Derek Cianfrance, director and co-writer of “The Place Beyond the Pines,” told IndieWire at the New Directors/New Films festival that Bradley Cooper almost bowed out of the production after receiving a rewritten script.
Just before principle photography began, Cianfrance brought in screenwriter Darius Marder to rewrite “every word” of “The Place Beyond the Pines.” Cooper was not pleased with the changes to his character, a police officer who kills off a compassionate thief (Ryan Gosling) at the film’s halfway mark.
“I had given [Marder] the script and he had a lot of notes for it, and I kind of agreed with a lot of what he was saying. And so we rewrote every word from 10 weeks to six weeks,” Cianfrance explained. “I remember giving Bradley Cooper the copy of ‘The Place Beyond the Pines,’ the new script, and getting a voice message from him saying, ‘Bro, I just want to let you know I read the new draft and I’m out.’”
Cooper’s frustration arose because, according to him, this was “not the movie that we had signed up to do.”
“I was moving my family up to Schenectady the next day, and the whole crew was coming up there. I had all the money anyway,” Cianfrance added. “I was like, ‘Can I come talk to you?’ So I went up to Montreal, and I had a long conversation with him from midnight to 3:30 in the morning where I got him back on. It was only in the last five minutes [he was convinced]. I think he just got tired. He wanted to go to bed.”
Cianfrance’s other credits include “I Know This Much Is True,” “The Light Between Oceans” and “Blue Valentine.” He is currently producing “Exhibiting Forgiveness” as part of the New Directors/New Films program.