David Mackenzie has opened up about the changes he made to Outlaw King after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival back in September, admitting that he didn’t like the version that was screened and insisting that it was a work in progress.
Since then Mackenzie has taken over 20 minutes off “Outlaw King,” while also rejigging sections, too, and during our recent discussion about the Netflix medieval war epic I decided to quiz him about this process.
“I showed a work in progress cut at Toronto,” Mackenzie recalled, before candidly declaring, “I didn’t like it. It was running long and I had a few itches to scratch.”
“So I took the opportunity, and was allowed the opportunity, to change the film and make it closer to the way I thought it should be.”
“It was an intense experience showing it at Toronto. I didn’t really want to call it a work in progress. But it was. We had to rush it.”
“Now I have had a chance to see the dust settled. I have taken 22 minutes out of the film and reemphasized things here and there. I think it plays a lot better.”
Mackenzie was more than happy to break down how he ultimately improved “Outlaw King,” insisting that it was actually “a weird case of less being more.”
“There are some character things that come together, you think by having more of the character you get more of an impact. But less is more means taking stuff out to create links that connect.”
“It is an interesting process. We shot so much material for the film. Because every day we were improvising and finding stuff.”
“So it was hard to settle in and find the movie that was the best way forward. I believe we have found that now.”
“Outlaw King” is now available on Netflix.
