French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain has finally released his second directorial project in France called Soudain Seuls. This was the film’s second iteration after Bidegain tried to make it in English in 2021 starring actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby. The project sadly collapsed in what could only be described as a series of unfortunate events helmed by an allegedly very erratic Gyllenhaal who did not share the same vision as Bidegain despite spending over a year working out the kinks in the script.
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An Icelandic escapade
After having secured $26 million in funding for the film, Bidegain attracted Gyllenhaal’s attention to the script and the two-time Oscar nominee signed onto the project. He became so immersed in it that he also took on the role of producer.
However according to the director, once the crew was on location in an Icelandic fishing village, he and the starring actors disagreed over the direction of the script. Gyllenhaal requested there to be changes 8 weeks prior to shooting after supposedly having finalised the script before even making the trip. This led to the collapse of the entire project only for Vanessa Kirby to reach out to Bidegain with an offer to buy the script informing him that she and Gyllenhaal were still interested but did not want him attached to the project.
The Director refused after consulting with one of his producers who said:
Never in this life, let’s piss them off, we’ll rewrite it in French and shoot it with great French actors.
And that is exactly what ensued, two years later Soudain Seuls was released in theatres.
What happened during those four days?
During his press run for the film, Bidegain spoke about the tumultuous four days he spent in Iceland with the crew, more specifically about Jake Gyllenhaal. According to the director, Gyllenhaal did a script reading with the accent of Pepe Le Pew, cried while showing the crew a speech by Greta Thunberg professing that the film shouldn’t be about ‘love’ but about ‘the love of nature’. He was also so paranoid of COVID that he did not want to fly but rather drove 6 hours to the location in a car that he requested be neither red nor white.
The director also claimed that Gyllenhaal wanted a scene where he slapped a fish and swam in the freezing ocean in his underwear. It is quite clear that the director is still chagrined about the collapse of the Hollywood version of Soudain Seuls but it seems as though the events that took place in Iceland are worthy of a stand-alone film of their own.
However, a statement from StudioCanal clarifies and deescalates what happened in Iceland:
Creative differences are very normal, if unfortunate, regularities in film development. In this case, there were concerns which simply could not be overcome despite great efforts on both sides.
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Sources:
Technikart: 4 JOURS POUR ENTERRER UN FILM
Daily Beast: French Screenwriter Shivs Jake Gyllenhaal With Bizarre Claims
