‘They Cloned Tyrone’ Filmmaker Juel Taylor Talks the Epilogue and Editing With Guillermo del Toro

Del Toro not only answered the call to give notes on the Netflix feature, he came to help on the edit for a day.

They Cloned Tyrone filmmaker Juel Taylor is the latest recipient of Guillermo del Toro’s storied generosity.

Whether it’s providing script notes to Charlie Day or putting in a good word for André Øvredal, there are countless tales of del Toro looking out for his filmmaking peers.

And Taylor, who previously co-wrote Creed II, now has his own unforgettable anecdote in regard to They Cloned Tyrone, his critically acclaimed directorial debut that Netflix released opposite Barbie and Oppenheimer on July 21.

>>>SPOILERS AHEAD>>>

Towards the end of the film (spoilers ahead), Fontaine (John Boyega) and Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) devise a plan to infiltrate the underground organization that’s been conducting sinister experiments on their neighborhood, the Glen.

And Taylor intended to capture their elaborate scheme through an Ocean’s Eleven-like montage that cleverly revealed the mechanics of their mission. However, Netflix found the initial sequence to be a bit convoluted, prompting the Tyrone team to seek out a fresh pair of eyes to evaluate that situation and more.

So Taylor made a wish list of filmmakers to reach out to, and del Toro was the only person on the list who sprung into action.

“And not only did he respond, but he gave me his number to call him. And then he was like, ‘I’m coming to the [editing] lab.’ And I was like, ‘What!?’” Taylor tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So he spent the whole day with us, literally eight-to-ten hours. And just for the sake of the story, we all ordered Popeyes fried chicken for lunch. So he was so generous with his time, and he’s a genius, obviously.”