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The timeless Hollywood power struggle—studio wants a prestige picture that will appeal to as many moviegoers as possible, director just wants to get his fucking vision on the screen, if you don't mind—is on full display with Warner Bros. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Suffering at points in its post-production phase from a running time as unwieldy as its title, and a general divergence of above-the-line creative opinion, the upcoming Brad Pitt Western has been gathering dreaded Bad Buzz, the LAT reports, as the cavalry is being called in to oversee the cobbling together of alternate, more test-score-friendly cuts:

[Writer-director Andrew] Dominik, a New Zealand filmmaker who rose to prominence with the 2000 crime drama "Chopper" starring Eric Bana, wanted to deliver a dark, contemplative examination of fame and infamy, in the spirit of director Terrence Malick ("The New World"), according to several people familiar with the production. The studio, on the other hand, wanted less contemplation and more action, closer to Clint Eastwood's filmmaking style, sources said. [...]

Various versions of the film were assembled and tested, with Pitt, producer Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") and editor Michael Kahn ("Saving Private Ryan") either overseeing new cuts of the film or suggesting revisions, according to people familiar with the process.

Early test scores were poor, but some who have seen the film say the performances by Pitt and especially [Casey] Affleck are among the best in their careers.

We can only hope relative Hollywood newbie Dominik will eventually come to terms with the studio-mandated changes to his film, ultimately agreeing that a final, tacked-on sequence was exactly what Jesse James needed to reach an emotionally resonant and dramatically satisfying climax. Surely, test audiences would give the movie glowing marks if it culminated in the star stripping off his torso-obscuring, old-timey shirt and wool vest, thus allowing his chiseled abs to glisten in the honey light of the setting sun as he faces down his yellow-bellied assassin for a CGI-enhanced bullet-time shoot-out.

[Photo: Kimberley French / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.]