Home Entertainment Life director Daniel Espinosa would’ve left the project if the studio wanted the ending changed

Life director Daniel Espinosa would’ve left the project if the studio wanted the ending changed

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Please note that this article will contain some subtle spoilers from the movie Life, so if you want to watch it and enjoy its conclusion the way it was intended, I would suggest clicking the back button right now and moving on. For those that have seen it or couldn’t really care – read on:

Life was by no means a perfect sci-fi horror, but one thing that the film had going for it, was its strong ending. It was one of those conclusions that kept you wondering and filled with dread, which is what you want from any good horror film. The ending is a little dark though, which is always controversial when it comes to securing studio support.

And for director Daniel Espinosa, that ending was the most vital part of the story when he first looked at the script. So vital that while he was willing to negotiate other parts of the movie, if the studio had wanted to change the ending, he would have left the project. The director shared this revelation with Business Insider in an interview:

I thought that the ending was so surprising. When I went to the first meeting about the script I told them my vision about how I wanted to do the movie, but at the end of the meeting I had to confront them and ask sincerely if they want to make this ending. Because if they wanted to do this as a competition and test-screen different endings and find which works best, as what’s often done, I said to them we might want to go our separate ways.

For Espinosa though it appeared the studio was supportive in keeping the idea for the ending and allowed him to go ahead with his pessimistic ending:

Which was astounding to me. To have a studio that would actually support you about the finality of the picture. It was never debated.

Espinosa is no slouch as a director, but he’s not yet in the A-list where studios pretty much let directors do whatever they want, so it’s nice to see the studio support the vision of the young director. The film is certainly better off for it and its always great to watch a movie that leaves you thinking about its consequences long after you’ve watched it.

Last Updated: March 29, 2017

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