I bet you didn't know this, but Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and David Sacks produced "Thank You For Smoking," a movie about regulatory capture. Elon's been at war with the establishment for a long time.
@stillgray The story of how this got made is interesting. @DavidSacks ftw
@elonmusk @DavidSacks I would love to hear that story!
The small part I played was advocating that we bet everything on Jason’s script, which was the only one I liked, rather than divide our ~$3M budget across 2 movies. And I thought that he should direct it too, even though he’d never directed a movie before. Jason was obviously super talented. We couldn’t really afford a proven director anyway and that person probably wouldn’t allow us to have creative influence or fun on set. We had to take a big risk in buying the book rights for a lot money from Warners, even though Mel Gibson owned the script. Gibson was basically only speaking Aramaic at the time and wouldn’t talk to us lol. Once we had the book rights, Gibson agreed to sell the script and allow the movie to proceed. David and Jason then made an awesome movie on a tiny budget. I gave a little feedback along the way and played the pilot for Tobacco One (they used my airplane), opening the door for Robert Duvall.
@elonmusk @DavidSacks That is incredible. Thank you for sharing the story!
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks What an Amazing project and great opportunity for you to explore the world of movies and Hollywood. Thank you for sharing this and I’m sure there is even more behind the scenes tales !
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks Do you think you’ll ever produce another movie?
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks I thought it was a great movie. I smoked for 21 years and have not smoked now for 25 in January. I wrote a lot of how to quit smoking but could never get a book deal! One day!
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks Never would have guessed….👍🏻 good💩
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks Did you ever smoke cigarettes?
@elonmusk @stillgray @DavidSacks Hey, Elon, can you give me a boost? Thanks, Mr Tweet.
@elonmusk @stillgray Wow you still remember all the details extremely well! Thank you for being part of our MOD Squad. :)