Ghosted Director Reveals Major Changes Made to Movie Because It Premiered on Streaming

Ghosted has been on Apple TV+ for a little over a week, but it is already becoming buzzed about for a lot of reasons. The film, which is the latest onscreen collaboration between Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, marries action with rom com tropes in some fun ways — but apparently, the original pitch for the film was even more ambitious. During a recent appearance on Alex Zane's A Trip to the Movies podcast, director Dexter Fletcher revealed some of the changes that were made once Ghosted was confirmed for streaming — including cutting out a massive opening sequence that would have homaged the 1978 film Foul Play. 

"You can't make a film for streaming the same way you do for theatrical," Fletcher explained. "There are different metrics and approaches. There has to be, for the very reason that people can turn off very quickly."

"I thought it was great, this three-minute opening scene, and they said you can't do it because if it [the opening sequence] goes on and something doesn't happen in the first 30 seconds, we know the data shows that people will just turn off," Fletcher continued. "I don't want that, so I make the compromise."

What is Ghosted about?

In Ghosted, salt-of-the-earth Cole (Chris Evans) falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie (de Armas) -but then makes the shocking discovery that she's a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world. The film also stars Adrien Brody, Mike Moh, Amy Sedaris, and Tate Donovan. It is directed by Dexter Fletcher, with a screenplay from Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers.

"That type of movie's very much up my alley," Evans explained during a recent appearance at Chicago's C2E2 convention. "[Rhett] Reese and [Paul] Wernick, a couple of writers who did Deadpool, they're fantastic. They pitched me the idea and I was like, 'I love it.' It felt like a 90s movie. It felt like something that is just fun. It's very rewatchable, [a] good hangover mode, and I don't know if I see those enough these days. We mentioned a little bit of like, not like a cynical thing audiences have seen a lot, you know what I mean? There's very high expectations, and sometimes movies like that are just great, if they're done well. I really liked it. And the role itself was really attractive, because I got to be so incapable. He's the audience. It's always fun playing the eyes of the audience. The more panicked I was, the more I go to pieces, not only the funnier it is, but the more connectivity you have to the people watching, because that's probably what most of us in here would do. [It's] certainly what I would do in circumstances like that."

"Plus getting to work with Ana again... she's fantastic," Evans added. "We've done a few things together now, and she's great. She throws herself into everything completely. The first action sequence we had, she was doing things that were on Black Widow level. Truly unbelievable stunt work, where I was like, 'Wow, you've been doing your stunt training.' She really went for it. I mean, we all saw that in Bond, too. I mean, she was she was so good in Bond. So effortlessly cool. So yeah, that was a bit of a no brainer."

Are you excited for Ghosted? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Ghosted is now available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+.