Brutal backstory to Sandra Bullock’s biggest movie

This Oscar-winning box office smash came after the director experienced a “complete commercial flop” and was desperate for a hit.

The 2013 science fiction epic Gravity was a critical smash, a box office hit and a seven-time Oscar winning film.

But as director Alfonso Cuarón reveals in a new interview, the film’s genesis came after he’d experienced a “complete commercial flop” and was in need of a film that would “let a studio give me a cheque.”

The Mexican filmmaker’s previous film, 2006’s Children of Men, has gained a reputation in the ensuing years as one of the best films of the 21st century. It’s easy to forget that upon release, the dystopian thriller about a humanity in chaos when birthrates plummet was a box-office flop.

Despite glowing reviews, the Clive Owen-starring film which cost $US76 million to make only earned $US70 million at the box office. Cuarón would not make a film for another seven years.

Children of Men is considered a modern classic – but it was a box-office flop.

“After Children of Men, which was a complete commercial flop, the appetite to work with me plummeted,” he told Deadline in a new interview.

He revealed that he started developing a new film with his son, featuring two French stars on a road trip, but “it was very difficult to finance and the film fell apart.”

Cuarón, who had previously directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, was “completely out of money” and knew he needed a sure-fire hit.

Working again with his son, Jonás, he set himself a task: To “write something but no arty s**t.” Instead, a screenplay “that would let a studio give me a cheque.”

Gravity was the result – a nailbiting sci-fi epic with an incredible central performance from Sandra Bullock as an astronaut trapped in space after the destruction of her shuttle.

Gravity made 10 times the box office of Children of Men.

Cuarón told Deadline that Gravity had a few bumps before it was released: Studio Warner Bros. insisted he show the film to test audiences to gauge reaction, but made him do so before the film’s spectacular special effects were finished.

Understandably, the noticeably unfinished film tested poorly with those early audiences, which then made the studio lose interest in it – interest that was only re-sparked when the finished movie was met with a rapturous reception at film festivals.

In the end, Gravity was that rare cinema double whammy: A massive box office hit that also earned near-universal critical acclaim. Earning a mammoth $US730m at the global box office against a budget of around $US100m, Gravity earned 10 nominations at the 2014 Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars including the coveted Best Director for Cuarón.

Despite that career-righting success, Cuarón has only released one more film in the decade since Gravity: 2018’s Netflix release Roma.