Filming on Josh Boone’s younger-skewing “X-Men” horror film spin-off “The New Mutants” began in early 2017 for a release in April 2018, with the first trailer hitting late 2017.
Then the project saw multiple delays. Much of this was due to Disney purchasing 21st Century Fox and the film becoming a victim of the ensuing administrative confusion. However there were also reports about the studio demanding extensive reshoots, to the point of redoing a big portion of the film and adding a new character.
When Disney closed the deal for Fox, it seemed as though they opted not to proceed with the reshoots and release the film as it was originally intended. Even then, sites were reporting that some reshoots could happen.
Now, the film’s director Josh Boone has set the record straight, telling EW today:
“Everybody said we did reshoots! We’ve never done reshoots. And I’ll tell you this: if there hadn’t been a merger, I’m sure we would’ve done reshoots the same way every movie does pickups. We didn’t even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody’s older.”
One of the actors involved is “Game of Thrones” alum Maisie Williams. She herself heard the reports of reshoots on the film to “make it scarier” she said a few months ago, but speaking with the outlet now she says:
“The movie is exactly the movie we set out to make. I was nervous when they were talking about reshooting or re-editing that it was gonna be very different, but honestly, it’s exactly what we set out to do.”
In fact it was both aggravating and confusing for those involved as the news headlines were telling them more than anyone at the studio was:
Williams: “I would be in press for something else and then [reporters would] ask me about [The New Mutants] and the last thing I heard was, ‘Nothing until we know something.'”
Boone: “We had heard nothing because of the merger. It was radio silence for about a year where we had no new information at all.”
In fact it wasn’t until early last year that Disney asked Boone to come back and finish editing the film:
“When they called me right before I went to go make The Stand and said, ‘Would you come finish the movie?’ I said, ‘I would f—in’ love to come finish the movie!’. In the editing, we were probably 75 percent done. We came back and finished it up. It took a couple months, and it was nice to be able to come back. Knate [Lee], my co-writer, and I, we hadn’t seen it in a year. We did a bunch of things here and there that we hadn’t thought about or noticed a year before.”
When the movie was finally finished, the filmmaker and his main cast reunited in New York City for the first official screening. These were the first people Boone wanted to watch the film.
“The New Mutants” will open in cinemas on April 3rd.
