The Director of Halle Berry's CATWOMAN Talks About The Script Being a "Big Problem"
As Halle Berry’s Catwoman movie celebrates its 20th anniversary, the director of the film, Jean-Christophe "Pitof" Comar, sat down for an interview with CinemaBlend to talk about various aspects of the movie and what went wrong.
If you’ve seen the 2004 film, you know how bad it is, and one of the main reasons it’s so bad is the awful script that was written. Pitof addressed the script in the interview saying it was a big problem, but he thrived under the pressure of that the studio was putting on him.
He said: “After the shoot, when we put the movie together, it didn't work because so much (had) changed during shooting. The pieces were not really fitting together.
“We had to rethink completely the whole edit, inverting scenes and adding new scenes. And we had a 10 day reshoot a month before release date! Which is insane!
“To fix all the little problems the script had. So I never had the option to have a director’s cut. It was more of, ‘Okay, how can we fix it?’”
Trying to fix a poorly written script in editing is not an easy task as that script serves as the foundation for the movie and if that didn’t work, how can you really make the movie work?
Pitof went on to say that Catwoman began shooting with an unfinished script, and if he had more time, he would have put more work into making the script better. But, they were working against a tight deadline.
The director said: “I would say the problem of the movie was the script. The script, we all know, had been rewritten a thousand times. When we started the movie at the shoot, the script was not finished.
“We still kept writing the script while editing. So if I had six months (of additional time), I would've put six months before production. Not after!”
Catwoman was not well received, it was panned by critics and fans, and it completely bombed at the box office. Berry was even awarded a Razzie for her performance, and she famously showed up to the ceremony with her Oscar in hand to accept her reward, which was great!
Catwoman follows the transformation of Patience Phillips, a timid and unassuming graphic designer, into the fierce and agile Catwoman. After discovering a dark secret about her employer, a cosmetics company developing a dangerous anti-aging product, Patience is murdered to keep her silent.
However, she is mysteriously resurrected by an Egyptian Mau cat and endowed with cat-like abilities, including heightened senses, agility, and strength. Embracing her new persona as Catwoman, Patience embarks on a journey of self-discovery and vengeance, seeking to expose the corrupt corporation while balancing her dual identity.
As she navigates her newfound powers and struggles with her own moral compass, she finds herself drawn into a complicated relationship with a detective investigating the series of crimes linked to her alter ego.