List of Alternate Cuts with/without Director Approval (1 Viewer)

Hello,
There seems to be a huge number of "extended unrated" cuts of movies coming out these days. Everyone, including myself, is wondering whether these are legitimate artistic alterations or just marketing scams. I thought it might be helpful to compile a list of alternate cuts that are available (or sometimes not!) on DVD, and what the filmmakers thoughts on those are as compared to the theatrical versions. Does that sound like a good idea? Has anyone else already done this? I did a search on the site and couldn't find anything.

Thanks,
Mike

EDIT:
Here's an initial list of director-preferred versions, mainly made up of movies that I have on my shelf right now. I'm sure that there are some mistakes on here. If anyone has any info on these movies, or can think of others to add to the list, please say so.

The Abyss: Special Edition

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension: Theatrical

The Alamo: Roadshow (LD)

Alexander: Final Cut

Ali: Director's Cut

Alien: Theatrical

Alien 3: Special Edition

Alien: Resurrection: Theatrical

Aliens: Special Edition

Aliens of the Deep: Unknown

Alien vs. Predator: Theatrical

Almost Famous: Untitled Cut

Amadeus: Director's Cut

American Graffiti: DVD Edition

American History X: Unknown

American Pie: Unrated

American Pie 2: Unknown

American Psycho: Unrated

American Wedding: Theatrical

Anger Management: Unknown

The Animal: Director's Cut

Any Given Sunday: Director’s Cut

Apocalypse Now: Unknown

Apollo 13: Theatrical

Armageddon: Director’s Cut

Army of Darkness: Director’s Cut

Audition: Unrated

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: European DVD

Baby Bottleneck: Theatrical

Back Alley Opoar: Theatrical

Bad Lieutenant: Theatrical (LD)

Bad Santa: Director's Cut

Basic Instinct: Director's Cut

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: Uncut

Beauty and the Beast (1991): Unknown

Betty Blue: Director's Cut

Big: Unknown

The Big Blue: Director's Cut

The Big Red One: Reconstruction

The Big Sleep: Theatrical

Blade Runner: Final Cut

Blade: Trinity: Theatrical

Blood Simple: Director's Cut

The Blues Brothers: Extended

Body Shots: Unknown

Book Revue: Theatrical

The Boondock Saints: Unknown

Das Boot: Unknown (Director's Cut?)

Bound: Unrated

The Bourne Identity: European Cut

Brazil: Director’s Cut

Brother: Japanese Cut (Japanese DVD)

The Brotherhood of the Wolf: Director's Cut

Casino Royale: International Cut (Australian DVD)

Casshern: Director's Cut

Casualties of War: Extended

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: Unrated

The Chronicles of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut

The Circus: Recut Version

Clerks.: Theatrical

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: DVD Edition

Commando: Director's Cut

Con Air: Unknown

The Cooler: Director's Cut (PPV TV)

Coyote Ugly: Unknown

Crash (1997): NC-17

Crash (2005): Director's Cut

Crimson Tide: Unknown

Cry_Wolf: Unknown

Cursed: Director's Cut

Daffy Duck and Egghead: Theatrical

Dances with Wolves: Theatrical

Dark City: Director's Cut

Dark Star: Special Edition

Darling Lili: Director's Cut

Dawn of the Dead (1978): Theatrical

Dawn of The Dead (2004): European Director’s Cut (European DVD)

Day Watch: Unrated

Dead Poets Society: Unknown

Dead Silence: Unknown

Death Machine: UK Version

Death Proof: Extended

Derailed: Unknown

The Devil's Advocate: Theatrical (LD)

The Devil's Rejects: Director's Cut

Die Another Day: Unknown

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story: Unrated

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While You're Drinking Your Juice in the Hood: Unknown

Duel: TV Cut

The Dukes of Hazzard: Unknown

Dumb & Dumber: Unknown

Dune: Theatrical

Earthquake: Theatrical

Empire Records: Remix

The Empire Strikes Back: DVD Edition

Enemy of the State: Unknown

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: Special Edition

EuroTrip: Unrated

The Ex: Unknown

The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen

Eyes Wide Shut: Unrated (Japanese DVD)

Fanny and Alexander: TV Version

Fever Pitch: Unknown

The Fog (2005): Unknown

The Foghorn Leghorn: Theatrical

The 40 Year-Old Virgin: Unrated

Free Enterprise: Extended

Friday the 13th: Uncut (European DVD)

Fried Green Tomatoes: Unknown

The Frighteners: Director's Cut

From Beyond: Director's Cut

The Getaway (1994): Unrated

Gettysburg: Director's Cut (LD)

Ghosts of the Abyss: Unknown

Gia: Unknown

The Girl Next Door: Unrated

Gladiator: Theatrical

The Godfather: Theatrical

The Godfather, Part II: Theatrical

The Godfather, Part III: Director's Cut

The Gold Rush: Recut Version

Gone in 60 Seconds: Director's Cut

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Italian Cut

The Grudge: Director's Cut

Halloween: Theatrical

Hannibal Rising: Unknown

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: Unknown

Havoc: Unknown

Hawaii: Roadshow (LD)

Hellboy: Director’s Cut

Highlander: Director’s Cut

Highlander 2: The Quickening: Renegade Edition

Highlander: Endgame: Rough Cut

Highlander: The Final Dimension: Director’s Cut

Highlander: The Search for Vengeance: Japanese Cut (Japanese DVD)

The Hills Have Eyes (2006): Unrated

The Hills Have Eyes II: Unknown

A History of Violence: International

Hollow Man: Director's Cut

Hostel: Director's Cut

Hostel, Part II: Unrated

I Love to Singa: Theatrical

Independence Day: Theatrical Cut

Inside Deep Throat: Unrated

In the Cut: Unrated

Iron Monkey: Unknown

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World: Unknown

Jason Goes to Hell: Director's Cut

Jaws: The Revenge: Unknown

JFK: Director’s Cut

Jingle All the Way: Extended

Josie and the Pussycats: PG-13

The Kid: Recut Version

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie: Recut

King Arthur: Director’s Cut

Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut

King Kong (2005): Extended

King of New York: Recut Version

Kingpin: Unknown

Kiss Me Deadly: Restored

Kiss Me Stupid: European Cut

Kit for Kat: Theatrical

A Knight's Tale: Unknown

Knocked Up: Unknown

Land of the Dead: Director's Cut

The Last of the Mohicans: Director's Cut

The Last Picture Show: Director's Cut

Last Tango in Paris: Uncut

Lawrence of Arabia: Restored

Leaving Las Vegas: Unrated

Legend: Director's Cut

Leon: The Professional: Leon Version

Lethal Weapon: Director's Cut

Lethal Weapon 2: Director's Cut

Lethal Weapon 3: Director's Cut

Lethal Weapon 4: Theatrical

Lifeforce: European

Limelight: Recut Version

Live Free or Die Hard: Unrated

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Extended

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Extended

Lords of Dogtown: Unknown

Magical Mystery Tour: Unknown

Mallrats: Theatrical

Manhunter: Restored Director’s Cut

MASH: R-Rated Version

Metropolis: Restored

Miami Vice: Director's Cut

Modern Times: Recut Version

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: DVD Cut

Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Unrated

My Darling Clementine: Ford Cut

Natural Born Killers: Director’s Cut

The New Guy: Director’s Cut

New York, New York: Director's Cut

The New World: Revised Version

1941: Extended

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child: Uncut (LD)

Night of the Living Dead (1968): Theatrical

The Night Watchmen: Theatrical

Nixon: Director's Cut

Not Another Teen Movie: Unknown

The Number 23: Unknown

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps: Director's Cut

Old Glory: Theatrical

Once Upon a Time in America: Director's Cut

Once Upon a Time in the West: Italian Version

Original Sin: Unrated

The Outsiders: Complete Novel

Pat Garret and Billy the Kid: 1988 Turner Cut

Pathfinder: Unknown

The Patriot: Unknown

Payback: Director's Cut

Pearl Harbor: Director’s Cut

Picnic at Hanging Rock: Director's Cut

Pitch Black: Unrated Director’s Cut

Planet Terror: Extended

Raintree County: Roadshow (VHS)

Ransom: Unkown

Reindeer Games: Director’s Cut

The Replacement Killers: Extended

Requiem for a Dream: NC-17

Return of the Jedi: Theatrical

Return to House on Haunted Hill: Unknown

Revenge: Director's Cut

The Ring Two: Unrated

Rise: Unknown

Road Trip: Unknown

Robocop: Director's Cut

Rollerball: R-Rated Edition

Saving Silverman: Unknown

Saw: Uncut

Saw II: Unknown

Saw III: Director's Cut

Scaredy Cat: Theatrical

Scary Movie: Theatrical

Scary Movie 3: Unknown

Scream: Director’s Cut (LD, Japanese DVD)

Seconds: Restored

1776: Director's Cut

The Shining: Unknown

Sin City: Extended

Sliver: Unrated

Spartacus: Restored

Spawn: Director’s Cut

Speaking of the Weather: Theatrical

Spider-Man 2: Theatrical

Spun: Unrated

Spy Kids: Special Edition

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Director's Cut

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Director's Cut

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: DVD Edition

Star Wars: DVD Edition

Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace: DVD Edition

Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones: DVD Edition

Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith: DVD Edition

Stop Making Sense: Unknown

A Streetcar Named Desire: Director's Cut

Supergirl: Director's Cut

Superman: Director’s Cut

Superman II: Theatrical

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace: Unknown

Tears of the Sun: Director’s Cut

Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Theatrical

THX 1138: Director’s Cut

Touch of Evil: Restored

Trainspotting: Director's Cut

Transformers: Imax

True Romance: Director’s Cut

Two Girls and a Guy: NC-17 (LD)

Two-Minute Warning: Theatrical

Underworld: Theatrical

Van Wilder: Unknown

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj: Unknown

Videodrome: Uncut

The Warriors: Director's Cut

Wedding Crashers: Unknown

Where the Truth Lies: Unrated

The Wicker Man (1973): Director's Cut

The Wicker Man (2006): Unknown

The Wild Bunch: Director's Cut

WIld Things: Theatrical

Windtalkers: Director's Cut

Woodstock: Director's Cut

You're an Education: Theatrical

The X-Files: Extended

Sounds like a good idea. The only problem with compiling a list of director sanctioned re-edits is how do you know if these "unrated" cuts were done with or without the director's blessing? Most people know that Peter Jackson sees the LOTR extended cuts as an alternate version of those movies and the long version of Dune is credited to Alan Smithee so it's easy to see what David Lynch thinks of that but who knows what the guy who directed Not Another Teen Movie thinks of the unrated cut of that movie?

Travis,
That's exactly why I'm doing this. It's hard to keep track of who was involved with what and so on. But I figure if we get input from as many people as possible, the list will be more complete than anyone on his/her own. Maybe some dude knows the director of NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE and he heard him bitching about one day. Who knows? I guess we'll see what happens.

Let me start it for you...


ALTERNATE VERSIONS without director approval:

DUNE (2 alternate versions, both credited to Allen Smithee--one for syndication, the other for a San Francisco TV station)
TWO-MINUTE WARNING (credited to "Gene Palmer"; expanded and dramatically altered for television with added subplot)
EARTHQUAKE (added for television footage)

I've edited the first post to include an initial list.

Jo, am I right in thinking that the theatrical version on EARTHQUAKE is the director-preferred version?

I don't know if I'd call the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings the "preferred" cuts. The theatrical versions are the "director cuts" of the movies. The extended editions are there as alternate versions.

Thats a pretty good list though.

In The Two Towers commentary, Jackson states that the Extended cuts have the pacing and depth he'd like to have for the movies as a complete story, but that it just isn't reasonable when considering one movie a year for general audiences.

Jackson's been very good at playing politics and keeping New Line happy, but I think it's probably a safe bet to make that he prefers the extended cuts.

David Fincher Never said this was his own preferred cut its was a guess based on some notes.

The key point to the list should be consent and as Mr Fincher declined to re-cut the movie its not his.

Also missing from the list is Alexander D/C and/or the theatrical cut depening on whos word you take on the subject

I guess the lesson here is sometimes we just don't know.

Thanks guys. In the case of Lord of the Rings, it seems like it's one of those situations where the preferred cut depends on the circumstances. But it looks like under ideal circumstances, Jackson would prefer the Extended Editions. This is similar to THE BLUES BROTHERS. John Landis has said the he prefers the extended cut, but would never show it to a theatrical audience because he would be embarassed by the lack of laughter.

As for the ALIEN 3 SE, it's not a director's cut. But it is a version of the movie that he was working on. So it seems like it's closer to what he would want than the theatrical version. It's true that he didn't endorse the SE, but he flat out disowned the theatrical cut.

Mike, what's the story with ALEXANDER? Who's saying what?

What's different about ghostbusters?

Well, Warner has been hearing numerous requests to see the Richard Donner cut of "Superman II" and they have authorized it for the "Superman" box set coming out this summer. But since Richard Donner is deep into post-production on his latest movie, he's letting editor Michael Thau, and Warner Brothers do it for him because his hands are tied with the other project. (Donner says that the footage being used is about 70% of the footage he shot.)

Donner is relying on Thau to pick out the choice footage to integrate back into the film, so the "Superman II" DC isn't really a sanctioned DC (because he isn't personally supervising it) or a marketing ploy by the studio. It's an amalgam of both.

Touch of Evil wasn't exactly director-approved (Welles), but it was at least reconstructed from his explicit notes.

Also the Chaplin films with re-cutting:

- The Kid (trimmed by two reels, an improvement in my opinion since it took the focus away from Chaplin and Coogan)
- The Gold Rush (re-release with narration and without the ending scene)
- Modern Times (last verse of Titine cut before general release)
- Limelight (one scene deleted)
- King of New York (several trims)

And Shoulder Arms, Pay Day, The Idle Class, Sunnyside, A Dog's Life, The Pilgrim, and A Day's Pleasure were given new scores and stretch printed for re-release (some as The Chaplin Revue, others paired with re-releases of Chaplin's longer features).

I could swear I heard somewhere that not all of the effects shots had been completed in time for the initial release of GHOSTBUSTERS, and that these shots were finished digitally for the DVD. But everytime I mention this, people say I'm crazy. So I'll take GHOSTBUSTERS off of the list until someone proves me right.

SUPERMAN II is a really weird case. Who deserves directing credit on that film? I guess there are 2 directors and 2 director's cuts.

I'm thinking that I should change the title of this thread. "Director Approved" isn't really accurate for this list. It's much more like "Director Preferred." Essentially, I think this should be a list of the versions that the director's will show to their grandkids. Like, if only one version could exist, which one would they choose?

Patrick, do you know if those Chaplin changes were preferred by him or not? Also, which versions are on the DVDs? And just out of curiosity, what's "stretch printing"?

I've added a number of movies to the list.

Chaplin personally oversaw the alterations. Stretch printing is basically repeating some frames to make a film seem like it's slower (I think it's every other frame repeated). It doesn't look very good, but it's the only photographic way to slow down a film and still run it at 24fps. Digitally, you could probably interpolate frames.

The original Image Entertainment/CBS-FOX DVD's were the special laserdisc editions, which returned all of the films, except for The Gold Rush, into their first editions. Modern Times had the extra verse kept only because it was on some preservation elements. It hadn't been part of the film since the premiere.

I forgot to mention The Circus. The only change, though, was a new opening credits with Chaplin belting out a song. A Woman of Paris was also re-released with minor editing and a score. It was after Chaplin's death, but he oversaw most of the alterations (I think only the score was conducted afterwards by Eric James).

It's also important to note...

The Image DVD's corrected speeds and re-instated footage for the silents, but also featured re-edited scores. Since the films were made longer, the musical scores had to be remixed to fit these versions.

The MK2 DVD's are all the re-release versions, save for City Lights, The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux, which were never altered for re-release. Of course, City Lights did have a re-issue in 1988 with the digital stereo re-recording by Carl Davis. Why MK2 didn't include it and opt to re-engineer the 1931 mono track to 5.1, I have no idea.

Nice list; was thinking about compiling something similar to this one, myself, here. A couple of general thoughts/observations/random neepery:


On this one, Cameron definitely prefers the extended "Director's Cut" to the theatrical (similar to The Abyss and Aliens), and chose this version for his inaugural audio commentary, as opposed to the shorter theatrical print.

Josh, I've heard that there is an introduction to the extended cut on the GLADIATOR DVD by Ridley Scott. What does he say on there? I think that for the time being, we should go with the theatrical cut.

On MALLRATS, Smith makes it very clear on the DVD that the theatrical version is better. At times, he's even called the extended cut "The Version You Never Should Have Seen". His intentions for the extended cut were initially to go back and recut the entire movie from scratch, because this is the only film that he did not edit himself. Unfortunately, he quickly realized that the film would have been virtually identical, and handed it off to Scott Mosier. At this point, the two decided to just throw everything in, even though most of the stuff was cut out by them, and with good reason. From what they've said, it sounds like Gramercy screwed them over much more in pre-production than in post.

As for TERMINATOR 2, I also was under the impression that Cameron preferred the SE, until I heard that very commentary. On it, he talks about the added footage as being unnecessary. He talks about why he cut the stuff out initially, and even how he doesn't really "miss it" not being in the movie anymore. It's clear that he considers the theatrical version to be the "real" movie, and the SE to be an alternate version for people who might be interested.

The funny thing is, I have a friend who is a die-hard Cameron follower, and for years he had been telling me that Cameron preferred the theatrical version. I knew that my friend personally liked the theatrical cut better, and I kept on saying "State your source," thinking that he was just believing what he wanted to. Then the Extreme DVD comes out and I said, "Look! He even did commentary for the SE." And that commentary is what proved me wrong.

OK. So maybe it wasn't that funny. I guess you had to be there.

I've added THE BIG SLEEP, GIA, KISS ME DEADLY, KISS ME STUPID, and ORIGINAL SIN to the list.

That's not true. After the first informal test screening, when there was barely a laugh during the first 1/2 hour of film leading up to the characters getting to the mall, it was decided BY KEVIN to reshoot the opening and cut much of that material. The "long" cut of MALLRATS is not even close to his prefered cut- it's basically the shooting script cut together, but not the prefered, finished cut of the film.

There are a few instances in the theatrical cut where Gramercy over-rode Kevin's wishes and had him replace certain takes for "safer" ones, and in those cases, the original, naughtier takes were re-instated into the long cut, but for at least 95% of its running time, the theatrical cut of MALLRATS is Kevin's prefered version. If you really wanted to make the ultimate "Kevin" cut of 'RATS, it would be the theatrical cut, with those few alternate takes from the long version.

Vincent

not on DVD:
Roadshow versions of HAWAII, RAINTREE COUNTY, and THE ALAMO.

on DVD:
Director's cut of AMADEUS

What does this mean? The initial theatrical version is Luc Bessons prefered cut. The extended version was a gift to the fans who wanted to see the cut scenes. It's similar to T2 in that regard.