James Gray did not have the “Final Cut” on Ad Astra and admits to having been “very upset”

The director explains that the studio did not give him the choice. And it always hurts him so much.

The interstellar film of James Gray,, AD Astramay have his visual and emotional signature, he no longer really belongs to him.

This is what the filmmaker confided to the site Vulturea few years after the release of this space drama with Brad Pittwhich embeds the spectator to the borders of the solar system and which is to be reviewed on France 5 this evening (and on France.tv streaming).

To understand, you have to go back in time. Originally, AD Astra was a project launched by New Regency with 20th Century Fox. In May 2016, he made the official announcement during the Cannes Film Festival. Then, when promoting The Lost City of Zhe compares the intrigue of AD Astra novel At the heart of darkness (by Joseph Conrad) and talks about his desire for a very realistic approach.

Ad Astra is available in VOD on Premiere Max

Yes but here, in the middle of the site, in 2019, Disney Absorbs the Fox studio. And there, everything has changed: “It was a big studio, 20th Century Fox”recalls Gray in Vulture with a lot of regrets. “”Now it’s over. Disney has a very different way of doing things.

And above all, a stricter control mode. Deprived of Final Cut, the director was imposed on the choices he did not approve, in particular the omnipresent voice voice of Roy McBride, deemed redundant or even superfluous. “I don’t like what you offer” was simply no longer an option for him.

Gray, yet known for his artistic requirement (The Lost City of Z,, The immigrant), did not renounce the film but admits to having been “Very upset” ::

“As a screenwriter-director, it is my point of view that should have prevail. When people ask me why I put a stupid voice-over, when it is not my choice, it is frustrating.”

Despite this bitterness, he remains proud of many sequences – those where his imprint has not been watered down. “But when Ad Astra stopped being 100 % at me, I was like a very irritable little boy”he confesses. A disarming admission, like this film as introspective as it is mutilated.