Just recently, Academy Award winner Alejandro González Iñárritu revealed he has yet to shoot the end of his upcoming film “The Revenant.” The movie, based on true events, follows the story of a hunter struggling to survive in a hostile environment, a brutal winter and warring American Indians, to take revenge against the traitorous partner who left him for dead. For realism purposes, the film was shot under brutal conditions costing over $90MM (so far) and putting the cast and crew at risk. "We were in uncharted territory," Brad Weston, president and CEO of backer New Regency told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everyone who came aboard this project, cast and crew alike, understood this going in, and we all support Alejandro and his vision. The performances are extraordinary and the film is great,” he continued.
Despite some of the crew describing the shoot as a “living hell” and the worst experience of their careers, Iñárritu and first assistant director, Scott Robertson insist safety was a priority, knowing that the conditions were so extreme. “We had a safety meeting every day of the movie, sometimes multiple times,” said Robertson. “No one got hurt on the film with all the crazy shit we did.” Adding to the difficulties was the fact that Emmanuel Lubezki (Academy Award-winning cinematographer) decided the movie would be shot only with natural light, giving the cast and crew a window of approximately one hour and a half to shoot per day.
Still, Iñárritu sustains these hiccups were all part of the process and he’s convinced he wouldn’t have done it any other way. “If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit. “[The film] is about survival, and the actors and crew benefited from having to make it in nature.” The Mexican director said those who quit or were laid off from the project were like “violins out of tune” in an orchestra: they have to be taken out. “When you see the film, you will see the scale of it," he insists. “And you will say, ‘Wow.”
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