Director James Gray has revealed that his 2019 film Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, was not his and was actually made longer than studio 20th Century Fox had hoped.
Speaking at Cannes to Brut to promote his latest film, Paper Tiger, at the festival, the director didn’t hold back when it came to discussing the sci-fi film, which underwent extensive reshoots after poor test screenings.
“In this one (‘Paper Tiger’) I have complete control over everything, but actually in ‘Ad Astra’ I wasn’t in control. That film was taken away from me. That’s not how I look at movies,” he said. “You get caught up in arguments and arguments and you have a studio and that studio (20th Century Fox) was sold to Disney. You get caught up in things like that. The movie was $80 million, ‘Paper Tiger’ was $15 million.”
He added, “I like working on that scale because I don’t think it’s productive for people to just change your movie and you get criticized anyway.”
When I asked him how his version differed from the studio-edited version of “Ad Astra,” he said there were quite a few changes.
“It would have been a completely different movie,” he said, adding, “It would have been 12 minutes shorter. I’m the only director who would do a shorter director’s cut. I’d love to do that someday. I mean, obviously it’s not up to me, but I’d love to do it. That would be thrilling for me.”
Paper Tiger, the 1980s crime drama starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, premiered in competition at Cannes. Despite solid reviews, it was not among the winners.
