The American plan turned into a disaster
On 6 December 2023, the new production by Thomas Bidegain, Suddenly alone, was released in cinemas. A survival a breathtaking and touching love story, brought forward by the beautiful and inspired duo Mélanie Thierry – Gilles Lellouche. But this film could never have existed, or could have existed an American production titled Suddenlyas it was originally planned, if only its lead actor hadn’t ruined everything: Jake Gyllenhaal.
In fact, as Thomas Bidegain explained, e detailed in depth to journalist Marc Godin for Technikart, Suddenly alone it was originally supposed to be an international English-language production, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby in the lead roles.
The script was written, the actors confirmed for casting, the Icelandic setting had been found, part of the film’s crew was already on site, and Thomas Bidegain had a budget of 26 million dollars… But once Jake Gyllenhaal arrived, it just took four days to put this production on the field. The actor’s crazy behavior, unmanageable and obsessed with strange ideas, is under discussion.
Fear of Covid-19 and rewriting the film
While Thomas Bidegain has completed the screenplay of Suddenlywith the constant and enthusiastic involvement of Jake Gyllenhaal, when they found themselves in Iceland in July 2021 to start preparing for filming, the actor of Prisoners AND Ambulance put your foot on the plate.
Because he is terrified of Covid-19, even though Iceland is not affected, he refuses to travel by plane from Reykjavik to the filming location, and leaves in a car – which he claims must not be red or white… Six hours of journey that he shares with the screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire, recruited to work on the English dialogues. Finally arriving at the hotel, he isolates himself with Thomas Bidegain and his co-writer Valentine Monteil:
“Everyone in this room is enormously talented, but it’s going to take work. And keeping an open mind. With David, we’ve considered a lot of changes…” And he gets into vague things like“We have to find the truth.”
The next day, Jake Gyllenhaal discovers the location where the set will be built – an old whaling station – and is unhappy. According to him we don’t feel danger enough and he doesn’t find nature threatening enough. Actually, he doesn’t even want the furniture. The tone rises and Thomas Bidegain witnesses very lively exchanges:
I’ve had discussions with directors before, but never with this intensity.
The Technikart article points out that Thomas Bidegain still has hope of finding common ground, but this is not the case with Valentine Monteil, who states:
Jake talks a lot about TRUTH, insisting that his character is a former soldier, used to surviving… For example, for a scene on the boat, he sells us the idea of slapping a fish.
A mystical encounter with a mare
Thomas Bidegain manages to calm the actor, but the respite is very short-lived. On the third day, Jake Gyllenhaal returns from a walk and says so I met a mare, and on this occasion he had an epiphany. He suggests changing the story of the film to emphasize communion with nature, screening a video of Greta Thunberg to support it the actor cries with emotion :
I’m crying. I’m crying. These are real tears.
Valentine Monteil says he had, under the mask, the biggest laugh of his life… For his part, the American actor asks to completely rewrite the story so that it is a declaration of love for nature. Thomas Bidegain begins to understand that everything is collapsing.
Swimming in water at 3°C
On the fourth day, Thomas Bidegain accompanies the whole team to discover the landscapes of the film and immerse themselves in it. Too common probably for Jake Gyllenhaal to strip and dives in underwear in the frozen water of the ocean… He is enthusiastic and returns to work with Thomas Bidegain but, behind the scenes, Alain Attal refuses to rewrite the screenplay, the final version of which has been validated by Studiocanal, which has already sold more of 20 territories.
In the evening of this fourth day, Jake Gyllenhaal returns to the charge on the “truth” of the film and the meaning to give it. Learning that the decoration team will arrive at the hotel the next day, still terrified of Covid-19, he explodes with anger, refuses to let them stay in a hotel and demands that they sleep in the car… Then he declares that he doesn’t want the sets, explains that the teams are incompetent and threatens to abandon the project. Exhausted, realizing that there is no longer any favorable outcome to this situation, Thomas Bidegain responds: “To move on“.
The night passes, Thomas Bidegain updates Alain Attal on the morning of the fifth day. The producer decides to contain costs, his vision and that of Thomas Bidegain are too far from that of Jake Gyllenhaal. Thomas Bidegain said:
With him (Jake Gyllenhaal), maybe I wasn’t decisive enough, I think he wanted a stronger confrontation, but I don’t work like that… Anyway it’s all over, and the 26 million fly away! Coming back from the ice cream shop, we meet the actors’ car going in the opposite direction… I was on the 36th floor, but we had a crazy party with the builders, the cook, where we drank something like sick people. And we left Iceland.
“We’re pissing them off”
Shortly thereafter, Vanessa Kirby proposed to Thomas Bidegain to buy back the film rights. The director is thinking about it and talks about it with Alain Attal. He refuses and tells him: “Never in life, if we piss them off, you will rewrite it in French and we will. film with two great French actors.” A year later, it is with Mélanie Thierry and Gilles Lellouche that Thomas Bidegain films Suddenly Alone, for the beautiful result discovered on screens in December 2023.
The ending of this crazy production is happy, but we can be surprised by Jake Gyllenhaal’s attitude towards Thomas Bidegain. In fact, he didn’t trust her, even though they had before worked together For The brothers sisters, a critically acclaimed French-American western from Jacques Audiard. A film also brought and co-produced by the actor John C. Reilly, a friend of Thomas Bidegain and who was in the casting of his first feature film The Cowboys…
If finally Suddenly alone it is an excellent film and that its author has overcome this catastrophic start of production, but we hope that Thomas Bidegain has not been completely disgusted by this American “experience” and that, in the future, since he is a formidable screenwriter and an excellent director, will try his luck in Hollywood again.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
