MovieChat Forums > Billy Bathgate (1991) Discussion > spoiler: whats with the writers?

spoiler: whats with the writers?

posted 18 years ago by haneyfamily47630
2 replies | jump to latest

Someone really made a mistake with the ending. I think the ending in the book was fantastic.I think if they kept the original ending, it might have done better at the box office. It points out that all of schultz' top men were killed with him. To this day there are people digging up parts of upper NY looking for the dutchmans loot. It was more upbeat,I thought. Even if you weren't too crazy about the movie,
the book was a good read. I always thought James Remar made a good Dutch in The Cotton Club.

mondo

[–] BartlebyScrivner 18 years ago

Supposedly, they DID film the book's ending, but it got cut.

This film has long been one of the film industry's dirty little secrets. Leading up to its premier, there was a nightmarish struggle on set between the writers, director, and producer regarding how the movie was going to be shot and then marketed. It's pretty hard to come across "making of" information on the film because everyone involved got tight-lipped in the aftermath; but from what I've been able to glean, the movie was originally a lot closer to the book, and stuff ending up getting cut out in post-production by power hungry producers and distribution executives who wanted a different product. Before "Waterworld" traipsed along a few years later, this was actually one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history; since Disney bankrolled it, though, they had the cash to do some good PR work and sweep it under the rug.

[–] 18 years ago

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