Dicaprio as Hugh Glass

there’s a whole story of its own on how this movie was filmed. The director insisted on doing on location filming in natural light only, and it turned out to be this kind of hell. Frozen actors on set with only a few hours a day when they could film.

The director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, is the guy who did “Birdman.”

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Director defends Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant as crew call shoot a ‘living hell’

Alejandro González Iñárritu dismisses claims he could have used CGI to save money and improve brutal conditions for cast and crew on frozen Canadian set

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/24/director-defends-leonardo-dicaprios-the-revenant-as-crew-call-shoot-a-living-hell

The Oscar-winning director of Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu, has defended his shoot for the harrowing western The Revenant against claims it descended into a “living hell”, with actors subjected to freezing temperatures and multiple crew members quitting under brutal conditions.

Whistleblowers told the Hollywood Reporter that the experience of making the film had been the worst of their careers, while predicting awards-season recognition for the Mexican director and his cast, which includes Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The film’s budget has already reached $95m, and could yet reach $135m, a spectacular figure for a western with dark, murderous themes.

The Revenant centres on a famed incident in the life of frontiersman Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly bear during a fur-trapping expedition in 1823. In Iñárritu’s version, DiCaprio’s Glass is robbed by his companions and left for dead. But he survives and sets out to wreak revenge on the men who betrayed him.

Crew members say the production suffered extensive delays due to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s determination to shoot only in natural light, and Iñárritu’s preference for filming in chronological sequence. There were also issues with a lack of snow on location in Canada, and the production has now shifted to Argentina in search of the white stuff. One worker described conditions on set to the Hollywood Reporter as “a living hell”.

It does not seem to be in dispute that the extension of a shooting break in December from two to six weeks forced Hardy to drop out of the much-hyped Warner Bros supervillain epic Suicide Squad. Meanwhile, producer Jim Skotchdopole has moved on after being accused by crew members of failing to relay shooting difficulties to Iñárritu, resulting in further delays. Reports suggest Skotchdopole was banned from the set by the director, though Iñárritu denies this.

“I have nothing to hide,” the film-maker told the Hollywood Reporter. “There were problems, but none of them made me ashamed.” He denied suggestions that an actor who was dragged naked along the ground in one action scene had suffered pain, saying: “I asked him several times, ‘Are you fine?’ “I was super-considerate because he was a nice, 22-year-old guy.” Iñárritu said each time he asked, the actor replied that he was prepared to do another take.

The director also repudiated suggestions that he was indecisive on set, leading to crew disgruntlement at sudden schedule changes. “That’s part of the process,” he said. “It’s about incredible precision. … It’s not easy. You have to be sculpting, sculpting, sculpting until you have it.”

He said he would not consider the use of CGI to save money and avoid the harsh shooting conditions. “That’s exactly what I didn’t want,” said the director. “If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit.”

However, the director admitted that conditions became brutal after temperatures in Canada unexpectedly dropped to -25C. “Everybody was frozen, the equipment was breaking; to get the camera from one place to another was a nightmare,” he said. But he pointed out that there were no serious injuries on set and insisted safety was always prioritised.

Financier Brad Weston of production company New Regency said The Revenant faced unprecedented difficulties in order to achieve realism. “This was a tough movie. We always knew it was a tough movie,” Weston told the Hollywood Reporter. “We were in uncharted territory. Everyone who came aboard this project, cast and crew alike, understood this going in and we all support Alejandro and his vision. The performances are extraordinary and the film is great.” He said he would have no hesitation backing a future Iñárritu project.

Iñárritu was keen to deflect suggestions of profligacy, saying he was “stupidly conscious” about budgetary restraints. He asked for critics to wait until they had seen the movie, which is due in US cinemas on 25 December and is expected to enter the awards season conversation ahead of February’s Oscars. “When you see the film, you will see the scale of it,” said Iñárritu. “And you will say, ‘Wow.’”

wv wrote:

based on what I’ve seen
the director was right not to use
CGI and stick to natural light

I couldn’t agree more.

It’s already apparent in just the trailer.