make a buck—even if they’re profiting off demonic paintings that kill people.

“I couldn’t live with art because it’s so powerful,” Russo admits, especially after playing a gallery owner hawking these haunted works.

Gilroy, again, wrote his lead—this time an art critic— for Gyllenhaal, who notes, “His name is Morf, so he’s morphing all the time: his identity, his opinion, his attraction.”