The second directorial venture of Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is Don’t Worry Darling stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in the lead with the supporting cast including Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Kiki Layne and Sydney Chandler. The film’s story circles around the people who are living in an experimental community, things take a turn when a housewife starts to suspect that her husband’s company is hiding disturbing secrets. Promotional material for the film has been circulating around in theatres for a while. The film’s trailer looked quite pretty and had an eerie vibe to it. While Wilde is directing the film, the screenplay of the film is by Katie Silberman, based on a story by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke and Silberman.
The film had its premiere at the 79th Annual Venice Film Festival that took place between 31st August and 10th September. The critics and journalists who saw the film in attendance have given their first impressions and reviews of the film and needless to say that the film is being roasted. Currently, the film is graded “Rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes. However, more than the film the controversies around the film’s production and promotion have set the internet on fire. While we’re all aware of the “Spitting Incident” between Harry Styles and Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival, there is another feud that started on the sets of the film. The feud between director Olivia Wilde and lead star Florence Pugh, the details of the same have been revealed.
Don’t Worry Darling: Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh Had Screaming Matches On-Set?
While the scandal at the Venice Film Festival turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding, this feud is not the same. The beef between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh was talked about for months but we didn’t have details. That changes today. The film had gone through a very difficult production and it all started with Wilde firing Shia LaBeouf from the film but then LaBeouf releasing a video of Wilde begging him to not quit the film.
Once that was over, Harry Styles was cast in place of LaBeouf and things should’ve been smooth from there but they weren’t. Reportedly, Wilde starting seeing Styles on the sets of Don’t Worry Darling while still being in a relationship with Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso). Sudeikis even visited the sets very often with their children while the affair was going on. A sexual relationship between director and actor during the production of a film is bad enough what’s worse is letting it affect the film.
Wilde and Styles reportedly would skip shoots and no one had any idea where there were. Wilde and Styles frequently disappeared on-set, making Pugh naturally very unhappy. As Vulture reports through an anonymous source that spent time on the sets of the film, this led to screaming matches between Wilde and Pugh during filming in January 2021. Executive of Warner Bros. at the time Toby Emmerich had to help negotiate between Pugh and Wilde, which resulted in Pugh doing very little press for Don’t Worry Darling.
Another reason why Pugh was upset is the way the film was marketed. She felt like the movie was marketed with a focus on the sex appeal of her and Styles’ characters. Pugh ended up doing no press for the film besides from appearing at the Venice Film Festival for the film’s premiere. Although, to be honest the film lacked press in general. However, fans have spotted miniscule details of the feud right up to the fact that Pugh didn’t like any posts from Wilde on Instagram.
Despite the limited press and the horrible reviews of the film it feels like the film might actually benefit from these controversies as they’ll act as promotion for the film. So, Florence Pugh not doing any press might not hurt the film at the box office but that is something we’ll have to see. The preview collections of the film are quite solid with $3.1 Million. The film has been made on a budget of $20 Million, so it is possible it could generate a profit. The film currently has a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.2/10 on IMDb. This might change after the film releases but for now it looks pretty grim.
Don’t Worry Darling is currently playing in theatres near you and is slated to release in India on 30th September 2022.
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