What Just Happened

Ben, a veteran Hollywood producer, Robert De Niro is at the heart of a storm of professional and personal crises as his latest film, Fiercely, collapses during a brutal test screening. The controversial ending shows the murder of the film’s main character and his dog, provoking questions about tone, intent, and the price of artistic risk.

Ben and his maverick British director Michael Wincott Jeremy Brunell press their case before studio executive Catherine Keener Lou Tarnow, who accuses Ben of using the dog’s death as a bargaining chip to force cuts elsewhere. She threatens to pull the film from Cannes and take over editing unless that moment is removed, while Jeremy digs in and refuses to back down.

On the personal front, Ben struggles to sever ties with his second wife, Kelly, played by Robin Wright. She is secretly having an affair with Stanley Tucci as Scott Solomon, a married screenwriter with a project he’s trying to shepherd to life, attracting attention and stirring tensions—indeed, even hinting at connections to a notable star being attached to the project. This tangled love affair complicates every choice about Fiercely’s future.

Meanwhile, the studio fears bad press and financial risk around a planned Bruce Willis project, given the star’s stubborn insistence on keeping his beard. Ben’s career hinges on the film’s fate, and any effort to reason with Willis is met with a forceful, unyielding response that threatens to derail the entire production.

Jeremy ultimately relents and re-edits the ending to let the dog survive. Ben tries to persuade Willis’s agent, John Turturro as Dick Bell, to convince the actor to shave the beard; the attempt backfires, and Dick is fired. In the end, Willis does shave, and production continues.

A week later, Ben, Lou, and Jeremy attend Cannes, hopeful for a Palme d’Or. But without telling Ben or Lou, Jeremy has re-edited Fiercely again—this time not only killing the dog but adding nearly a full minute of bullets into the protagonists’ bodies. The new ending destroys the film’s chances at the top prize and provokes mixed reactions, though some in the audience—including Sean Penn—applaud the daring move. Lou leaves Cannes on the studio’s private jet, leaving Ben stranded in France.

Back home, Ben participates in a Vanity Fair photo shoot featuring Hollywood’s top producers, but the debacle casts a long shadow. Once the magazine’s publishers hear about Cannes, Ben’s standing is diminished, and he is relegated to the far edge of the frame, a stark symbol of how quickly fortune can shift in the movie business.

Last Updated: October 05, 2025 at 11:27