Dustin Lance Black funnelled his cash into Virginia
Scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black funnelled his own cash into Virginia to pay for re-editing after the Jennifer Connelly movie bombed at its debut.
The Milk writer makes his directorial debut with the drama, which stars Connelly as Virginia, a mentally troubled woman who has an affair with a married sheriff, played by Ed Harris.
The film, originally titled What's Wrong With Virginia, premiered
to largely negative reviews at the 2010 Toronto International Film
Festival, prompting Black to head back into the editing room.
Now he admits he was forced to cough up his own money to complete
the passion project to his liking.
He tells New York Magazine, "We never felt we had enough time in
the editing room... We didn't even have time to watch it with an
audience. We showed it to friends and family - which I'm now
thinking is a terrible idea, because they're always going to say
they love it and that's not very helpful. And although the
audiences in Toronto were very supportive, just watching the film
through their eyes, I felt like I was watching a film that didn't
know if it was a drama or a comedy, until maybe about an hour in.
For me, that was too late in the film.
"And for the critics, that was definitely too late in the film. And
I got beaten up by critics, in some ways deservedly so. So I went
to my producer... and I said, 'We have to cut this thing.' It was
tough, because we had distribution offers, and people said, 'If you
don't take them now, these will go away.' So it was a bit of a
fight. I had to pony up some of the money for the re-edit."
But Black reveals he did have some help from celebrated filmmaker
Gus Van Sant: "He told me a story about re-cutting a film (Even
Cowgirls Get the Blues) that didn't go well, and gave me some
advice about what to watch out for."