You've probably never even heard of Wayne Kramer's immigration drama Crossing Over - that would primarily be down to The Weinstein Company taking the film away from Kramer, recutting it into something the director barely recognised as his, and releasing something critics decided to gift just a 16% Rotten Tomatoes score to. The Weinsteins are just nice that way. Apparently, at least 25 minutes were lopped off the film - about immigrants struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles - and included in that deleted footage was none other than double Oscar-winner Sean Penn. Originally, Penn was one of Crossing Over's marquee names, starring in the role of an immigration cop. Oddly, it was not the Weinsteins but Penn who asked for his character to be removed from the film, allegedly because he disagreed with an honour-killing subplot and the way it portrayed the Iranian characters. Other reports, meanwhile, suggest Penn just wanted out of a rubbish film, which is probably just as likely.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
