The Cotton Club coming to blu-ray in new Director's Cut (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

So I was watching this show where Robert Rodriguez interviews different directors and he was interviewing Francis Ford Coppola and at the end of the show he presents a series of questions from other directors. One of the questions was more a comment that (forget the director's name) this director really loved The Cotton Club and wished Coppola would revisit the film, restore the footage that was cut and present the film on a new 4K blu-ray.


To my great surprise Coppola answered that this was already happening, this guy was going to get his wish, and that he had restored the footage (which he said is mostly musical numbers that were cut) and the film is on its way to a new 4K blu-ray in this brand new edition!


I'm pretty thrilled this is happening because due to a lot of issues surrounding The Cotton Club I thought we'd never see the longer cut of the film in any format.

 

[Joel Arndt]

Any discussion of a potential release date?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Ok, as I suspected this interview is of course on the internet and here it is:





If you want to hear just The Cotton Club comments go to 38:05 of the video. Oh, and the director that asked Coppola to revisit the film was Frank Darabont.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

No talk of release dates yet. I think whenever the interview was done they were still in the process of completing things.

 

[Joel Arndt]

No talk of release dates yet. I think whenever the interview was done they were still in the process of completing things.

Thanks. Hopefully, we'll receive more specific information soon. Would love to see a longer version of this title.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I recall reading about the longer cut of the film, the horrible production history, and the great deal of animosity surrounding this film between Coppola and those that controlled the film. In the past Coppola when asked about getting the longer cut out there would say he did not own the film and it was not likely he could or would revisit it. So, the whole thing had sort of a "When Hell freezes over!" feel to it. Great that whatever had to happen happened and he got to do this.

 

[Matt Hough]

There was potential greatness in The Cotton Club. I'd love to see the director's cut and see for certain.

 

[Will Krupp]

James Robert Parrish's indispensable book, FIASCO: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD'S ICONIC FLOPS, goes into great detail about the tortuous production if anyone's interested. It's well worth a read!


http://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-History-Hollywoods-Iconic-Flops/dp/0470098295/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1426689409&sr=8-7&keywords=fiasco

 

[Matt Hough]

James Robert Parrish's indispensable book, FIASCO: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD'S ICONIC FLOPS, goes into great detail about the tortuous production if anyone's interested. It's well worth a read!


http://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-History-Hollywoods-Iconic-Flops/dp/0470098295/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1426689409&sr=8-7&keywords=fiasco

Thanks for the link and tip on this book. I don't know how I've missed it over the years, but it's now been ordered.

 

[GlennF]

I was one of the people who actually enjoyed this film when it first came out. Most of my friends did not. Sure, I could see there would problems, but the good outweighed the bad for me. The one frustrating thing was the cutting of the musical numbers. I had heard so much about them during the production of the film and then by the time the film came out they were reduced to mere snippets in cases. It sounds like there is hope!

 

[MatthewA]

It seems like they always go for the songs first. Seriously, what happened that caused Coppola to lose control of the picture and thus, apparently, final cut privileges?

 

[Cine_Capsulas]

Time to say goodbye to the horrid old DVD.

 

[rsmithjr]

I loved this movie in original release and bought the LD shortly after. i have seen it many times. Gere is quite good, and the recreation of a time and place too little visited in film is wonderful.

 

[AshJW]

So, hell is freezing over. Good.

 

[Konstantinos]

Time to say goodbye to the horrid old DVD.

Unless you want to keep the theatrical cut!


Although I'm not entirely sure if the new BLuray will include only the director's cut, or both versions.

 

[Robin9]

I was one of the people who actually enjoyed this film when it first came out. Most of my friends did not. Sure, I could see there would problems, but the good outweighed the bad for me. The one frustrating thing was the cutting of the musical numbers. I had heard so much about them during the production of the film and then by the time the film came out they were reduced to mere snippets in cases. It sounds like there is hope!

I'm one of those who did not like the film when it first came out. I wasn't impressed by the musical numbers and the rest of it bored me. I question whether an extended cut would make the film better but I'd be interested to find out.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, this new version according to Coppola restores 20 minutes to the film that mainly consists of musical numbers and some character development scenes. He claims with the 20 minutes added the film actually feels 20 minutes shorter.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[jcroy]

Looking closely at the form factor ^, it looks like an old videodisc from the early-1980s.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Have never seen this film. Would buy it blindly just to see James Cagney in his final big-screen role. Looking forward to an eventual release.