-- getting the section url from article. This has been done so that correct url is HOLLYWOOD S golden boy, Brad Pitt, is facing his first cinematic flop a film about the brutal life and death of his boyhood hero, the bank robber Jesse James.
Warner Brothers, which co-funded the film, has failed to persuade the star to change The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford from a leisurely poetic film into an action-packed crowd-pleaser, or even to shorten its title.
As a result studio executives have decided to put the film into a small number of American art house cinemas and cut back on advertising. Commercial failure could cost Pitt millions as he was an investor in the 20m production.
More importantly, it could affect his ambitions to make more than 20 independent films through his own company, Plan B, including projects with Angelina Jolie, his girlfriend, and Jennifer Aniston, his former wife.
For Pitt, 43, James is personal.
Pitt was brought up in Missouri, where James was born and is still regarded as a freedom fighter against the northern victors in the civil war. James became famous through letters he sent to southern newspapers claiming he only robbed banks and trains owned by rich carpetbaggers from the north.
For nearly 20 years he evaded the law but in 1882 he was shot dead by his cousin Robert Ford for a reward.
I have been trying to make this film for years, Pitt said recently. I was concerned that I was already too old, because I am ancient by Hollywood standards and Jesse James was just 34 when he died. But then the opportunity came along, and I turned down maybe more lucrative films to do it.
I only hope the people like it.
Pitt reportedly sat at the back during a test screening in Los Angeles where viewers were questioned about a rough cut of the film. Some said that at three hours it was too long.
Others said it was saved by stunning photography from Roger Deakins, the British-born cinematographer.
At one point, insiders claim, there were up to half a dozen different versions of the film in rival editing suites as Pitt and Andrew Dominik, the director, raced against the clock to produce a final cut before Warners halted its funding.
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