Director's Cuts/ Extended cuts MIA on Blu-ray (& some even MIA on DVD) (1 Viewer)

[Paul Rossen]

Far and Away...there was a longer version shown on tv many years ago.

 

[Tom St Jones]

One cannot "restore" anything to a film, if it was never included.

I see. I was of the belief these scenes were part of an earlier "draft" of the film, and were simply cut prior to the final release version. I've long wondered if Mr. Spielberg was directly involved in preparing the version which aired for the 25th annivrsary, or whether ABC and/or Universal prepared it without his involvement.
At least one of the extra scenes, one from early in the film involving an exchange between Mayor Vaughn and officer Hendricks amid the din of a parade, is merely an extension of a scene from the theatrical version.

Since we're talking about "Tv versions" here...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1982 ABC "hybrid" cut)
Superman: The Movie (has two different alternate tv cuts, including the infamous Salkind International version that runs three hours)
Superman II (hybrid of Lester's version with Donner material and several otherwise unavailable deleted scenes put back in)
Superman III (has a different opening title sequence amongst other things)
Halloween II (20 minutes of new scenes for censorship cuts)
Videodrome (The Criterion blu-ray is the uncensored version only, the alternate TV version is available in Europe)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Fox "extended version" including deleted scenes on dvd)

Some great mentions there, to which I'll add one more:

THE DEEP (1977). This aired on television as a miniseries, with several new scenes greatly expanding its length.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

Another 48 HRS. has only the truncated 95 minute theatrical cut available on DVD. Originally, the workprint ran at 140 minutes, then director Walter Hill trimmed it to 120 minutes for release during the 1990 summer. However, for whatever reason, the movie was trimmed further just weeks prior to release, resulting in a rather abrupt and incomplete sequel to 48 HRS. It would be nice if the original 120 minute version would be restored for home video, but given Paramount's recent track record, it may be asking for the moon.

 

[Tom St Jones]

I should point out this thread was created mostly with Director's/ alternate cuts that have previously been released (theatrically and/or to VHS/ DVD) in mind, and not necessarily TV cuts of films, of which there can be numerous variants (e.g. The Godfather films). At the same time, I understand that TV cuts and "Director's cuts" are sometimes one and the same, of course.

 

[brap]

The Godfather Saga/Complete Epic/Trilogy 1901-1980 Chronological order has yet to surface.
The Rob Zombie Halloween movies theatrical cuts can only be found here in Canada on a double feature blu-ray. They were not even included in the deluxe box set from 2 years back.

 

[Bill Waits]

Others missing on Blu Ray include:

Con Air
Fantastic Four (NOT the 2015 version)
xXx

Also, I clearly remember a specific scene from Airplane that I saw on TV when I was younger that I have never seen on home release. (there may be other scenes because it's a TV version (like Superman), but this particular scene stuck with me because I'm sort of a science geek). It involved Leslie Neilsen's Dr. character describing some condition that someone has and describes taking some sort of pill with water. Another passenger asks "What's that?" to the pill, and the good Dr. answers, "It's 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen. Makes things go down easier". Only saw that once, but I found it to be hilarious. Like I said, never saw it again, including on home media.


and although this may not be movies, I think it definitely applies where extended versions are not available on Blu Ray (but may be in other media, especially DVD):

Friends

 

[David_B_K]

Wyatt Earp (1994)

Also, Tombstone, which had a longer version released on DVD, but not on Blu-ray.

 

[Alan Tully]

There's an ongoing debate about the Lethal Weapon Blu-rays over at blu-ray.com. The Blu-rays are the directors cuts, & I read somewhere that director Richard Donner refused to have anything to do with the Blu-ray releases unless Warner used his directors cuts. The extra shots used in the extended DVD's were never authorised by him, & the DVD's were never directors cuts.

 

[Tom St Jones]

There's an ongoing debate about the Lethal Weapon Blu-rays over at blu-ray.com. The Blu-rays are the directors cuts, & I read somewhere that director Richard Donner refused to have anything to do with the Blu-ray releases unless Warner used his directors cuts. The extra shots used in the extended DVD's were never authorised by him, & the DVD's were never directors cuts.

I haven't yet seen the Blu-ray cuts myself, but I take it you mean the theatrical cuts are what Richard Donner supposedly considers his Director's cuts?
If it's true - that Mr. Donner didn't actually authorize the DVD "Dir's cuts" (this is first I've heard of that) - sounds very similar to the situation with Warner's 1992 "Director's Cut" of BLADE RUNNER. As with the LW "Dir's cuts", it was/ is hailed by many fans and critics as a superior (to the original) version. Unlike BLADE RUNNER, the LW films didn't necessarily need the improvement.

 

[Bill Waits]

Here's another that I forgot:

Armageddon

(The DVD extended version was released by Criterion)

 

[Matt Lucas]

Also, Tombstone, which had a longer version released on DVD, but not on Blu-ray.

Yes, I was just thinking last night about the lack of a blu-ray release of this title. Such a good, entertaining film. And there's apparently a lot more footage out there that wasn't included in the extended cut. This is mentioned in an extensive interview with Kurt Russell about the film and how he actually directed it from behind the scenes.

Looks like the original interview with Russell is gone, but another story references it here:

http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/archives/2007/01/russell_reveals_tombstone_secr.html

Regards,
matt

 

[Will*B]

The Elite Entertainment laserdisc of William Lustig's MANIAC was his director's cut. It tightened up several scenes in the first half, and omitted the preposterous 'dinner date' scene between Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro. The scene was an extra in the supplementary section. (I received this laserdisc, along with Elite's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and Criterion's ROBOCOP for my 18th birthday in '97. Happy memories!).

The Blue Underground BD of MANIAC, whilst fantastic in every other respect, only includes the theatrical cut. Odd, considering Lustig owns the company and produced the BD personally as far as I'm aware...

 

[WillG]

Since we're talking about "Tv versions" here...
Halloween II (20 minutes of new scenes for censorship cuts)

The Shout Factory release of Halloween II includes the television cut on a separate DVD.

I'll offer "The Hateful Eight" (as of now the Roadshow version has not been released)

 

[Garysb]

Mask (1985) is an interesting situation. The film was supposed to include Bruce Springteen songs on the soundtrack but a dispute between Universal and Columbia Records over the use of the Springsteen songs resulted in the songs being removed and replaced with Bob Seger songs before the film's release. When the director's cut, which added a few and extended a few scenes was produced the Springsteen soundtrack was restored. Some fans of the film complained that the film they loved was damaged by the removal of the Seger songs. It was not the film they remembered and wanted to see.

 

[Kent K H]

May I flip the script? I absolutely prefer the theatrical cut of Tropic Thunder to the unrated "director's" cut and am sad that only the latter got a blu ray.

 

[JoshZ]

DIRECTOR's Cuts and other Extended/ Roadshow/ alternate versions that remain MIA on Blu-ray and some even on DVD.

A few I can think of:

DUNE (1984)

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to chime in with an update on this, because I know it well. The extended "Alan Smithee" TV version of Dune was released on DVD in 2006, reconstructed into 2.35:1 widescreen for the first time (which meant some footage shot for the TV version was cropped and stretched). It is not included in the follow-up American Blu-ray in 2010, but does appear in the recent Ultimate Edition box set from Koch Films in Germany (along with a copy of the "Spidediver" fan edit).

Also, a pan & scan copy of the TV cut was released in Japan in 2015 for the 30th Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray.

 

[JoshZ]

A title I don't see mentioned in this thread is Star Trek VI. The extended cut is still only available on DVD. The Blu-ray is the theatrical cut only.

 

[Worth]

A title I don't see mentioned in this thread is Star Trek VI. The extended cut is still only available on DVD. The Blu-ray is the theatrical cut only.

It's available in HD as an extra on iTunes.