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Working with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer: “Jerry’s great. He’s a brilliant producer because he gives input. I’ll say, ‘What do you think of that?’ He says, ‘Weeeellll...’ That’s all he’s going to do. He doesn't say no. He says, ‘I'm not sure about…’ And the fact that he says ‘not sure about,’ it works on your paranoia. You think he knows something that I don’t know, so therefore you go and address it. Other producers say, ‘You’re not going to do that and you’re not going to do this.’ Jerry and I have done six movies together. Top Gun he was there like this [close]. That was my first movie. Now he lets me do my own thing and if he's unsure about something he says, ‘I'm unsure.’ When he says ‘unsure,’ I go, ‘Oh s**t. I’ve got to address it.’”
The DVD Release of Déjà Vu: Scott says there will be a director’s cut released on DVD. What will be included? “A bunch of stuff, mainly tonal,” said Scott. “This movie is PG-13 and what you’re going to get in the DVD is an R. There's a lot more stuff with Caviezel, more stuff in the lab, there's not much in terms of the love story. Most of the love story’s on the screen.
Editing is a process. Through the process of editing, things get edited down. It’s not because they’re bad. …As standalone, those individual pieces were great. Man on Fire was a classic example. I was obligated on Man on Fire to shoot three different endings because the studio wanted me to shoot three endings. I thought all three endings - have you seen the DVD? The extras are great. Sort of 30 minutes of additional scenes and I edited them, I did music and I color timed. They were really interesting scenes, it’s just that they didn’t… The end of the movie in Man on Fire was the end I always wanted.”
Scott didn’t have time to shoot different scenes specifically for the director’s cut. “No, you don't have the time. I was contracted to do a PG-13 and I didn’t see why. I’ve only done one other movie which was PG, which was Top Gun. I didn’t see why, all my other movies have been R - hard R. True Romance got an X originally. This one felt like it didn't need to be, it wasn't a story that required language or required any more violence than it had in there.”
Which is Scott’s Preferred Version?: “Being political? This one. Kingdom of Heaven, the long version, was so much better. I don't like long movies, but the longer version was better. Storywise, it’s hard to make sense of it. You’ve lost the throughlines with the characters.
Nobody does toga movies like my brother. In the history of movie making, nobody touches him. Gladiator, nobody. Not even the older greats, nobody touches my brother in terms of capturing that atmosphere, that mood, that danger, that period. Think of the opening sequence of Gladiator with those guys in the woods with the Huns and stuff. It was fantastic. Look at Kingdom of Heaven, they’re attacking Jerusalem. It’s amazing. Ridley’s a master at doing that stuff. He loves doing it. It was so disappointing for him, and for me, that the movie got cut down. But it's the nature of the business. You get one screening a night, running at three hours as opposed to two.”
