Studio intervention is a recurring issue on uncountable Hollywood projects. We have seen one of its most popular examples in the Josstice League and the failure of the DCEU. Meddling with the vision of the director is a very bad move in most cases.

Edward Norton also faced a similar situation with his Kingdom of Heaven which later turned out to be one of his most regretted projects. The Ridley Scott movie was forced by the studio to cut its runtime and it turned out to be devastating.

Kingdom of Heaven

After being seen in some of the most renowned movies like Fight Club and The Incredible Hulk, Edward Norton played the role of the masked King Baldwin IV in Kingdom of Heaven.

He was kept uncredited from all the trailers and posters as the actor wanted the audience to stay in suspense. However, the collaboration with Ridley Scott went wrong due to all the odd reasons.

Edward Norton blamed the studio for the Kingdom of Heaven

Edward Norton in the Kingdom of Heaven

When the Kingdom of Heaven was originally released in 2005, it was an extremely disappointing feature from the man who helmed projects like Gladiator and Alien. But later, the release of a director’s cut proved that the failure was largely a result of studio intervention.

Even though Edward Norton didn’t watch the director’s cut, he agreed that the script was wonderful, and he felt bad for Ridley Scott and writer William Monahan when the movie failed.

During an interview with The Guardian, Norton admitted that the film would have worked far better as a three-hour feature and called it out as the worst decision by the studio.
“It was a really wonderful script, and it should have been a three-hour film. It was one of those classic Hollywood dynamics where someone else’s film comes out at three hours long and fails, so that means that yours can’t be three hours long either. It was all the worst kind of corporate decision-making.”

Ridley Scott also alleged that the heavy editing affected the movie in every aspect and it resulted in a disappointment at the domestic box office. The director also blamed the domestic failure on equally bad advertising. However, it did a pleasant overseas collection and ended up with $218 million against a budget of $130 million.

How was Edward Norton cast in the movie?

Edward Norton

The Kingdom of Heaven consists of an ensemble cast including Orlando Bloom, Edward Norton, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, and many others. Norton added that initially he was not involved as deeply with the project. The American History X actor got attached to the project as his company wanted to make a movie with Ridley Scott for a long time.

Edward Norton also had some prior commitments due to which the actor didn’t want to associate with the project initially. But he was intrigued by the character in the mask and asked the director about it. Upon knowing that the role would not take much of his time, and out of curiosity, the actor took the role of King Baldwin IV.

“I asked who was playing the guy in the mask. And he said he was just going to get a guy who could do a voice like James Mason’s. And I said I could do a pretty good James Mason. And when he said it would only take two weeks, I just had this thing in my head: I just wanted to see someone make a movie on that scale.”

The Academy-Award-nominated actor couldn’t stop praising the director and stated that he knew the art of making grand-scale movies. Ridley Scott is all set to release his Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix this year and Gladiator 2 with Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington which will be released in November 2024.