So your script leaked, and you shelved it. How did all of this change the original intention you had when you wrote the scriptIJ
That seems like a million years ago. It affected my process, in so far as, this was one script I wanted to differently from the way I’d done it before. Normally, I don’t write first draft, I write, last draft. I wanted to do three drafts of this one, before I let it out into the world. When the script got out there, it violated this process in my mind. That was why I reacted so strongly. It felt like a betrayal, a violation. But then I just kept doing what I was doing.
That was the final act of the filmIJ
The movie is broken down into five chapters and Chapter 5 is the end. That was all very disconcerting, but at the same time, I’d never really rehearsed a script before I had done the movie, not in that earliest stage. We rehearsed for that public script reading for three days, so we got a lot done then. Then we did the reading and not only was it a smash, I got great reviews for it. I had never gotten great reviews before for a script, before I made the movie. Seeing the actors doing it was also encouraging. From that point on, it flowed into its own thing.
You have another killer cast.
It was so interesting. Walt Goggins’ character is the character Bruce Dern would have played, if we’d done this in 1969. A lot of Bruce’s scenes are with Walt and it was wonderful to see these two different archetypes playing off each other.
You, and Alejandro González Iñárritu on The Revenant, had some challenges finding the snow. How was thatIJ
People have made too much of that. He had a far tougher problem than I did with the snow. We didn’t get snow the first month we were there, but then we got plenty after that.
You said you were shooting the biggest widescreen movie in 40 years and you were going to remind people why this is real moviemaking.
The proof will be in the pudding, in the look and the feel of the film. The proof is also how excited everybody seems to be about the idea of this roadshow, the 70mm presentation. Even the foreign distributors, who are figuring out how they can best show the movie. Part of the thought process at the very beginning was, if I shoot on the 65mm, then I’m making them release it on 70mm.