If reports out of TIFF about Chris Pine's nude scene are correct, the Outlaw King himself is the perfect length, but the film overall? Just a bit too long. According to Deadline, director David Mackenzie trimmed 20 minutes off his Netflix historical epic after audiences at the festival responded poorly to the film's bloated runtime.

“I could feel what the audience was like in the theater. I’m sensitive to the way they felt," Mackenzie said, noting that the decision to head back into the editing room "was entirely my decision.”

The film—which follows the Scottish King Robert (Pine), a man who rose from murderer to monarch, in the years he squared off against Edward I (Stephen Dillane)—arrived at TIFF with a 137-minute runtime. Reviews praised the Hell or High Water filmmaker for his attention to period detail and the overall scope, but most mentioned the film occasionally crawled to the much-lauded climactic battle scene.

"It’s fine that Outlaw King chooses to focus on a shorter span of time and the beginning of Robert the Bruce’s reign and rebellion, but the script fails to fill that time with anything remotely interesting," our own Matt Goldberg wrote in his review. "All we ever really get to know about Robert in a movie that’s over two hours long is that he’s a good guy."

Outlaw King is set to hit Netflix and limited theaters on November 9.

Here is the official synopsis for Outlaw King:

OUTLAW KING tells the untold, true story of Robert the Bruce who transforms from defeated nobleman to outlaw hero during the oppressive occupation of medieval Scotland by Edward I of England. Despite grave consequences, Robert seizes the Scottish crown and rallies an impassioned group of men to fight back against the mighty army of the tyrannical King and his volatile son, the Prince of Wales. Filmed in Scotland, OUTLAW KING reunites director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) with star Chris Pine alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Florence Pugh and Billy Howle.

 

outlaw-king-chris-pine
Image via Netflix
outlaw-king-chris-pine
Image via Netflix
outlaw-king-chris-pine
Image via Netflix