1) An Enormous Amount Of Time And Money Has Been Spent On Getting It Right
The Revenant began filming in October 2014. It wrapped in August 2015. That’s ten months of shooting spent in Canada and – when Canada stopped being snowy enough – southern Argentina.
The shoot should have finished in April, but days, weeks, months went by as Lubezki and Inarritu attempted to get certain shots right in their short daily window of appropriate natural light. Crew members came and went as Iñárritu dismissed those he considered “out of tune.” CGI was out of the question, too – this is the rare period piece in which everything was done in-camera.
Naturally, the film’s price tag ballooned from an original $60 million to a now-estimated $135 million, as Iñárritu and team searched for perfection. So what you have now is a film made by a group of people who, with their high standards, wanted to make the best film they’d ever made.
For some insane reason, Hollywood execs thought they were onto enough of a winner to give them the money to do it. Now all we have to do is wait and see the result.