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

[bigshot]

By the way, Bob Wilbur was responsible for the recreated music in Cotton Club, not John Barry.

 

[babsdude]

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

Me too. Thank you for that tip. Ordered! (Or should I say DOWNLOADED to Kindle.)

 

[ahollis]

Just arrived. Thanks Will for the heads up.

 

[Will Krupp]

Looks like James Robert Parish should throw me a couple of bucks!

 

[Jim*Tod]

What's the latest on this? Sitting here watching THE GODFATHER SAGA I realized I hadn't heard anything for a while.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The only thing I've heard on it since, Jim, is that Criterion may be the one that will handle it based on a connection made when they did The Black Stallion. Just a rumor though and I don't think anything has been said since Coppola made his announcement.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Thanks. I always felt like the movie made a huge mistake by emphasizing the Gere character when clearly he was the least interesting one in the film. I am guessing there is a lot of footage that did not it into the released version. THE BLACK STALLION disc from Criterion is wonderful BTW.

 

[rsmithjr]

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

It is the CED system from RCA.

 

[Dick]

By the way, Bob Wilbur was responsible for the recreated music in Cotton Club, not John Barry.

Yeah, I think Barry only composed two cues for the film, yet his name seems almost solely attached to the score.

 

[usrunnr]

I haven't seen any news or responses here to The Cotton Club's restoration for a long time. Does any one have any new information about the restoration or Blu-ray release?

 

[bigshot]

Leave all the musical numbers and side plots and cut out the main characters and Cotton Club would be a lot better movie.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I have heard nothing new but rumors persist that Criterion is doing this one which would make sense in terms of the long wait because not only would Coppola have to finish the restoration of the film, adding the 20 minutes back into the film, whatever other tweaks and adjustments they might make, but then Criterion would take time creating supplemental features which generally takes considerable time...so best case is we will get a new Criterion blu-ray with theatrical and director's cuts and a nice package of extra features that cover the crazy history of this picture.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

OK, so here is an update with a question mark...

You’ve frequently gone back and tweaked your films, such as “One From the Heart” and “The Outsiders.”

I recently did that with “The Cotton Club.” “The Cotton Club” was sort of made on the battlefield between the various people who put up the money and the producer (Robert Evans). At the time, they looked at it and said, “Oh, there’s too many black people in it. Can we cut out some of the tap dancing and put the emphasis less on the black people in the story?” I happened to have a Betamax very rough copy of what the movie had been before all that happened. I realized the movie had been 35 minutes longer. Much of the film had been lost, but through hook and crook, I was able to put it back together.

By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press

Published: April 29, 2016, 6:01 AM

http://www.columbian.com/news/2016/apr/29/francis-ford-coppola-the-eternal-film-student/

Alright so Coppola confirmed that he completed this new cut of The Cotton Club in April of 2016. So, there is at least part of the explanation for what is going on with the new cut...he did not finish it until last April. Now here's the question mark...

The Cotton Club is screening in mid-February (Weds. 15, Thurs. 16) at the Berlin Film Festival which I would guess would be the new cut of the film...but all I can find is the theatrical running time in relation to the Berlin screenings this month and no mention that it is the new cut.

https://www.berlinale.de/en/program...tenblatt.php?film_id=201702904#tab=filmStills


http://www.indiewire.com/2016/04/fr...ether-a-longer-cut-of-the-cotton-club-292102/

It does sound as if this cut may play some festivals prior to getting a blu-ray release. So, the wait could be a bit longer.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

If Criterion doesn't handle it, Lionsgate will, based on their current relationship with American Zoetrope.

 

[haineshisway]

Two YEARS since he first mentioned it - I'll believe him when it actually appears.

 

[Ushabye]

The version showing at the Berlinale is a 35mm print running at 125 minutes.
IMDB: 127 min | 123 min (video)
Wiki: 128 mins

Plus there's no mention in the programme of it being a new director's cut, which I imagine is something they'd be shouting about if it was the case. At best it's likely a newly struck 35mm print of the original cut.

I would be so wonderful to re-discover this film as a new Coppola cut, in a theatre, with a full house. Preferably 35mm, but I settle for DCP.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Two YEARS since he first mentioned it - I'll believe him when it actually appears.

Well, I feel more comfortable that this will happen than I do about the Welles project The Other Side of the Wind because I don't think there is anybody blocking The Cotton Club release. I think it has taken as long as it has because he finished the new cut only last April so I would guess there would be some time involved in getting it to blu-ray for us. Plus I don't doubt that there may be some showings of it before it comes to blu-ray. It would have been great if it was part of the Berlin festival as we would have at least heard some reviews but I feel pretty good about Coppola getting this one out. He spent considerable time and effort on it and I'm sure that was not to place it back on a shelf. I would say he wants people to see it.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

I'm hoping that when The Cotton Club does get released on Blu, that both the original cut and the director's cut are included along with a wealth of bonus features because I'm sure there's probably a lot of stories about the production.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Hoping we find out something soon...