THX-1138 SE in the works (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Conway]

dvasidvd.com was first to discover that THX-1138 has received a new cut from George Lucas and a new rating from the MPAA.

As you may well be aware, Warner Home Video will release a special edition disc of George Lucas's futuristic classic THX-1138 later in the year. Now comes word that the film has been handed an "R" rating by the Motion Picture Association of America and has also been re-titled THX - 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut. "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB," the 1967 USC student film that inspired the feature film, is already available on the Short 10: Chaos DVD series. The disc includes the film, an interview with Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the history of "THX" and bonus interviews with USC professors on Lucas' life as a student filmmaker.

Nobody should panic about this being new footage insterted into the film. Just originally cut scenes restored.

I doubt the content has changed much. The reason it got an R rating instead of its original PG is because of the nudity in the film. Back in 1971 the film had only enough nudity to get a PG, but it would have been an R by today's standards. Ratings were simply judged differently then. Lucas resubmitted the film for a rating because of the new cut, and newer MPAA sensabilities caused the ratings change. I even looked up the film at mpaa.org and it is "Rated R for some sexuality/nudity. Previously rated (GP) in (71)".

By the way, that Shorts 10: Chaos disc is distributed by Warner, so the short film may be on the feature film release after all.

 

[oscar_merkx]

thnaks for sharing the news with us

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Thanks, Brandon.

Great to see that this one is on the way.

 

[Jeff Pryor]

I own the VHS version of THX 1138 and have watched it several times over the last few years. This movie continues to be one of my favorites from the 70s. Looking forward to a nice, clean DVD release.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Well, Lowry Digital said they worked on cleaning up the film for its DVD release, so it should certainly be clean.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I was under the impression that Warner hacked the film to pieces that George Lucas was pissed off enough never to work with them again?

I guess it took a few decades to calm things down.

 

[MarcusUdeh]

It's called Technoscope. Alot of Italian films used this process for scope films. Lucas also used Technoscope for American Grafitti.

The 2-perf process you're referring to is called Techniscope. Technovision is the equivalent of Panavision for Italy since they both produce Spherical and Anamorphic lenses.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Geez the Effect were pretty primitive on this is Lucas gonna change them ?

 

[Brandon Conway]

From imdb.com -

Officials at Warner Brothers did not like the finished film. They cut the film and reduced the marketing budget.

I personally have zero worries about Lucas making "new effects" changes like some people have and surely will post in this thread. The studio cut the film against his wishes, and he's simply restoring those cut scenes. Rather straightforward, if you ask me.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Yeah, this was actually the film that created significant tension between Coppola and Lucas. Lucas thought Coppola should have fought against Warners cutting the film. Coppola said he fought, but couldn't do anything to prevent it due to the contract. Lucas thought Coppola simply rolled over in order to keep his standing at the studio, in order to ensure he made films there in the future.

Warners then cut about 5-10 minutes out of the film, I believe, and Lucas reacted VERY negatively. I think he compared it to "Hacking fingers off your children" or something similar. I'm pretty sure all he's doing is releasing his original cut of the movie before WB edited it. The experience was pretty much THE driving force for him to pursue total financial independence in order to control his filmmaking--it led to him making more commercially minded films in order to stack up enough dough to ensure he could do what he wanted.

Then again, I remember hearing that at least ONE of the VHS re-releases actually DID contain Lucas original cut, although it was not specified that it was the case. I'm not so sure about that.

Interesting that the rating jumped up to an R.

VERY definitely looking forward to this. I'm pretty certain the short will end up going on the disc, too, but you never know.

 

[WillG]

So the release will not include the student film version?