Derek Cianfrance, director of The Place Beyond The Pines, has been talking about the moment the film nearly collapsed.
We’ve never met anybody whose seen 2013’s The Place Beyond The Pines and thought it was anything less than great. The script, the direction and the production design are wonderful and this writer would argue that if there was ever an award for the best opening and closing shot in movie history, The Place Beyond The Pines would definitely be in contention.
However, there was one person who wasn’t impressed with the film, and that was before cameras had even rolled. The project’s director Derek Cianfrance has revealed that at one point, one of the film’s leading men was so unimpressed with a script rewrite that he tried to quit the movie.
Bradley Cooper starred opposite Ryan Gosling in the film, but when Cianfrance brought in screenwriter Darius Marder to redraft ‘every word’ of the script just before production, Cooper wasn’t happy.
Speaking to IndieWire, Cianfrance said that “I had given [Marder] the script and he had a lot of notes for it, and I kind of agreed with a lot of what he was saying. And so we rewrote every word from 10 weeks to six weeks … I remember giving Bradley Cooper the copy of The Place Beyond The Pines, the new script, and getting a voice message from him saying, ‘bro, I just want to let you know I read the new draft and I’m out.’”
Read more: The Place Beyond The Pines | A forgotten gem?
According to Cianfrance, he claims Cooper was upset because it was “not the movie that we had signed up to do.” So Cianfrance had to pay Cooper a visit and attempt to change his mind, notably not least because the film was partially funded due to Cooper’s involvement.
Cianfrance admits too that the film was on the verge of going into production and that it potentially faced collapse had Cooper pulled out. It took a long conversation through the night to turn things around.
Full marks to Cianfrance’s for his persistence in persuading Cooper to rejoin the project. You’ll note that we’ve avoided all spoilers as to why Cooper was so dismayed with the script changes, because this is a film that needs to be seen without knowing its twists and turns.
Even though Cianfrance claims he had the necessary funding, we like that he pulled out all of the stops to get Cooper back on board. Given that the film marked an important step in the actor’s transition into critically-feted dramatic roles such as A Star Is Born and Maestro (which he also directed), perhaps Cooper is glad in hindsight, too.
