NEW YORK — British filmmaker Joe Wright is willing to cater to American tastes with the saccharine ending of his film Pride & Prejudice.
“I met a guy who makes champagne,” Wright says, “and he told me that, in the champagne marketed in the U.S., there are 20 more grams of sugar than in the champagne that they market in Europe. I guess, in America, you just like a little more sugar in your champagne.”
Unfortunately, Canadians get the sweetened American bubbly when Pride & Prejudice opens today.
And Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who co-stars as Mr. Bennet in the film, tells the Sun he loves the film, but is disappointed that North Americans will not see the superior English version. Without the tacked-on fairytale ending.
It is a matter of trust — or distrust, in this case — of the audience, Sutherland says. “You see, that’s the thing.”
Hollywood tries too hard to tell audiences what to feel, he says. “It’s not for us to demonstrate it. You have to understand that the audience is way ahead of you in those kinds of things.”
