On Wednesday, a report emerged from French publication Technikart in which a director, Thomas Bidegain, detailed the four days in which one version of his indie film Suddenly fell apart, seemingly due at least in part to erratic behavior and the insistance of script rewrites from then-producer and star Jake Gyllenhaal.
The report quickly went viral because the details sound, well, pretty wild on first glance. But a statement from the studio behind the movie, Studiocanal, points merely to "normal" creative differences in the production, as does a source close to the production that spoke with IGN.
IGN has obtained the following statement from a Studiocanal spokesperson:
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. We greatly value all our relationships at STUDIOCANAL and are happy that Thomas Bidegain was able to fulfill his vision on the French language version of SUDDENLY. We remain deeply committed to our working partnerships with both Thomas Bidegain and Jake Gyllenhaal, with whom we have always enjoyed a very strong creative relationship.”
To start with the Technikart report, Bidegain said he had been working on the project with Gyllenhaal for more than a year, but things apparently went awry when he and co-star Vanessa Kirby arrived to Iceland, where Bidegain planned to shoot Suddenly with a budget of about $26 million.
By the director's account, it started by Gyllenhaal "summon[ing]" Bidegain and his co-writer to a terrace, where he warned that script revisions may have to be made. "We have to find the truth," Gyllenhaal reportedly said. Gyllenhaal, too, apparently made some bizarre travel demands, including being driven in a car that is "neither red nor white."
During a script read in day 1, Bidegain said Gyllenhaal and Kirby read some of their lines "ironically" in a Pepe Le Pew accent, which the director called "humiliating," but brushed aside. Other anecdotes include Gyllenhaal undressing in front of the crew and swimming in the cold waters of the Icelandic coast, reportedly saying "when I see the sea, I swim in the sea."
Things apparently came to a head on day 4, when Bidegain claims Gyllenhaal wanted the set builders to sleep in their cars due to COVID concerns (the article, somewhat oddly, notes several times that Gyllenhaal was "terrified" of catching COVID at the time of development, in 2021), and continued to bring up issues with the script. After that, Bidegain pulled the plug, insisting "our visions diverge too much."
A source close to the production, however, points out to IGN that the movie was never greenlit to begin production, and that Gyllenhaal and Kirby had gone to Iceland purely to work on the script, as Bidegain couldn't make it out to New York due to Visa and pandemic lockdown issues. Gyllenhaal and Kirby had no intentions to begin production imminently, and the fact that Bidegain had started building sets was completely unknown to them.
True to the Technikart report, the source tells us that Gyllenhaal and Kirby weren't happy with the script, although it was Bidegain who ultimately canceled the project as it was at the time. It all, per both the Studiocanal statement and our source, boiled down to creative differences.
And, ultimately, the project wasn't a total bust, either. Bidegain claims that Kirby tried to buy the script so she could make it with Gyllenhaal, but not with Bidegain, to which he reportedly refused. Instead, Bidegain made it as a French-language film with Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Thierry playing the lead couple, which hit French theaters last December.
So, are Bidegain's viral comments just a glimpse into the oddness that is film development? Maybe, but I guess that's Hollywood.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Mélanie Laurent was part of the lead couple. It has been updated with the correct casting.
Thumbnail credit: Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
