Dark City Director's Cut in 2006 (1 Viewer)

According to his Great Movies essay on Dark City, Roger Ebert mentions that he recorded a commentary for the Directors Cut of Dark City, to be released in 2006.

Roger Ebert's Great Movie essay on Dark City.

I'll be picking this up. All of his previous commentaries have been well worth the listen. Just his commentary track will be worth the double-dip.

Director's cut? I thought the theatrical release was the "director's cut".

And didn't he already record a great commentary for the first release?

(He did)

I remember DARK CITY was delayed for quite a long time before it finally got released theatrically. It doesn't surprise me one bit that it was possibly tampered with by the studio.

Vincent

I'll buy this. Not a big deal in terms of price since I got the original DVD for $5.

A 1998 film in the Great Movies list, is this a record?

It will be interesting to see what the directors cut will contain.

Did you mean commentary, because when I owned it (before I sold it), I could have sworn I listened to Ebert's commentary. The movie is ok, but upon subsequent viewings, I got really sick of the film and just had to get rid of it.

Dark City without the opening narration is really the director's cut but I think Proyas will add additional scenes that were never filmed. I guess that's okay but it might screw up the flow of the story.

I knew one day Ebert would include DC in his great movies section.

A few months ago he added the 1999 film "The Terrorist" to the "Great Movies" list, so it's not quite the newest film on his list.

I still have yet to see the film, so I'm thinking that I'll spend $5 for the old release (which I've heard still looks quite good) and see if I want to pay the extra money for a "Special Edition."

Yeah Mark--Will be interesting to see if the DC drops that opening v.o. which I think it's Proyas says at beginning of current commentary was something the studio insisted upon.

-p

I can certainly see the opening voice over being dropped, but what could be added?

I hope that the new scenes (if any) don't take anything away from the great pace and mystery of the film, maybe the final 20 minutes could have some added so the transition for John isn't so quick.

The 1998 release still looks great, and for 5 bucks you're getting a heck of a film.

This is one title that is overdue for a new release, especially since the previous version's bass is way overcooked.

There is definitely an Ebert commentary on the existing disc. It makes you wonder if he recorded an all-new commentary or if they pulled a "Sling Blade" and just had him record new comments for the added scenes.

I think the film is excellent, but it really does feel like stuff was cut out to shorten the film.

I had a thread here long time ago wishing for a re-release of this movie without the opening narration (and it was loudly shouted down by people saying "the current disc is fine" - which I disagree with...it was a good 1998 disc but could look so much better with modern encoding).

If that's the only change, I'll be happy with it. If Proyas inserts deleted scenes, I'll definitely be interested in seeing the new version. I've loved the original film since it was released, so double dipping is not a problem for me.

FWIW, I thought the delays in releasing the movie were over the title. Originally it was called Dark City and WB didn't want it to be confused with Mad City (the Travolta bomb released around the same time). So the filmmakers wanted Dark Empire, but then Lucasfilm's lawyers apparently asserted that they couldn't use the words Dark and Empire together in a movie title (I guess the Dark side of the Force and Empire Strikes Back being Lucasfilm "words" played into it).

And finally, a total of twelve people saw Mad City so WB dropped the concerns about the original title and let Proyas release the film under its original name. Having listened to the commentary of the first DVD, the only change he seems to lament is the forcing of the opening narration, and I totally agree with him that without that narration, the movie takes on a very film-noir mystery atmosphere that would have served it well. Much better than the opening voiceover by Sutherland...

I also have to wonder if this is truly something that Proyas wanted to do or if New Line is just following the current trend of releasing longer versions of films with little regard as to whether or not longer means better. I think the film plays brilliantly the way it is. I do agree that while the old transfer is acceptable it certainly isn't stunning compared to modern transfers. The opening scene alone has macroblocking all over the place.

For those asking if the commentary is new or not, here what is written at the very end of the essay:

Note: Ebert did commentary tracks for the original DVD of "Dark City" and the forthcoming 2006 Director's Cut. There are Great Movies essays on "Metropolis," "M" and "2001" online at rogerebert.com.

Hopefully the new transfer will have more of the shadow detail in the theatrical prints I've seen. The current dvd also has a tad too much EE but still looks terrific for it's time.

The opening narration never really bothered me because I was always too busy paying attention to the visuals at that point.

At least Kiefer did a decent job unlike Harrison Ford who PURPOSEFULLY did his opening BR narration poorly so that they wouldn't use it.

d

That's just a persistent rumour and one that's being denied by Harrison Ford (althought he was against a 'voice over' and complained about not finding the right mood). But personally, in the end, I think that Ford's disengaging narration kinda fits the character seen on screen, a character that appears equally uninterested in the story as its voice over. Anyway, looking at the voice over and Sci-Fi 40s look, it's clear where 'Dark City' got its inspiration from.




Alex