Rene Russo had a front row seat to the brilliant collaboration that was director and lead actor for her latest film, Nightcrawler.

Star Jake Gyllenhaal worked extremely closely with director Dan Gilroy and the two (and Russo) have triumphed in one of the best pictures of the year.

We caught up with Russo for an exclusive interview where she talked about that magical set experience, led by her director (who is also her husband!).  

As you can see in the Nightcrawler red band trailer, this film follows Gyllenhaal’s title character, a man who drives all over Los Angeles every night with video camera in hand, ready to capture the bloodiest, most horrible images he can find -- all for Russo’s local morning news show.

Their collaboration will send ratings through the roof and fatefully lock Russo and Gyllenhaal’s characters in a morally questionable professional relationship that is if nothing else, fruitful in the most vilely successful ways.

Which led us to our question, given Russo’s research into the subject of local news and its practices, why do audiences claim to want good news from their broadcasts, yet the most awful of stories get the best ratings? “That’s a good question,” Russo said.

Even many of the studios that Gilroy took it to wanted the movie changed, perhaps to hide the truth about the public’s innate appetite for the grimmest of news stories. 

“They just wanted it so typical,” Russo said of the studios where the film was shopped. “Danny just wouldn’t do it.”

Thankfully so, as this film is absolutely one don’t-miss movie. Nightcrawler hits theaters October 31 -- stay with Movie Fanatic as our review goes live tomorrow.