The Importance of First Passes on Rewrites

When you get a paid gig, what are the deadlines usually? Are they short or long? I've had rewrites that they were about to make the movie and I got a call. If the movie's more just an idea, that's not greenlit, then you usually get more time. This movie went through like a lot of rewrites and apparently it was like a three hour long movie when it was done. He shot double the amount of normal film on this movie and then it was edited down to what we know.