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Dream House Director Distances Himself From Film
It's never a good sign when the director of a film wants his name taken off the production, especially immediately after the film hits theaters. Dream House has been in theaters just over a week, has a pathetic 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, and director Jim Sheridan wants his name taken off of the project.
According to the LA Times, the problems started when Sheridan disproved of the final cut of the film. He petitioned the Director's Guild of America to remove his name from the film. The DGA will do that if they find that the final cut of a film is significantly different than the director's original cut. However, when Morgan Creek productions agreed to reshoots, Sheridan dropped his claim.
Things looked like they might be working out until Sheridan started deviating from David Loucka's script and improvising content. This led to poor test screenings and, in response, Morgan Creek took over the editing duties of the film. This led to the final cut of the film being a product of Morgan Creek, moreso than Jim Sheridan. Sheridan is now refusing to do any promoting of the film and is once again asking the guild to take his name off.
While I don't approve of Sheridan going off script, I approve even less of test screenings and the studio muddling in a director's affairs. What a mess.
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Nice coverage as usual Dylan. I can your point and I agree, though obviously there must have been some agreement earlier that Sheridan would not go off script, otherwise this is generally understood as part of "the process" whereby during production there are times when what is written is tweaked as a result of the director and actors interpreting the script. Of course if the 'tweaking' is an entire re-imagining of the characters and story that is something else. From the looks of things this project was in the hands of the producers all along and while Sheridan signed on with that understanding, he probably went outside the comfort zone and consequently the troubles began. I agree, test screenings are never a good thing and the gray zone between 'studio muddling' and 'directors affair' is troubling for everyone involved. Something to follow, indeed.
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