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After the pitching of this film, studio marketing executives took it to be an action-adventure hybrid rather than what Ridley Scott and William Monahan intended it to be: a historical epic examining religious conflict.

20th Century Fox promoted the film as an action movie with heavy elements of romance and, in their advertising campaign, made much of the " From the Director of Gladiator " slogan.

When Scott presented the 194-minute version of the film to the studio, they balked at the length.

Studio head Tom Rothman ordered the film to be trimmed down to only two hours, as he did not believe that a modern audience would go to see a three-hour-and-fifteen-minute movie.

Ultimately, Rothman's decision backfired, as the film gained mixed reviews ( with many commenting that the film seemed " incomplete ") and severely under-performed at the US box office.