Tag: Director’s Cut

The 2001 time travel romcom Kate & Leopold was released in a director’s cut on Blu-ray in 2012. The theatrical cut is only available on DVD. Director James Mangold confirmed with This or That Edition which edition he prefers:

List of different editions with courtesy of DVDCompare.net: DVD | Blu-ray

The 2012 remake of the 80’s classic Total Recall tanked at the box office and didn’t fare well with critics. The Blu-ray release of the film (not the “Remastered in 4k” Blu-ray) included the theatrical and an extended director’s cut. The DVD release only includes the theatrical cut.

Director Len Wiseman begins the commentary track for the Extended Director’s Cut by saying:

“Hello, I’m Len Wiseman director of Total Recall and you are watching the director’s cut, which I’m very excited about. I’m really happy with the theatrical cut. There’s just things that, as a filmmaker, you put a lot of time into that you really start to miss from the original cut, and so it’s great for me to be able to work together with Sony. They were very supportive of putting out a director’s cut. And to be able to just have that still be alive in some form. When I was growing up DVD commentaries and such were kind of their own form of film school really. Get to see why things were cut out and why certain choices were made. And often, scenes that are cut out and choices that are made along the way, just with the process, often, it comes down to two things: It comes down to pacing and clarity, which comes up a lot. That said, I think there’s also those who actually enjoy either a slower pace or actually more ambiguity within the story. You know, having to play a little bit more detective work within the plot.”

Source: Len Wiseman on the Total Recall Extended Director’s Cut commentary on Blu-ray

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

List of different editions with courtesy of DVDCompare.net: DVD | Blu-ray

The 1983 Barbra Streisand musical Yentl was released in a director’s extended cut on DVD in the US in 2009. The DVD included both the theatrical and the new cut. Twilight Time released the movie on Blu-ray where it also included both cuts. In a introduction by Streisand she states:

“… And for all of you people who have asked me, “where’s the DVD?” Here it is, finally. And we’ve included many scenes that I took out of the picture, because at that time, you know, it was hard to be over two hours. It was two hours and 14 minutes, I believe. And so I had to take out some of my favorite moments. So, the’re here for you to see.”

Source: Introduction by Barbra Streisand on the Director’s Extended Cut of Yentl on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Extended Cut

The Eli Roth directed horror flick Cabin Fever was released in a director’s cut in 2010. The horror site Shock Till You Drop interviewed Roth in 2010 where he talked about the director’s cut:

Shock Till You Drop: Talk about the supervising process you went through to get this Blu-Ray off the ground.

Eli Roth: This is something I’ve been pushing for since the movie was first cut by the studio. All of the cuts were made for time, like four or five minutes, but there was one cut involving a scare that I was bummed about. There’s other stuff, just dialogue and character things that don’t make sense. Now they make sense when you watch the movie. I thought one of the things that made the movie work was the characters.

Source: Interview: Eli Roth Talks Cabin Fever Director’s Cut, Shock Till You Drop/ComingSoon.net

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The historical drama Revolution was one of the biggest box office bombs of 1985. The movie received atrocious reviews and as a result the star, Al Pacino, took four years off from acting in films. In 2009 director Hugh Hudson, along with Warner Bros and BFI, released a director’s cut of the film. Warner Bros released the DVD in the US while BFI did a Blu-ray dual format edition in 2012 which includes both the theatrical and director’s cuts. The BFI edition includes a featurette, “Revisiting Revolution: A Conversation with Al Pacino and Director Hugh Hudson”, where Hudson and Pacino talk about the process of reworking the picture:

“I’m Hugh Hudson the director of Revolution. 20 years ago Al Pacino and myself made this film. And now finally have the chance to revisit and redoing the project. Thanks to Warner Brothers we’ve been able to make some really important changes. Changes that we didn’t have time to do or weren’t able to do.”

Source: Hugh Hudson on the featurette “Revisiting Revolution: A Conversation with Al Pacino and Director Hugh Hudson” on Blu-ray from BFI

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Screen capture obtained from DVDBeaver’s review with their permission

The highly anticipated director’s cut of the cult musical Little Shop of Horrors finally saw the light of day in 2012 when it was released on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray release included both the theatrical and director’s cut of the Frank Oz screen adaptation of the Off-Broadway show. The director’s cut of the film adds 9 minutes where the main attraction is a new ending.

In the featurette “Frank Oz and Little Shop of Horrors: The Director’s Cut” on the Blu-ray Oz talks about how audience reaction of the preview of the film had him change the ending. Oz begins the featurette by saying the following:

“What you’re gonna see here is the original ending of Little Shop of Horrors as Howard Ashman originally wrote it and intended it to be which mirrored the original ending of the Off-Broadway show. And it was this original ending that we had to take out in the previews… But all along, Howard and I, where hoping at some point people could see this ending. We didn’t think it would ever happen.”

Oz goes into great details with special effects artist Richard Conway how much time and work went into the original ending. In the later half of the featurette Oz states:

“… and we were both never satisfied with the original ending. But we were satisfied that we did the job that was necessary in order to release the movie to make the movie work for the audience at the time who wanted a happy ending… At the end of the day, the joy here is that not only the audience see what was intended in the beginning, but also see the works of Richard Conway and now he finally gets to finally get is due and he deserves it.”

Source: Frank Oz in the featurette “Frank Oz and Little Shop of Horrors: The Director’s Cut” on the Blu-ray release

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The director’s preferred edition: Theatrical Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

Ben Stiller’s war parody film Tropic Thunder received a director’s cut release on DVD and Blu-ray in most territories that added 17 minutes to the all-star comedy flick. Stiller confirmed with This or That Edition which edition he prefers:

@thisthatedition directors!

— Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) September 17, 2016

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

John Waters’ Cry-Baby didn’t fare well at the box office in 1990 but has large cult following today. The film was released on DVD in 2005 in a new director’s cut which included new songs. The theatrical cut is available on Blu-ray but no sign of the director’s cut. On the commentary track for the director’s cut, Waters says the following midway through the movie:

“We put in some numbers that we took out, because I guess we thought it was to long at the time. To make it shorter and shorter.  And, actually, looking back on it, it hurt it in some ways.”

Source: John Waters commentary track for Cry-Baby on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

When Spawn was released in theaters in 1997 it was rated PG-13 by the MPAA. Fans of the comics which Spawn was based on weren’t so happy with the PG-13 rating due to the fact that it didn’t suit the really dark nature of the caped avenger. A couple of years later a R rated director’s cut was later released on DVD and is now available on Blu-ray. Director Mark A.Z. Dippé provides a commentary on the Blu-ray along with the producers where he says:

“[the director’s cut] is definitely a better version, there is no doubt about it, this is really the movie we set out to make.”

Source: Mark A.Z. Dippé on the commentary track for the director’s cut of Spawn on Blu-ray

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com