Josh Safdie told Sean Baker on a recent episode of the A24 podcast that an early draft of “Marty Supreme” took Timothée Chalamet’s famed table tennis star all the way to the late ’80s, where he became a successful business owner. However, in the film’s final moments, Milton Rockwell, played by Kevin O’Leary, ends up “biting the neck”, making a payback for Rockwell’s line “I’m a vampire” earlier in the third act.
“He turned that (shoe store) into the most successful store on Orchard Street. He turned it into Marty Moser shoes,” Safdie said of the stripped-down ending. “Franchise, franchise, franchise, leave New York state, become a millionaire. All the indicators of success are there. His family grows, he moves out of town, he has this beautiful house, and he ends up with his granddaughter and a Tears for Fears concert. He has a great front row seat, and he’s watching it. And he says, ‘Everyone Wants to Rule the “And he’s had this success. But he’s not doing what he believed he was put on this earth to do.”
Safdie added, “We’re looking at his eyes. We made prosthetics for Timmy and everything, and Mr. Wonderful comes up behind him and bites him in the neck, and that was the last image. And he hasn’t aged.”
Safdie recalled that when A24 read the ending, a studio executive asked him, “‘This is a mistake, right?'”
O’Leary recently told Variety that he’s all for vampire payoffs, saying Safdie “went as far as creating digital teeth.” He added: “I know it sounds stupid, but to me it’s the right punishment.”
The “Shark Tank” star said he was “really not happy” with the ending of “Marty Supreme,” given that his character gets “messed up” while Marty and his family get a “kumbaya ending.” Mr. O’Leary suggested that Odessa Azion’s Rachel “had to die in childbirth” at the end as punishment for Marty Moser’s selfishness. Mr Safdie reportedly considered the change but ultimately decided it was “too bad”.
