Babylon A.D. Director Mathieu Kassovitz Blasts Fox Over His Film

Babylon A.D. hits theaters on August 29 and of all people that should be happy about it, the director, isn't. AMC has posted an interview with French director Mathieu Kassovitz, who expressed his dissent over the finished product.

"I'm very unhappy with the film," Kassovitz says. "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."

Kassovitz was attracted to the book Babylon Babies, by French author Maurice Georges Dantrec, because, "the author was very much into geopolitics and how the world is going to evolve. He saw that as wars evolve, it won't be just about territories any more, but money-driven politics." However, Kassovitz said the film strays from these messages.

"It's pure violence and stupidity," he admits. "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters... instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."

Kassovitz said that the studio made things more difficult for the production and that they cut about 15 minutes from the film, leaving just a 93-minute runtime. The director doesn't despise his new film completely, though.

"I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I'm happy with," he says. "But I know what I had -- I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn't allowed to work."

Babylon A.D. will hit theaters on August 29.