Movies go over budget all the time, that is simply the nature of the business. But sometimes movies go so over budget and time constraints that the director is forced to defend his craft in a public forum. That’s exactly what Alejandro Inarritu had to do this weekend while speaking at a Produced By: NY panel when faced with accusations about the filming of The Revenant going both over time and over budget. The movie, about famed explorer Hugh Glass, has been previously estimated to be as much as $40M over the original budget. Inarritu is adamant that the blown up cost was not only necessary but will produce the best possible movie for people to watch. According to THR, Inarritu said of the ballooning costs and schedule:
“We all knew what we wanted, we knew how to get it, but every obstacle was in the way [of what] we needed, and we knew what we needed. … No scene was added, everything was written, but we were just trying to accomplish what we had from the beginning.”
This sounds like a lot of director-speak for “I just won an Oscar, Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to win one for himself, and that means this movie is getting done the way I want one way or another.” No one can blame Inarritu for wanting The Revenant to be an amazing piece of filmmaking that will awe people with it’s use of natural lighting and sequential shooting, but some of the supposed “obstacles” on set had to be avoidable on some level, right? A prime example is the entire production having to be moved from Canada to Argentina so they could find snow. I repeat: so they could find snow. Even with the whole climate change issue, there was no snow in all of Canada suitable for filming? Seems suspicious at best. And what about all of those animal carcasses that DiCaprio supposedly slept in for warmth so he could stay in character? Surely they cost a pretty penny to keep around.
Regardless of whether the budget increases were for legitimate reasons or not, The Revenant looks to be amazing so far and will surely be worth all the trouble. DiCaprio and Tom Hardy traipsing through the wilderness in all sorts of furs and beards? It doesn’t get much better than that. If this movie doesn’t get Leo an Oscar, though, studios better watch out. His next film with Inarritu will be a $500M epic about living alone on an iceberg in the middle of the Arctic or something equally as insane.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
