Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve made his name with “Incendies” before going on to a range of Hollywood films including “Blade Runner 2049,” “Sicario” and “Enemy”.
Sandwiched in there as well is “Prisoners,” an acclaimed if somewhat divisive thriller with wonderful lensing by Roger Deakins, strong performances from Hugh Jackman and especially Jake Gyllenhaal, and an ambiguous ending.
Speaking with Deakins on the latest episode of his Team Deakins podcast, the two revisited “Prisoners” and Villeneuve revealed he shot two endings for the film and the producers decided to pick whichever ending tested higher and put it in the movie:
“It’s true. They didn’t shape the edit, but there were two endings because they felt my idea, which was closer to the screenplay, was maybe too much depressing and not commercial enough. I remember we tested both, and they came to me saying they scored equally and that maybe mine was better so they went with mine. It was a beautiful experience.”
Gyllenhaal stars as a detective investigating the abduction of two young girls and must also deal with one of the girl’s fathers (Jackman) seeking justice himself. The alternate ending isn’t drastically different – namely it makes the fate of Jackman’s character much more certain whereas the theatrical cut has room for doubt.
Villeneuve and Deakins are also sharing in an adorable bromance with Villeneuve having nothing but adoration for Deakins’ work. Villeneuve says:
“When I am working with you [Deakins], I’m going to be in a position where I’m going to learn about filmmaking every day. I’m in a learning process working with you. It’s very rewarding and exciting. Right now I am doing VFX on Dune, and I found myself talking about light and asking for things and I’m like, ‘I know it’s Roger’… I realize how much sometimes the amount of things I’ve learned from you. I’m not saying you’ll agree with me when you see the thing, but I just know of sensibilities that I strongly increased being with you and working on Blade Runner. It was a formative experience. To design the movie from the storyboards until the very end by your side, it’s insane the amount of things I learned.”
Villeneuve is finishing off grand scale sci-fi epic “Dune” and says “it would be healthy for me to do something small” as his next project.
Source: The Playlist
