You’ll recall in 2013, one of the most anticipated movies of what would have been the next year suddenly fell apart, much to the chagrin of cinephiles everywhere. The movie was the Western “Jane Got A Gun” that was supposed to be directed by the great Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here,” “Morvern Callar”), and it was supposed to star Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender, Joel Edgerton, and Jude Law.
Things quickly unraveled right before production was about to begin. Fassbender walked, citing issues with his “X-Men: First Class” schedule. Edgerton, originally the villain, was moved up into his role, but then, on the first day of production, Ramsay failed to show up to set, and it was reported that she, too, had basically walked away from the film.
All of one day after it was revealed that she had left the production, Gavin O’Connor (“Warrior”) was announced as her replacement director (and Jude Law then bailed, citing he signed on to star in a Lynne Ramsay movie; Ewan McGregor replaced him).
In short, capital D drama! And watching this nightmare unfold was none other than the film’s writer Brian Duffield, watching the first screenplay of his ever to get produced—which was on the Blacklist a year earlier—fall apart in front of his eyes.
Duffield’s long recovered and has since gone on to become a filmmaker in his own right. We spoke to him about his new alien/home invasion thriller, “No One Will Save You,” starring Kaitlyn Dever, and you can listen to that full conversation here.
But we couldn’t help but ask Duffield to reflect on the film and the experience, and he was candid while also a little diplomatic about blame. One thing is for sure: he still loves the original director Lynne Ramsay.
“It was awful. It was really traumatic and terrible,” Duffield said about the “Jane Got A Gun” production experience. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, in a weird way, because it was also my first thing. It was so overwhelming, in general, to get a movie made. Then Lynne [Ramsay] is one of my favorite directors. And Natalie [Portman], it was like so many amazing things. And very quickly, it became clear it was going downhill because of other characters.”
Who those “other characters” are is unclear, and Duffield didn’t name names. Still, it should be noted in the original THR reporting the trade said Ramsay butted heads with producer Scott Steindorff over delays and control of final cut (it should be said that Jude Law and Joel Edgerton seemed to be on Team Ramsay too).
“Then, when everything kind of exploded,” Duffield continued. “I was in New Mexico, and Lynne didn’t come to set on the first day, which was my first day on a movie set ever.”
Yikes. Still, Duffield said he learned from the experience and took it forward in his directing career.
“It all went downhill from there,” he said. “It was really hard for Natalie. It was really hard for myself. I think it taught me a lot about what a director’s role is and what it is not.”
Why did Ramsay leave the movie? Duffield suggests creative control.
“I think Lynne felt like she couldn’t make the movie she wanted to make because of the circumstances involved,” he explained. “I think we should have brought in a surgeon to help us get through it, and instead, we brought in a serial killer. It was just a series of bad calls from people who should not have been anywhere near that movie. It was f*cking awful.”
Who is the serial killer in this scenario? Well, enough speculation, but you know who replaced Ramsay in the director’s chair. We’ll leave it at that! It’s one that’s gone down to history, a what if, especially as the final product isn’t that remarkable.
That said, as Edgerton himself noted in 2016, it was a triumph in of itself that the movie even got finished, so perhaps here’s to small victories. Definitely check out our full podcast conversation with the writer/director here.