Finally: The Fly (1986) and The Fly II (1989) Special Editions are coming in Fall of 2005! - Page 9

I was fortunate enough to see one of the only rough cut screenings of The Fly in early '86 by essentially lying my way onto the Fox lot. The movie absolutely knocked me flat, but like most truly great works of art, it's only gotten better with age. One of the great perks of this job is the pinch-me-I'm-dreaming aspect of working with a film you've been in love with since the age of 17.

Cheers,

David
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From what I've heard (both in print and from film historian Tim Lucas, who was present both during filming and during the Toronto rough cut screenings), there were rough cut screenings in Toronto and Los Angeles.

At the Toronto screening, the audience was shown two versions of the film, one with the monkey-cat scene, and one without, and was asked which version they preferred (I'd say that stacked the deck against the scene a bit...).

At the L.A. screening, the audience was shown a version with the butterfly baby epilogue included (though whether the monkey-cat scene was also included is unknown), and the response caused that scene to be cut also (they couldn't settle down enough after the stunning climax in order to understand or appreciate the epilogue and the questions it raised).

I would presume that Mr. Prior attended the L.A. screening, and perhaps he could shed some light on a few mysteries involving what that particular cut included.

David,

Thanks for keeping us in the know.

Best,
Damin

The L.A. screening included the butterfly baby, and it really didn't work. Some people laughed at the effect because it was so tonally different than what had come before, but I think the reason nobody liked it, certainly the reason I didn't like it, was nobody wanted to see Roni end up with Stathis.

The monkey-cat was not included, as it had already been cut after the Toronto screening.

Cheers,

David

Well as much as Stathis was a creep through most of the film, I really did like how he was not made a one dimentional, cliched, jilted ex (as I'm sure most lesser films would have gone that route.) He did really seem to show some compassion toward Ronni once he found out she was pregnant with Seth's baby and he did come to the rescue at the end. So, you have to give him at least some respect in that capacity. (Athough he did revert back in "The Fly II"

the 2 DVD edition has been announced for May in France, by Fox

The L.A. screening included the butterfly baby, and it really didn't work. Some people laughed at the effect because it was so tonally different than what had come before, but I think the reason nobody liked it, certainly the reason I didn't like it, was nobody wanted to see Roni end up with Stathis.

The monkey-cat was not included, as it had already been cut after the Toronto screening.

Cheers,

David
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Hmmmmmm....

Okay, so in the draft of the script I have, Ronnie ends up with Stathis (the script gives the slightimpression that she was perhaps more of an "opportunistic slut", as Stathis says, in that she may just be with Brundle in order to get a good story). Now, in that draft, Ronnie is in bed with Stathis, and the dialogue indicates that she is pregnant with *his* child, not Brundle's (she presumably had an abortion). She then dreams about the butterfly baby (which doesn't make sense if Brundle's child was aborted).

Clearly, this initial perception of Veronica's character changed, no doubt because of Goldblum and Davis' chemsitry (the audience sure wouldn't go for her and Stathis getting back together after Brundle's death).

And this would have completed Stathis' character arc from jilted, obsessed stalker to protector and lover.

However, in a Starlog interview, Geena Davis discussed that scene, and said she was in bed (presumably alone), had the dream, and then the camera panned down to reveal that she was going through with having *Brundle's* child.

In a Fangoria interview, Cronenberg hinted that he filmed *several* versions of this ending (the live-action portion, that is), and these other sources seem to confirm that.

So it seems to me that two versions were filmed (*both* including the dream about the butterfly baby):

1. Ronnie and Stathis are together in bed, and she's pregnant with his child. She then dreams about the butterfly baby (the meaning of this is unclear). (This would be the "happy" ending, and the one that would have prevented the events of the sequel from happening)

2. Ronnie is alone in bed and upset, and dreams about Brundle's butterfly baby (a contrast to the maggot-baby dream). She wakes up, and we see that she's decided to have Brundle's child. (The "I can't believe she's gonna do it!" ending.).

Hmmm.

Hi Jerome

Do you have a link ?

Hmmm.

The site lists La Mouche as coming out on May 13 (A Friday, I believe).

If the work on the DVD isn't complete yet, isn't it a bit early to announce the release (and with no details)? And why in France first? Could Region 1 have a later release date?

Still, very encouraging.

Let the foreign market have an early release date. All I’d like to know is that there’ll be no compromises made to the R1 edition.

I'm very curious as to what this SE is gonna have. Our generous friend Mr. Prior has already confirmed Cronenberg commentary (but no on-camera interview) and at least *some* deleted material, and ArthurMy mentioned some time back that a friend of his involved with the movie was filmed for an interview (I tend to believe him).

Thus:

1. Cronenberg commentary
2. Deleted scenes
3. Interview(s)

Lookin' very good so far...

And I wonder if the features included on the older DVDs in every Region *except* for Region 1 (the original EPK "making of" featurette and soundbites) will be included.

And actually, I'm not too worried about a lack of an on-camera Cronenberg interview. He did one for the Rabid SE(in addition to commentary), though that was primarily to discuss the genesis of the project and the filmmaking climate of the time. For his other films, he's just provided commentaries, and very thorough and fascinating commentaries at that (which pretty much negated the need for on-camera interviews).

Now, if Mr. Prior wanted to get some additional thoughts from Cronenberg on things that he may have only touched on in his commentary (like makeup, deleted scenes, or casting) for featurettes, I could see where that might be necessary. We'll see...

Is the DVD going to get the new transfer that Cronenberg wanted? Supposedly he said that he was not going to participate in making the DVD unless he was allowed to do a new transfer. He's participated but I don't remember reading anything "Official" that states that it was done.

Cronenberg had said that he'd only particpate in the making of the SE if there was a new transfer (a "Director Approved" version, as with the Videodrome and Naked Lunch DVDs). Since he's obviously contributed, I'd guess that would be a big "yes". We'll see.

It is a very common move from Fox to release special editions in europe first.

In France, we already have 2 discs édition for I, Robot, Aliens Vs Predator

Good to know. Thanks!

But we can't say if it'll be released in Europe first, since there are no other release dates to compare.

yes, but it is efinelety coming.

If there is any new informations about the french release in the coming weeks, I will let you know here.

Thanks.

Quick clarification regarding the transfer:

As I suspected, neither Cronenberg nor Mark Irwin had seen the new HD transfer Fox had done for the previous DVD release. Cronenberg's completely justified objections to the transfer were aimed at the earlier VHS releases. Screenings were set up for both of them and they both approved the current transfer with no changes, so that's what will be on our Special Edition.

Cheers,

David

P.S.
And Scott? Your description of seeing The Fly the first time and the effect it had on you was right on the money for me, too. One of my favorite things about Cronenberg is that he's absolutely an intellectual (despite his occasional middle-class protestations to the contrary), and yet he refuses to talk down to genre, or treat it as anything but serious and respectable.

Can't argue with that, I suppose. Thanks David

Quick clarification regarding the transfer:

As I suspected, neither Cronenberg nor Mark Irwin had seen the new HD transfer Fox had done for the previous DVD release. Cronenberg's completely justified objections to the transfer were aimed at the earlier VHS releases. Screenings were set up for both of them and they both approved the current transfer with no changes, so that's what will be on our Special Edition.

Cheers,

David
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Yeah, The Fly is airing several times on WGN this week (including tonight), and the image quality is really washed-out, even worse than the VHS.

The DVD transfer is much-improved from the VHS releases, though it's still sad to hear there won't be a *new* transfer (there's a fairly large amount of film scratches and such in the print used for the DVD transfer). Regardless, just the *idea* that a Special Edition is on the way (maybe a soon as spring/summer--at least in France) thrills me to no end. I'm sure it'll be spiffy!
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P.S.
And Scott? Your description of seeing The Fly the first time and the effect it had on you was right on the money for me, too. One of my favorite things about Cronenberg is that he's absolutely an intellectual (despite his occasional middle-class protestations to the contrary), and yet he refuses to talk down to genre, or treat is has anything but serious and respectable.
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Darn right.

Thanks, Greg. I suspect that's why the horror fans admire Cronenberg so much: he brings a real sense of respect and legitimacy to the genre. Plus he's not afraid to be smart, weird, and/or sickeningly gory when it serves his story.

Credit where credit is due: I was quoting Mr. Prior's comments regarding Cronenberg's work. The "darn right" would be me. (Perhaps I should itallicize quotes...)

Just thought of something...we know that the image transfer will be the same as the double feature version, but what about the sound. As I've stated elsewhere in this thread, the DVD version of the film has a slightly different mix than the VHS versions (the DVD version is missing several music "stings" in a few scenes). I don't know which is representative of the original theatrical release. Hmm.

Another thought...

Mr. Prior said:


"Reassembling the deleted reel from boxes of unmarked negative and without logs or notes has been, shall we say, challenging. The good news is Cronenberg has approved most of it. Not all of it, but the majority of it."

Hmm.

"Reassembling"? One would think that the deleted footage to be included on the DVD would come from the rough cuts, if they still exist. Or are the original dailies being reassembled to recreate the scenes?

I also have to wonder how complete those sequences were before they were abandoned (in terms of sound effects, foley sounds, etc.). The trailer used temporary sound effects, and I know for sure that Howard Shore hadn't scored the film until after the Toronto rough cut screening (at least), since he was in the theater to get a feel for how the film was shaping up.

Greg:

I'm guessing that David Prior went back to the original trim negatives in order for the deleted scenes to look the best they can. Even if he had the workprints of the deleted scenes, he'd still have to wade through the boxes of O-Neg in order to find the corresponding negatives for those scenes and shots in order to retransfer the relevant shots from the negative.

Vincent

Yeah, that seems to jive, though I'm a bit surprised if that's the case. Deleted scenes for older films on DVD seem to have a tendency to come from workprints and rough cuts. If they're going back to the negative in this case, then that's great.

From what I've heard, the unseen Stage 4-b Brundle was given a gorgeous foot-to-facial close-up shot at the beginning of the monkey-cat scene, and to see a high-quality version of stuff like that would be lovely.

All that existed of reel 8B (the monkey-cat sequence) was a dirty dupe of the cut workpicture, presumably created for the screening. As a dupe, there were no edge numbers and the cut workpicture is lost. The image was pretty ugly so we've gone back into the boxes of o-neg and telecined the takes that were used (which we had to figure out by seeing which takes were missing from the dialies rolls) and conformed it to the dupe by eye. I'm actually still doing that now and believe me, it's worse than it sounds.

The other problem was the audio. The dupe reel had a mixed mono track that included very crude sound effects and temp music that a) would be too costly to clear for release and b) frankly didn't work very well and didn't fit the tone of the film. I re-scored it with Howard Shore's music (which Cronenberg thought worked very well, by the way), but then that also meant re-building the entire soundtrack from scratch. I had Fox send me a DME so I could isolate things like the telepod sounds and computer display noises, and the rest is just a lot of laborious sound editing.

It's an enormous amount of work, but in the end it will look and sound better than it ever did. The monkey-cat lives.

Cheers,

David Prior

Thanks for keeping us updated about the progress David