Even more of a happy ending model than is seen in the final version. And we said ‘we thought there was this whole high concept thing.’ ‘No you don’t need any of that’.įollowing Reiner’s input, the ending was still different, apparently.
#GOOD WILL HUNTING SEQUEL MOVIE#
We can do that? ‘Yeah its enough just to make the movie about these guys. Rob Riener sat with us for script meeting and said ‘why don’t you guys take all that stuff out?’ Wait a minute. “The original script that we sold had this high concept thing where the government was trying to get Will. Rob Reiner helped them sort that all out: That’s a terrible idea.’ Gus said ‘no I really want to see what would happen.’ So we did a whole new draft but we still didn’t like the idea, then Gus read it said ‘okay its a terrible idea let’s go back to what we had’.”īut way before all that, “Good Will Hunting” had additional conspiracy plot. ‘What are you talking about’ ‘I want him to get crushed like a bug.’ We said ‘Gus what are you talking about? You cant just fucking smush Ben. Gus came down and said ‘I want to do a draft where Chucky, Ben’s character, dies on the construction site.’ And Ben and I were just mortified. In an interview with Tom Shone for The Times, the actor shares how Gus Van Sant would have ended it had he deviated from the Oscar-winning script:Īt one point after Gus became involved I was shooting The Rainmaker in Memphis and everyone came down for script meeting.
Maybe you’d also have preferred to see Affleck’s character crushed to death in a construction accident? That was another possible idea, according to Damon. Or the need for Will’s note saying he “had to see about a girl.” Maybe you’d have preferred it that way. If the original ending for “Good Will Hunting” had stuck, Matt Damon would have gone away with Minnie Driver earlier and there wouldn’t have been the need for Ben Affleck’s speech about his favorite ten seconds of every day.