Indeed, no one asked for this project!

What took 2 years and a half to be done (and mostly few hours to be taken down) was nothing more than another personal challenge on the Internet, but motivated by the tiny frustration I felt when watching of the show.

Don't get me wrong: this show is outrageously great. More: by many aspects, it's could be better than Breaking Bad. For instance, the Jimmy and Kim love story treatment, that never gets over the top. Or the villains treatment, like Lalo, who at last depicts a bad guy which is not pure crazy, or pure evil, but on the contrary shows a cool side so deep that it's way more alarming. Again with the thrill that drives Jimmy through his different identities, it just feels tangible.

Yet, I would have loved to witness more of the transformation from Jimmy to Saul, and then from "Better Call Saul!" 's Saul to "Breaking Bad" 's Saul; one cut in the show. Even the goodbye of the main couple felt so rushed it left me sadly not sad enough.

All this led me to think: with a feature length format, could I put more emphasis on those few moments so I could develop them even more?

To achieve that, I divided the movie in three parts: The first one, entitled "Slippin' Jimmy", is about Jimmy and his struggles with his brother that turn him into Saul. The second one, entitled "Better Call Saul", is — you guessed it — the arc of Saul Goodman, mainly focused on his fight with Howard leading to his doom. Finally, the third part, entitled "Breaking Bad", is more of an epilogue on what our two main characters will eventually become, for we don't have any Breaking Bad material to add in the mix.

Did I succeed? Quién sabe. But if you enter this project with an open mind, and with the curiosity of having the story you know and love told to you differently, you might be surprised! — For better or worst, you shall say!

Nonetheless, this project was instructive!

Because, when you just think of what could be done, you're tempted to say: "Let's put this moment here, and this other moment there.". But when you actually witness the scenes before your eyes, you realize that — pathetically enough — this very scene can't go there: actors are wearing different costumes, are having different hair styles, are bearing different scars and wounds…

Then, it quickly becomes a game of equilibrium and balance. And storylines are sometimes so intertwined, that you have no other choice than to cut out a character. (Otherwise adding this would force you to add this, which would force you to add this, which would force you to add this…)

Sadly, this is what happened to the Chicanery episode. If it's a turning point in the show, it was unthinkable to make it happen here (as what leads to this situation is complex and implemented over the very long term). This is why I had to create a turning point with another key moment of the show, one I could use in a feature length: the scene where Chuck spills Jimmy the truth about him. Consequently, Jimmy switch the Mesa Verde address number, which tarnishes Chuck's reputation over Howard for his first case after he was sick, which leads to his destitution, then his suicide.

In doing that, the film omit many things that are important (for the series), like this electromagnetic intolerance that was faked, which I'm totally aware and sad about it… But it's the consequence of carefully thought editing process, driven by the need to allow so other moments to be developed as well. Indeed, as a reminder: this project is no giant resume of the show, nor a big "previously", but really an alternative vision, a different perspective, that shall remain self-sufficient.

Another suppression occurred: Varga, for the sake of keeping the bad guy plot as tight as possible. Yes, telling Jimmy McGill's story in a feature length implies to make cruel choices; each bad guy's appearance shall be motivated by Jimmy's point of view, and his life is already taking too much room. As a result, this "bad guy arc" is simplified due to some mandatory (yet coherent) twistings of the official plot.

At the end, this movie offers an approach to the narration so new it does not spoil that much of the series. It even becomes a great entry door to the series, or a last goodbye for the ones who've seen it all.

To keep my story coherent, I had no choice than to tweak shots.

And boy there are a lot!

First, there are the mirrored shots. Easy fix. Mainly to have powerful cuts from a scene to another, so as to keep faces in the same areas, or to have actions responding to each other better.

Then, there are the — let's say it — FX ones. To name a few: the shirt of Saul Goodman when Varga bring him to Lalo.

I chose to edit the two scenes side by side to accelerate the plot. But doing that, there would have been a problem: Saul is wearing a purple shirt with Nacho, and a green shirt with Salamanca. In my version, there's no way Nacho would have driven Jimmy back home for him to change clothes… Poof! Easy fix. I also had to cover Jimmy's wounds! Yes, in the movie, he never goes to the desert. (I know, it's a shame to have cut one of the best episodes but hey… runtime…) Some scene extensions were to be done, because of the 2:35 ratio — which by the way is not here to look "cooler" but to hide opening credits from the beginning shots I had to take. And then there is "the" scene. The scene where Jimmy understands that his brother was working against him, which lead to his "1216/1261 Rosella Drive" revenge. Of course in the series, those to scenes aren't directly connected. But for the sake of runtime, I had to create a false link so we could move on faster. Therefore I had to transform the first scene to morph into the shot where Jimmy looks at the Mesa Verde files which gives him the revenge idea. Many more are to be found in the cut, which you'll discover by yourself!
But at the end:

Respect 0 — Continuity 1

Now, maybe some cast and crew will hear about this savage recut project of what took them decades to accomplish, maybe they won't. Perhaps third parties will cut the project down so quickly that nobody will ever notice it — which I'm totally ok with!

But, nonetheless, I wanted to thank all the creators of this Breaking Bad universe. For their characters are now so evident that they feel real. And as far as I'm concerned, I know they are. Somewhere.

I also want to thank three special people: Fabrice, Antoine, and Florent, who helped me during those creative years when I needed backup. They made this project better, tastier, and thanks to them, I can peacefully let it go, whatever happens to it.

Lastly, let me thank you. Whether you watched the movie or not, whether you liked it or not. You made it thus far reading my manifesto, and this deserves all my consideration!

If you want to share this project, be welcome to use the auto-tweets available on the top left menu, or this manifesto and its provided press kit