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Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

post #1 of 46
12/4/06 at 10:03am
Thread Starter 
It was announced, but nothing has happened. What gives? Did I miss it or something?
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post #2 of 46
12/4/06 at 12:24pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Funny you should mention this. I just spoke with Rufus Sewell at The Holiday after party last week and he said he has recorded some interviews and things for the DVD. So it's coming. He didn't say when. But I'm certainly looking forward to it. I love Dark City. Fantastic film already, and from what I hear, this cut is going to be terrific.

Cheers,

Jason
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post #3 of 46
12/4/06 at 5:39pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Isn't the DC just the US version minus the spoiler-filled opening narration?
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post #4 of 46
12/4/06 at 8:23pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike kaminski
Isn't the DC just the US version minus the spoiler-filled opening narration?

That's one of the rumored edits, but I don't think anyone knows for sure yet. Hopefully they can use seamless branching, but if they don't I can keep the old 1998 disc.
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post #5 of 46
12/4/06 at 9:29pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

I want a new Dark City disc since I don't have the first disc on DVD. This film is a classic.
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post #6 of 46
12/5/06 at 8:32am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

has there only been one release?
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post #7 of 46
12/5/06 at 8:36am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rolando
has there only been one release?
Yup. Still looks pretty decent too, despite being 8 years old now.
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post #8 of 46
12/5/06 at 11:46am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Yup. Still looks pretty decent too, despite being 8 years old now.

Yeah...Im really surprised how well it has held up. Video, sound, and special features are really decent. Hope there will be another release sometime...
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post #9 of 46
12/5/06 at 1:44pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Waiting on this too. There was a thread a while back on HTF that mentioned Ebert (before his newest health concern) had mentioned that he had recorded a brand new commentary for the director's cut (his original commentary is fantastic). This was in early 2006.

I can't believe in this day and age where seemingly every title is given the double and triple dip treatment that we can't get the new Dark City DVD released.
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post #10 of 46
12/5/06 at 2:13pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

true, way overdue. at least the original still looks pretty good though.

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post #11 of 46
3/24/07 at 7:07pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

i thought i heard they redoing or adding some SPFX shots and possibly shooting more footage
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post #12 of 46
3/24/07 at 7:21pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

I've never seen DARK CITY, and have always been curious about it. What is the "spoiler-filled opening narration" you mentioned?
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post #13 of 46
3/24/07 at 7:39pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clay_E
I've never seen DARK CITY, and have always been curious about it. What is the "spoiler-filled opening narration" you mentioned?
Its an opening spiel by Kiefer Sutherland explaining who the Strangers are and what the purpose of the city is, all stuff we learn later on in the film. Its like creating a whodunnit and telling you who the murderer is in the first minute.

Also this was a pretty useless bump.
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post #14 of 46
3/24/07 at 9:49pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

This film just begs for a High Def version soon?
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post #15 of 46
3/24/07 at 11:13pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

I would love for this to come to HD. I love the film and saw it in the theater. Brilliant film.
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post #16 of 46
6/17/07 at 2:12pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

OK, is this dead, or what? WTF?!
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post #17 of 46
6/17/07 at 2:35pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Not sure about dead, but I think it may have found itself in the "Blade Runner" black hole. With New Line's reluctance to release anything in HD, they may be waiting until there's a format winner to introduce a high-def version. With regards to the regular DVD release, maybe they're waiting for the next Proyas film in order to do a tie-in? Not sure, but I do wish they'd release it at least on DVD. This is one instance where I won't mind double dipping in regular def and then again in high-def.
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post #18 of 46
6/18/07 at 2:36pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Dalek
Yup. Still looks pretty decent too, despite being 8 years old now.

I beg to differ. I had never seen the film before two weeks ago, and bought the New Line Platinum Edition or whatever it's called for five bucks at HMV, and it nearly killed my eyes to watch it on our projector -- giant halos around everything.

I wouldn't watch the disc again, even though I want to have a second look at it. It was just that bad.
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post #19 of 46
6/18/07 at 4:46pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Dalek
Its an opening spiel by Kiefer Sutherland explaining who the Strangers are and what the purpose of the city is, all stuff we learn later on in the film. Its like creating a whodunnit and telling you who the murderer is in the first minute.

Also this was a pretty useless bump.

I never felt that way, I actually thought the narration was a nice segway into the film, and it didn't really explain too much about what was going on really or the exact purpose and moving people around and the like.

Still, a fantastic film. I'm somewhat skeptical of a directors cut because the current cut is excellent as it stands already, but who knows. Still a favorite sci-fi type film for me, and it looks ever so gorgeous on my CRT which really shines on the dark scenes which is basically this whole movie. William Hurt is also fantastic.
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post #20 of 46
6/18/07 at 7:13pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

I know you can't really "unremember" things, but try to watch it after a long break, try to approach it like you've never seen it, and turn off the opening narration when you do watch it.

A totally different movie, IMO. And a better one.

I've actually done the reverse, shown the film to friends for the first time without the narration (apologizing for the mute/lack of sound) and they all loved it. I told them I would explain later why I did that. Every single one of them (granted only about 9-10 people over the course of a few years) was glad that I muted the opening narration. It really makes the film more of a "whodunit" + "what the heck is going on here in this crazy dark world" + "whoa, who are those dudes in the trenchcoats".

Think of a version of the original The Matrix movie, but put Morpheus's explanation to Neo of The Matrix (even an abbreviated version) in an opening narration to start the movie.
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post #21 of 46
6/18/07 at 8:51pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Yeah, I could see that I suppose. It would be a pretty different kind of movie and more of a mystery. On the other hand, it would shift the focus away from figuring out who the Sewell was towards who the Strangers were. I am always skeptical of narrations, but this one never even stood out at me as annoying or looking down on the audience, I thought it was fine. It didn't really tell you much except that Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
there were Strangers, and that they were going extinct I guess.
I didn't feel like it spoiled much at all, the whole plot is still fascinating and you don't really know what's going on for a while.
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post #22 of 46
6/19/07 at 6:05pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Reynolds
I beg to differ. I had never seen the film before two weeks ago, and bought the New Line Platinum Edition or whatever it's called for five bucks at HMV, and it nearly killed my eyes to watch it on our projector -- giant halos around everything.

I wouldn't watch the disc again, even though I want to have a second look at it. It was just that bad.
Well thats what you get for watching it ON A PROJECTOR. Of course its going to look awful at that high a resolution, its a transfer from 1998 silly!
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post #23 of 46
6/19/07 at 6:42pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Dalek
Well thats what you get for watching it ON A PROJECTOR. Of course its going to look awful at that high a resolution, its a transfer from 1998 silly!

Nah, lots of old stuff looks fine blown up -- this is easily the worst-looking DVD I've ever projected.

I'm not shocked that it looked bad -- I'm more supporting the notion that it could use a new release.
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post #24 of 46
6/20/07 at 10:17am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

I'm not sure what halos you're talking about, but this is not a poor quality DVD by any stretch. It's not reference, but it certainly looks fine. I'm viewing on a FP CRT reference system.
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post #25 of 46
6/20/07 at 11:03am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisWiggles
I'm not sure what halos you're talking about, but this is not a poor quality DVD by any stretch. It's not reference, but it certainly looks fine. I'm viewing on a FP CRT reference system.

I'm running a 720p DLP projector at about 110". Here are the halos I'm talking about:

Around the words --


Around the couple silhouetted against the reflection from the puddle --


Around both actors --


ARRRRRGH --


Running the DVD in VLC, I used Snapz Pro to grab these as PSD files, then saved them as JPEGs without further processing. They do not appear differently from the PSD files, though I can send you them if you want to see 'em.

The copyright info on the back cover says "©2001 New Line Home Entertainment, Inc". It is the New Line Platinum Edition and is a flipper, with widescreen on one side and fullscreen on the other. Is there more than one release?

Can you (or anyone) grab a shot of the Banana sign at the Automat from your DVD if it looks any better than this?

I realize that there may be worse looking DVDs out there, but this is easily the worst I've seen since getting my projector, and is much worse than other DVDs I have from about the same time period (the early '00s).
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post #26 of 46
6/20/07 at 12:34pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

They may have changed the packaging, but the disc is the same as it was in 1998.
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post #27 of 46
6/20/07 at 1:14pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
I know you can't really "unremember" things, but try to watch it after a long break, try to approach it like you've never seen it, and turn off the opening narration when you do watch it.

A totally different movie, IMO. And a better one.

I've actually done the reverse, shown the film to friends for the first time without the narration (apologizing for the mute/lack of sound) and they all loved it. I told them I would explain later why I did that. Every single one of them (granted only about 9-10 people over the course of a few years) was glad that I muted the opening narration. It really makes the film more of a "whodunit" + "what the heck is going on here in this crazy dark world" + "whoa, who are those dudes in the trenchcoats".

Absolutely agree, and I think it's entirely obvious the movie was ALWAYS intended to work as a whoduneit/whereduneit -- you weren't supposed to know everything about where the action was taking place from the opening moments. That narration was obviously added by the studio and it didn't work.

I've written this before, but I walked into the theater to see the movie with Sewell waking up in the tub, so I've seen how it plays without the narration. It is superior in every way and enhances the film.

When I watched the DVD and realized it had that narration afterwards, it absolutely ruined it -- the whole movie loses something with that knowledge included in it. When I showed it to friends I did exactly as you did and hit mute.
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post #28 of 46
6/21/07 at 10:04am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_Richardson
I've written this before, but I walked into the theater to see the movie with Sewell waking up in the tub, so I've seen how it plays without the narration. It is superior in every way and enhances the film.

Reminds me of La Femme Nikita -- I walked into the theater during the scene where Anne Parillaud was being tortured in the chair!

Talk about two different films. . .
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post #29 of 46
6/21/07 at 10:43am

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Aaron: you're seeing some EE on that disk, which is hardly uncommon unfortunately. That's not horribly objectionable, though it is annoying that it's there. But besides the EE, it's a pretty solid transfer.
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post #30 of 46
6/21/07 at 8:19pm

Re: Where is the DARK CITY director's cut?

Not horribly objectionable?? Are you kidding? It makes it unwatchable. Yes, I know that old transfers frequently featured aperture correction (not always deliberately -- it was added in the encoding process by some early encoders), often to a ridiculous degree like this, and I know that this is an old transfer.

I am not arguing that it is not old or that aperture correction like this was never featured on old transfers -- I am arguing against the idea that the transfer is perfectly good and we don't need a new one.

It's a bad transfer, and we do need a new transfer. Do you disagree?
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