It’s getting hectic in here.
Another sparkle of truth (REFERENCE) has just arrived from the set of the ever-mysterious music video for “Perfume,” The Legendary Miss Britney Spears‘ sorta scrapped (but no less personal) second visual offering from Britney Jean — and it seems we’ve been deprived of seeing B in true Femme Fatale form.
As we’ve all come to know via director Joseph Kahn‘s frequent (albeit rightfully pressed) Twitter outbursts, the original edit of Britney’s gun-toting video was something more sinister (and urban, presumably) — a video that would have blown our collective minds.
Of course, that version of the video didn’t quite end up coming to light. B-Girl looked cute, but the official version was a total non-event. And now, we’ve got a (sort of) glimpse into what could have been.
Earlier today, an eager fan dished on what is reportedly an early draft of the “Perfume” video concept, which Joseph Kahn himself confirmed to be “close” to the truth.
And it goes like this:
I have a friend that works for a production company in Los Angeles. She sent me some interesting information regarding our fave pop star, Britney Spears. Mainly regarding the original Perfume music video. She edits videos and had access to the original cut of Perfume. The original Perfume story went like this…. Britney meets a guy with whom she falls instantly in love. It’s made clear to the audience that Britney is an assassin/hitman as we see her kill a group of people in a car (hence the gun pictures that were leaked to the media). She is given her next assignment who turns out to be the guy she fell in love with at the beginning of the video. The go to meet in their favorite spot, but Britney is not there. She is across the street with a rifle with her target set on him. She looks through the scope and sees her man holding a ring her made for her. She leaves and aborts the mission to kill him. She leaves town because she knows her is not safe around her. Doing this, she knows she will be killed for abandoning her mission to kill this guy. She hides out in a hotel and is taken by other assassins and beaten, tied to a chair, etc. She has sacrificed herself for this man. We see time pass as she dates a new girl, gets married, has a baby, etc. We see him looking out a window thinking about Britney, his true love that disappeared. Then, we see Britney on the floor of her hotel room, barely alive, as her body slowly turns to ash. The last shot of Britney is the hotel room is her smiling as their eyes seem to meet. Her body then disintegrates. The final shot of the video is Britney and her lover kissing in the sunset. They turned the video into a cheating scandal rather than it’s 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. Mainly because of the killing scenes. I’ve attached some before and after pictures of the editing process that she sent me too. She also messaged me today to tell me that her company received a bid from her label for a big budget Britney video directed by Chris Applebaum. He directed her I Love Rock & Roll video and her Overprotected (Darkchild Remix) video. So, that being said…. EXPECT NEW BRITNEY MUSIC LATE THIS SUMMER/EARLY FALL!!!
The user also supplied a somewhat disturbing, potentially Photoshopped “Before” photo of a beaten Britney, seen up top.
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
In true Brit Brit stan fashion, the leaked details are a bit hay-zay — Kahn confirmed that parts of this concept ultimately didn’t get filmed, including the bit about her turning into ashes (thank Godney), but this is basically the original concept/edit.
And as for the photo? “That image didn’t come from us. We delivered all materials to label and wiped our drives,” he tweeted. But is that a confirmation that it’s ‘shopped, or just him confirming that the photo didn’t come from his team? In either case, it’s all a mess.
At this point, Team B really ought to leak the original clip. Let Joseph touch it up if he wants to! He’s proud of the original vision, and more details are trickling out by the day — it’s getting silly now. Why not stir up a little Controversyney? It’s not like it hasn’t helped the campaign already this year.
Oh, and as for that whole “big budget Britney video” directed by Chris Applebaum at the end of that ramble? As always, we’ll just have to…