Britney Spears’ career is full of boundary-pushing moves, but the original plot for her music video “Perfume” was reportedly too much to handle and axed by her label. On Tuesday, director Joseph Kahn confirmed details of what could have been the pop star’s most controversial visual in years.
It all started when a reported draft of the original “Perfume” treatment made its way to one of Spears’ fan message boards. According to the user, Spears was to play a hitman who falls in love with the target of her next assignment. As she begins to pull the trigger on her new lover, the singer lets her feelings get the best of her, aborts the mission and leaves town.
Spears’ decision to leave her duties behind catches up to her when she is taken by other assassins and beaten in a hotel room. As the video concludes, time passes on and her lover finds a new woman, but he remains hung up on Spears until her body in the hotel room disintegrates into ashes. Talk about dramatic!
“They turned the video into a cheating scandal rather than it’s (sic) true storyline exploring the idea of sacrifice because her team thought it would put a lot of media attention on Britney that would be negative,” the fan added.
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Kahn caught wind of the leaked treatment and took to Twitter to admit that it was the “basic concept of the video.” As for which details Kahn specifies are inaccurate, he said: “I decided to kill the ash stuff before shooting and keep it more grounded at the end.”
Someone read the original treatment of PERFUME and then claimed to have seen the edit, which they obviously did not. Close though.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 22, 2014
My fear is some rogue intern at the label will eventually leak Perfume but it will be an ungraded, unfinished rough cut.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 22, 2014
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In addition to the original plot, the user provided before and after screen captures from the video that aren’t in the released version. In the first “before” image, a bruised up Spears is seen crying on the floor. In the “after” image, Spears is still visibly upset but all of her bruises are gone.
Some are guessing this is Photoshop work courtesy of Kahn, who did reveal way back when that he had to completely rearrange the footage to create a brand-new story line for the video. As for the leaked photos, Kahn said the images didn’t come from him, but he didn’t deny their authenticity.
That image didn't come from us. We delivered all materials to label and wiped our drives.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 22, 2014
What do you think of the reported “Perfume” video treatment? Tell us below.
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