Donnie Darko Directors Cut DVD? (1 Viewer)

Hi!

I've been looking everywhere for a release date of this DVD. I realize it's still on limited release at some theaters (which I'm convinced is like 2!) but, I know they release the dates for DVD pretty early yet I haven't managed to find anything about this one......

Any word on when this will come out?
Thanks!
Stacey_B

Hopefully by the end of the year or very early in 05.
I have the original disc can't wait to see and hear this new cut!

I've seen the DC version on amazon.co.uk, due out October 4th.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...691318-4213433

So region 1 can't be far behind.

Don't know about the extras, but from what I gather the directors cut is "merely" the deleted scenes cut back in, and more expensive visual effects added. Not seen it myself, but I don't double dip on DVD's, EVER.

If the director's cut is what you're thinking it might be, then a 2 disc edition that is the original DVD plus the director's cut would be pointless. But what else could a two disc Donnie Darko DVD release consist of?

I heard the re-cut of the film was very different from the original theatrical version and not just scenes dropped in.

Mike

I read in a few reviews that entire songs were replaced or switched around. Which ones specifically, I don't remember.

A couple of reviews from the SF Chronicle that answers some of your questions
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DGB18I3VE1.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...KG4E8DNRU1.DTL

The trailer:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object...=entertainment

Grant

I found this listing with features (unconfirmed) at gameplay.co.uk. I'd guess the various commentaries will discuss (if not explain) most of the differences.
I caught the DC a few weeks ago (the original really surprised me, so I will probably always prefer it). 'Time Travel' elements are more developed (maybe too much for me) but a few character scenes were great (like Donnie & his dad). I noticed a few songs moved/added, most notably 'Killing Moon' moved to the last act (don't recall the new opening song).

The song in the beginning that replaces "Killing Moon" is "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS...it really changes the scene for me. Seeing Donnie Darko was the first time I ever heard "Killing Moon" and it is now forever linked to those images and they to the song in my mind. There's quite a bit of other added music, notably "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday.

The Director's Cut is a completely different entity from the original release. Do not consider any DVD release of it a double dip. It will be worth it. The film is much more than just some deleted scenes and a few special effects. There are also extra scenes that were not on the original delted scenes disc. It is quite a different experience, and I highly recommend it. I saw it a few weeks ago here in Austin at a screening attended by Richard Kelly.

I wouldn't assume that the DC R1 will be released at or near the same time as the R2 release. Troy is coming out in other regions in Oct., but here in R1 in Jan 05. Dawn of the Dead has been availble for weeks in the Far East, but not until Oct for R1.

just announced by fox...


Donnie Darko Director's Cut
STREET DATE: DVD: 2/15/2005
MPAA RATING (US): R
RUNNING TIME: 253
DVD SRP (US): $26.98
AUDIO: English: Dolby Surround 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1
VIDEO: 2.35:1
SUBTITLES: English, Spanish

During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night, and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. He returns home the next morning to find that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom. As he tries to figure out why he survived and tries to deal with people in his town, like the school bully, his conservative health teacher, and a self-help guru, Frank continues to turn up in Donnie's mind, causing him to commit acts of vandalism and worse.

The new Director’s Cut includes a production diary of the film (with optional commentary by Director of Photography Steven Poster), a story-board to screen featurette, the Director’s cut theatrical trailer, They Made Me Do It Too – The Cult of Donnie Darko and the #1 Fan: A Darkomentary.

Disc 1: Widescreen Presentation Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith

Disc 2: Donnie Darko Production Diary (with optional commentary by Director of Photography Steven Poster)

Caught the DC in NYC on a visit... thought the new cut was terrific but made the film a little less ambiguous, which might turn off some fans of the original cut.

I thought the movie was great as it was, and was also disappointed with some of the new music. Specifically, "Under the Milky Way" was removed from the party scene ... like Vincent said, it's so burned in my mind as THE SONG for that scene (and really seems to be perfect for it, both in lyrics and mood).

There was a great deal of new footage, seeming to suggest:
that technology or a technologically-advanced "higher power" or whatever is influencing Donnie's tangent universes... even though this doesn't explain anything, it does seem to suggest God has nothing to do with it, unless Kelly is saying that technology is God. I liked how that was left ambiguous, and always enjoyed the fact that Noah Wyle's character refuses to talk God with Donnie for fear of "losing his job."


Also, the old lady's book has a much bigger role in the new film (and it certainly IS a new film, make no mistake).

Please tell me that Mad World has not been replaced in the:

righting of time and donnies death


I feel that that scene is one of the best in film and cannot listen to that song with out having those scenes replay in my head.

The 'Mad World' sequence is the same.

I would have preferred a 2 disc set with the original Donnie Darko DVD and the director's cut put together, like what was done with Terminator 2. The commentary on Donnie Darko was the first DVD commentary I ever listened to and I enjoyed it a lot, I wouldn't want to buy a Donnie Darko DVD release that doesn't have it.

Ocean Phoenix
The director's cut is frankly a very different film and has it's own quite excellent commentary.

I apologize if this has already been addressed somewhere else, but why was so much footage cut from the film? Was this decision made by Kelly, a studio mandate, or something mutual?

Donnie Darko is a personal favorite and, thankfully, popular enough now to warrant such lavish treatment. While I generally try to avoid double dipping, this one will be hard to resist. I guess this really is a new movie. FWIW, I liked the equivocal nature of the original cut, it's a great conversation starter.

It isn't really a "double dip" - think of it like the Theatrical and Extended editions of Lord of the Rings. Two wholly different films with totally different extras. If you're a fan, you should own both.

BUT (and it's a big but!) this director's cut does take away some of the magic that made the original version SO special by explaining far too much and having too much emphasis on the deus ex machina type stuff, which I feel is both a shame and cliched but there you go - that's just my personal opinion. Both versions will continue to exist, Kelly says so in the commentary - he jokingly refers to them as products of each other's tangent universe!

It's definitely worth watching (and owning) but it won't replace the original release as my version of choice.

You are totally right, Richard. Art in general exists on its own merits. It becomes what it is as the audience responds to it. Donnie Darko matters because people have finally embraced it. It flopped in the theater (I was actually one of the few to catch in a theater in New York City with 15 or so other viewers on the week of its opening, some weekday). The film wouldn't even matter had it not been for the DVD buzz. I could care less for any artist's definition of what their product means. In film, the artists that understand that power range from David Lynch to John Ford. Remember when Stanley Kubrick refused to give any verbal explanation as to what 2001 was about? After a piece of art is placed out "there," it ceases to be the artist's. They are only a vessel for a larger message, which means what it means, depending on the individual viewing it.