Michael Sucsy

In 2003, Sucsy was inspired to write and direct a narrative feature film about the famous true story of Jackie O's eccentric relatives "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale called Grey Gardens after viewing the well-known documentary of the same name. The day after he first watched the documentary, Sucsy embarked on what was to become a six-year process to get Grey Gardens made. He used primary sources including Little Edie's personal correspondence, private journals, and poetry as well as interviews with family members and friends as the basis of his original script which traced the Beales' tragic descent from riches to rags over some forty years. With Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange attached to star as the reclusive mother-daughter duo, the project made its way to HBO who, in 2006, announced that Grey Gardens was moving into production with Sucsy as its director. Principal photography on Grey Gardens began in October 2007, and it debuted on HBO in April 2009 to great acclaim from critics and audiences, both new and old to the Grey Gardens phenomenon.

The film received multiple awards: 6 Primetime Emmy Awards including Best Made for Television Movie, the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Made for Television, and both the Broadcast Film Critics and the Television Critics Association Awards for Best Television Movie. Sucsy was additionally nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Mini-Series as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for Original Long Form Teleplay.

Sucsy's follow-up to Grey Gardens was The Vow, a romantic drama set in Chicago, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. The Vow was released by Sony Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures on February 10, 2012. It was a critical and commercial success, becoming the eighth highest-grossing romantic drama film since 1980.[1] In an interview with The Advocate's Jeremy Kinser, Sucsy said for his follow-up to Grey Gardens "I wanted to make something for a mainstream audience." He was also pleased with the opportunity to work with Lange a second time. "There are multiple layers to everything she does," he told The Advocate. "I'm not kidding when I say I'd look over and the grips and prop guys who are obviously watching — but not on the same level that I need to watch — their eyes are bugging out and their mouths are agape. We rewrote scenes and deepened scenes for her because you don't want to waste that kind of talent."[2]

Sucsy followed up The Vow with the film adaptation of the novel Every Day. The movie was released on February 23, 2018.[3]

Every Day is a 2018 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Michael Sucsy and written by Jesse Andrews, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by David Levithan. The film stars Angourie Rice as 16-year-old Rhiannon, who falls in love with a traveling soul who wakes each morning in a different body; Justice Smith, Debby Ryan and Maria Bello also star.

Film critic Peter Bradshaw created a new Special Braddie Award for "Every Day" calling it "the quirky film overlooked by the complacent MSM gatekeeper-establishment which might be a future cult classic." Bradshaw, Peter (10 December 2018). "And the 2018 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw's films of the year". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2018.

On February 26, 2021 Deadline Hollywood announced that New Republic Pictures will co-finance and produce an original holiday musical, A Lot Like Christmas, co-written by Sucsy and composer Elliott Wheeler (Elvis, The Get Down). Sucsy will also direct and produce.[4]

On December 11, 2018 Deadline Hollywood announced that Sucsy will write and direct a film adaptation of Playing to the Gods based on the novel by Peter Rader.[5]