Jimmy Chin turns 2016 lunch with Ridley Scott into book chapter
Jimmy Chin has turned a lucky seating plan from 2016 into a chapter of his new book.
The Hollywood Reporter published an excerpt on Sept. 14 featuring Chin in conversation with director Ridley Scott, drawn from that book. It is a meeting of two film-makers from very different corners of the industry.
Chin traces the first meeting to an awards-circuit luncheon in New York City in early 2016. He sat next to Scott. Matt Damon sat across the table. The seating plan did the rest.
Chin was there to promote Meru, his documentary that had come out the previous summer. Scott and Damon were there campaigning for The Martian, the space survival story directed by Scott. Scott is the veteran behind Gladiator, and he later reteamed with its star Joaquin Phoenix for the epic biographical film Napoleon.
Chin is best known to many film fans as the co-director of Free Solo, the climbing documentary about a ropeless ascent. That background gave him plenty to talk about with Scott, who has spent decades leading large crews on studio sets and on location.
The new book is titled Rules to Live By: How Extraordinary Lives Define What Really Matters. It is published by Celadon Books and is listed as out Sept. 29. The details come from the same excerpt published by the trade paper.
The wider project holds ten conversations with ten people, according to Chin's website. They include Scott alongside Kelly Slater and Kristine Tompkins. Publisher Celadon Books describes the focus as how we choose to live and how we endure, and it has announced an event with Chin to discuss the book.
What makes this stand out is the mix. Chin works in documentaries made in real and risky places. Scott works in large-scale fiction built on sets and visual effects. Hearing them compare notes offers readers a simple way into how directors organise people, time and pressure.
