Jamie Foxx DIDN'T change the ending to Law Abiding Citizen

The original discussion for this is here.

Yesterday, I asked if anyone could find a source for the idea that Jamie Foxx had the ending to Law Abiding Citizen changed. Before that, this bit of IMDB Trivia was the only evidence I could find that related to it:

"While Gerard Butler was originally signed and announced to play the role of Nick Rice, there are divergent stories about how Jamie Foxx took on that role and Butler was re-cast as Cylde Shelton. In one version, Foxx called the producers and asked if Butler would like to play Clyde Shelton instead, as he liked the role of Nick. When the producers approached Butler about playing Clyde, he thought about it for a second and reportedly said 'Jamie as Nick... and me as Clyde? That would be awesome!' However, Butler also said in an interview that HE suggested the role switch between himself and Foxx via his role as a producer on the film. Butler also said that he initially regretted that this idea was implemented by the other producers, but added that the entire process worked out well for the project."

Thankfully, /u/carltonfisk72 jumped in and was able to provide answers. (FWIW, I did check through their profile and either they've been faking being a producer for a while now or their story checks out.):

"That second story is pretty accurate: the producers (Butler being one of them) came up with the idea for the switch, and approached Jaime.  Butler always liked the decision; Clyde has all the fun lines.

Jamie Fox never 'Changed' anything. Though he was the star, he didn't have any producorial authority. He could just veto or approve changes. But he never spent any time doing notes or revisions.

There were many, many endings however. Widely varied in scope and tone. The script had dozens of versions written by Kurt Wimmer over many years. During prep, there were full rewrites done by Frank Darabont and David Ayer.  Also, the script was re-written during filming, up until the very end.

Source: I worked for the Production company, and was involved in many aspects of the film, so AMA (mostly) if you'd like."

Since they asked, I prodded a bit further to clear things up:

"Was one of those script ending rewrites necessitated on a decision by Foxx to make his character better? I.e. Is the ending we got, the one that was always on paper? Or when you say full rewrites, does that include everything, including the ending?"

To which /u/carltonfisk72 responded:

 >"Two answers: Micro and Marco.

Micro: It wasn't just Foxx, but everyone was concerned about how to wrap up the Nick Rice character. Would he actually kill Clyde? Allow him to be killed? Would that make him unlikeable? It's so close to the ending that he couldn't be reddemed? Etc.  So Clyde had to do something really 'Bad' (ie, kill the mayor), and refuse to call it off, even when Nick changed his ways.

Macro answer is that the scripts varied wildly. One version had Nick going full bad guy, killing Clyde by hand, and then once he's arrested and in jail for murder, tells the new DA 'let's make a deal' - ie, he's now become just like Clyde.  Another version had Clyde finding Nick's family at the safehouse, and threaten to kill them with a bomb strapped to his chest. He and Nick have their final showdown, and when Clyde finally feels Nick is a changed man, he provokes the sniper (Colm Meany) and gets killed. Nick rushes up and sees the bombs were fake, and Clyde never would have hurt the family. Most versions featured the bomb suitcase blowing up the prison cell, however. (With Nick saying 'Vaya con dios, Fuckhead!' in one version!)"

They even ended with another little disclaimer about some more bad info about this movie:

"I'm always happy do correct bad info... I'd say that about half the items on the IMDB trivia page for LAC are straight-up inventions.  (1st,2nd,3rd,5th,8th,9th..)."

So there you have it. Whether you like it or hate it, it seems the ending we got was mulled over just as much as we on the internet do. And if it was changed, it was EVERYONE involved, not just Jamie Foxx.

Hopefully that's one internet rumor that can be put to rest now. Thanks again to /u/carltonfisk72!

Submitted June 22, 2019 at 06:22PM by omegansmiles http://bit.ly/2Y3mHX3