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The Cotton Club coming to blu-ray in new Director's Cut (2 Viewers)

Winston T. Boogie

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Yes, I don't know. Maybe because they added musical scenes to the film (Stormy Monday) they have to pay out for some music rights. Maybe this complicates a blu-ray release and we have another film bogged down in music rights issues that MGM does not want to pay for. Not sure really but obviously I want to see this get a blu-ray release.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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I wonder if doing a new version is just a way to renegotiate rights. Announcing a new cut makes the old cut unsalable. And in order to release the new one, MGM would have to pay extra for the rights to the new cut.

Well, doing the Encore version was something that Coppola wanted to do, he spent a half million of his own money on it so he was serious about "repairing" this picture. Hopefully, his commitment to the film pays off and this gets a blu-ray release. The few people that have seen the new version all seem to be claiming it is now a really great film.

The near complete silence on the fact that this exists though seems a bit puzzling/troubling and that they really are not being permitted, yet, to show it seems to confirm there are some sort of issues being addressed.
 

JPCinema

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This article was in Hollywood Elsewhere.

Barber Blocking Coppola’s New Cotton Club
Francis Coppola‘s The Cotton Club Encore, an expanded and allegedly improved 139-minute version of the original 1984 film, played twice at last weekend’s Telluride Film Festival. I couldn’t fit it into my schedule, and I can’t find any reviews from any reputable or tough-minded critics whom I respect. Nor can I trust Jim Hemphill’s enthusiastic 9.6 review, which claims that the new cut is a “masterpiece”. But I’m certainly intrigued.

I didn’t care much for the original version, which I saw only once about 33 years ago. But Coppola’s new cut is said to feature more music and dancing, and to be less white, and less focused upon the romantic relationship between the two lead characters, played by Richard Gere and Diane Lane. It may do the trick and it may not, but who wouldn’t want to see it?

gerelane.jpg

cotton2.jpg

Coppola spent $500,000 out of his own pocket to create this new version. The restoration effort took four years, I’ve been told, and was completed about six months ago. Coppola was inspired after seeing an old Betamax version of an original cut that he liked better than the ’84 theatrical version.

Coppola archivist James Mockoski explained this morning that Coppola removed about 13 minutes of footage for the original 127-minute version, which took it down to 114 minutes or thereabouts. Roughly 25 minutes of new footage was added for a grand total of 139 minutes.

So why isn’t The Cotton Club Encore playing at the Toronto Film Festival or the forthcoming New York Film Festival? You’re not going to believe this, but the reason is MGM CEO Gary Barber, the same obstinate asshole who has blocked Robert Harris‘s long-hoped-for restoration of John Wayne‘s The Alamo.

MGM is the Cotton Club rights-holder, you see, and Barber, true to form, has not only objected to the film being shown in any kind of commercial venue (such as TIFF or NYFF) but is also uninterested in distributing or streaming Coppola’s expanded version, even though Coppola has paid for the whole thing.

Barber could theoretically (a) allow for a brief theatrical re-release of The Cotton Club Encore or (b) issue it on Bluray or via Amazon/iTunes streaming or (c) at least sub-license the home video rights to Criterion or some other dedicated, film-loving outfit. But the South African-born executive reportedly has no interest, just as he’s refused to even discuss the Alamo situation with Harris.

Telluride honcho Tom Luddy was able to show The Cotton Club Encore last weekend by slipping it in quietly and not promoting it prior to the start of the festival.

From “Didn’t Much Care For Cotton Club, But Loved New York‘s Making-Of Saga,” posted on 2.28.17:

“I saw this Orion release when it opened in December ’84. I seem to recall feeling mixed about it — not bad in parts but at the same time a film that never really lifted off the ground. I can tell you for sure that I never saw it a second time. Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane (‘Hiya, chumps…welcome to Vera’s!’), Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage. It ran 127 or 128 minutes, cost $58 million and earned $25,928,721.

“It’s not available to stream, and there’s only one Cotton Club DVD (issued in 2001) left in the Amazon library.

“But one good thing came out of The Cotton Club, and that was Michael Daly‘s “The Making of The Cotton Club,” a New York magazine article that ran 22 pages including art (pgs. 41 thru 63) and hit the stands on 5.7.84.

“It was one of the most engrossing accounts of a troubled production I’ve ever read, and it still is. Dazzle and delusion, abrasive relationships, murder, tap dancing, pussy, cocaine, flim-flam, double talk, financial chicanery and Melissa Prophet. Excellent reporting, amusing, believable, tightly composed…pure dessert.”

Again, the URL.

Here’s a 9.1.17 piece that Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson posted about Coppola’s restoration.

There are two other documents, a statement from Coppola plus a Scott Foundas interview with Coppola about the restoration, that I’d like to include, but I’ve only given PDF docs so far. Neither document has a URL link…sorry.
 

Bob Cashill

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I sprang for the Japanese Blu-ray (Region A) of the theatrical cut, and it's a beauty. Because I bought it I fully expect it to be released elsewhere, more economically, so, you're welcome. (But the StudioCanal logo indicates that "elsewhere" may be Region B territories.) Anyway, the thing exists--a theatrical release, much less a Blu-ray, of the Coppola cut doesn't seem to be on the cards for now.
 

bigshot

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The theatrical cut is on blu-ray in Italy, so that's probably the Region B you are thinking of.
 

Bob Cashill

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I'm sure it's the exact same disc, and, yes, cheaper. Being region-free I could've gotten it, but Amazon Italy is the sick man of Europe getting packages to me, so slow (Amazon Japan, three days).
 

Dick

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I would love to find a venue on which to publicize the people who are holding films hostage:
GARY BARBER
WADE WILLIAMS
SUSAN HART
They need to be held accountable for all film aficionados to see.
Suggestions?
 

MatthewA

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Have any of MGM's usual third-party licensees (Kino, Twilight Time, Olive, Arrow, Criterion) tried to get the rights to it?
 

Winston T. Boogie

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Based on that article Glenn posted it sounds like they are shopping it to potential distributors now. Gary Barber was fired from MGM back in March...and he was the one mentioned as not interested in getting Coppola's new version of this picture out there. So, patience would likely be the operative word here.

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/gary-barber-leaving-mgm-chairman-1202731059/
 

MatthewA

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If Barber's gone, then maybe The Alamo also has a prayer if it hasn't passed the point of no return yet. But this is already done, so it just seems petty and churlish not to release it at all.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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If Barber's gone, then maybe The Alamo also has a prayer if it hasn't passed the point of no return yet. But this is already done, so it just seems petty and churlish not to release it at all.

Honestly, I don't know much about Gary Barber outside of the stuff I would read about him...and that tended to all be bad. In particular for film fans because Barber seemed to be the guy that would get blamed for neglecting the MGM catalog. He was raked over the coals for the idea that he specifically did not want Coppola's new version of The Cotton Club shown or screened anywhere. Supposedly the only showings it has had so far were intentionally under the radar due to the claim that Barber did not want the film shown.

I don't know why Barber would feel this way or if he did not like Coppola for some reason but now that he is gone it appears there is some movement on getting the new Cotton Club cut out there.

Does this mean new hope for The Alamo? I have no idea and I would guess if anybody had any thoughts on that around here it may be Robert Harris but it also may be something he can't really talk about at this stage. So again...I'd say patience would be the key word here.

Barber was fired by MGM pretty much on the heels of having his contract extended to 2022. So, he did not see it coming and it happened suddenly and MGM gave no reason publicly for his firing. We can hope, I guess, that they fired Barber because MGM took an interest in preserving and getting their catalog out there.
 

MatthewA

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What makes it odder is that they still allowed Criterion to have both versions of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Tom Jones.
 

Stephen_J_H

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I was expecting Lionsgate to release this one, as the have an ongoing relationship with American Zoetrope, but the rights are probably far more complicated in this case.
 

Kevin EK

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Bumping this thread to keep it in view.

I understand that Coppola was asked about Cotton Club Encore at David Lynch's Festival of Disruption last October. He discussed his re-edit of the movie (although his comments may have fooled some people into thinking that he was editing videotape into the movie). If I understand his comments correctly, however, the only thing they were negotiating at this point was a way for Coppola to get his money back from the restoration work he did on his own.

Fingers crossed, I'm hoping we can see a proper Blu-ray of this one for its 35th Anniversary - with the usual Coppola trimmings.
If he's feeling particularly even-handed about it, maybe he'll even throw in the "Apocalypse Always" piece to boot.
 

GlennF

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The new promo features a lot more Gregory Hines and Lonette McKee and a whole lot less of the Richard Gere/Diane Lane romance that was the focal point in the last cut. I do remember seeing this and being disappointed in how truncated most of the musical numbers were. Hopefully, he has fixed that.
 

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