{"id":897758,"date":"2026-09-19T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897758\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:12:23","slug":"heart-of-the-beast-had-competing-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897758\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Heart of the Beast&#8221; Had Competing Cuts?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/heart-of-the-beast-had-competing-cuts.jpg\" data-caption=\"Paramount Pictures\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/heart-of-the-beast-had-competing-cuts.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"heart-of-the-beast-had-competing-cuts\"\/><\/a>Paramount Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Two quite different versions of the Brad Pitt-led survival film \u201cHeart of the Beast\u201d competed during testing of the movie, according to a new report.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/newsletter_archives\/what-im-hearing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Puck News<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldofreel.com\/blog\/2026\/9\/18\/brad-pitt-and-david-ayer-clashed-over-heart-of-the-beast-final-cut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WoR<\/a>) indicates there were competing cuts of the film as Pitt and director David Ayer disagreed on the tone.  Ayer had a \u2018broader cut\u2019 which tested better, Pitt\u2019s was more \u2018esoteric\u2019 and was approved by some of the producers \u2013 including filmmaker Damien Chazelle.<\/p>\n<p>Studio chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein extended the post-production schedule, and the result is that the finished film is essentially Ayer\u2019s cut but has been \u201cshaped throughout by Pitt\u2019s input\u201d.  Either way, test screening reactions were said to be quite good.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Alexander penned the film which begins after a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont (Pitt) and his German Shepherd combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness.<\/p>\n<p>Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements. The intense adventure thriller explores the unbreakable bond between a man and his best friend as they face their greatest battle yet.<\/p>\n<p>J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe co-star in the film which is set to open in cinemas on September 25th.<\/p>\n<p>Previous article<a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkhorizons.com\/2001-inspiring-zach-creggers-the-flood\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201c2001\u201d Inspired Zach Cregger\u2019s \u201cThe Flood\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next article<a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkhorizons.com\/sweet-magnolias-canceled-at-netflix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cSweet Magnolias\u201d Canceled At Netflix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount Pictures Two quite different versions of the Brad Pitt-led survival film \u201cHeart of the Beast\u201d competed during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-897758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}