Jake Gyllenhaal’s bizarre demands caused film to collapse, claims director

Jake Gyllenhaal‘s series of bizarre demands caused a film to collapse, according to French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain.

Bidegain recently released his second film as a director in France, titled Soudain Seuls. However, it was originally meant to be an English-language movie, with Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby starring in the main roles. Margot Robbie was also reportedly attached to the project at one point.

According to Bidegain, the $30million film, titled Suddenly, collapsed due to the behaviour and bizarre demands of Gyllenhaal, who was also producing the project.

In an interview with French publication Technikart, the filmmaker claimed that Gyllenhaal wanted to rethink and rewrite the whole film just eight weeks before production was scheduled to begin in Iceland, and as the sets were being built.

Bidegain also claimed that Gyllenhaal demanded to drive a car that was “neither red nor white”, asked set constructors to sleep in their cars due to his fears about COVID, randomly decided to swim in the freezing sea, and did the first script rehearsal in the voice of Pepe Le Pew.

The actor allegedly also wanted the script to include a scene where he slaps a fish, much to Bidegain’s bemusement.

Vanessa Kirby was set to star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Suddenly: Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images

After four days of clashing over the script, Bidegain eventually decided to pull the plug on the English language version of the film. The director claimed that Gyllenhaal and Kirby were still interested in continuing the project without him, but he refused to sell the script and instead made a French version with French actors.

Gyllenhaal’s representatives have not yet commented on Bidegain’s claims. However, Studiocanal, who were behind the project, cited “creative differences” as the reason for the film falling apart.

“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,” the studio said in a statement.

It added that it is “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.”

In other news, director Doug Liman recently announced that he would be boycotting the premiere of his Gyllenhaal-led Roadhouse remake, after Amazon Prime Video decided on a streaming-only release.

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