Director Cut facts
While investigating facts about Director Cut, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In 2004, an R-rated director's cut of Daredevil was released, reincorporating 30 minutes, including a subplot involving a character played by Coolio, and it received critical acclaim from critics and was considered a massive improvement over the theatrical version
Because of a 1954 report on illiteracy, Houghton Mifflin's edu director gave Theodor Geisel with a list of 348 words he thought 1st graders should learn, asking Geisel to cut it down to 250 and to use those words to write a book. Geisel returned using 236 of them in his book, The Cat in the Hat.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 40 of the best facts about Director Cut I managed to collect.
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Harvey Weinstein insisted on cuts to a film and when the director refused, reduced the release to only 8 theaters nationwide. The film went on to 95% Fresh rating and dozens of critics' annual top 10 lists. The film: "Snowpiercer"
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When Harvey Weinstein made aggressive demands of director Hayao Miyazaki to edit the U.S. release of Princess Mononoke, Studio Ghibli staff responded by sending Weinstein a samurai sword in the post with a note attached stating: "No cuts."
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After making edits and appealing to the MPAA for an R rating, Scarface director Brian DePalma felt that the cuts he made were so minor no one would notice if he put them back in, so he did.
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When Harvey Weinstein wanted to edit Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable its director, Miyazaki, sent Weinstein a katana with a message stating "No cuts."
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Robin Williams improvised so much during the filming of Mrs. Doubtfire, that director Chris Columbus was able to make a PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 cut of the film.
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The movie studio responsible for The Hangover halved director Todd Phillips' $6.5m fee due to nervousness no big actor was attached to the film. Instead, Phillips requested a cut of the profits which netted him close to $70m.
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The phrase "Cut to the chase" comes from silent movies which often ended with a chase scene. When the film had boring, or to much dialogue executives would say this to the directors.
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The samurai scene in Kill Bill where The Bride fights against the Crazy 88 was so bloody that the MPAA wanted director Quentin Tarantino to cut it in order to maintain an R rating. To get around it, he altered the colors in the scene to black and white.
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There's an R-rated director's cut of Galaxy Quest with raunchy language and sex scenes.
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Director Stanley Kubricks personal assistant was assigned many tasks including cutting fresh grass each day, laying it on the carpet for Kubricks cat to roll in, then vacuuming up the grass afterwards.
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Bill Murray once gave director Wes Anderson $25000 for a helicopter rental for the film Rushmore As disney would not pay due to cost cuts
Truman Show director Peter Weir had initially wanted to have cameras installed in every theater the movie was shown in, having the projectionist at one point cut the lights, cut to the viewers, and then cut back to the movie - source
The "Do you like apples?" scene from Good Will Hunting was originally cut from film before Ben Affleck convinced director Gus Van Sant to put it back in. - source
John Travolta "saved" his iconic solo dance scene in Saturday Night Fever from the cutting floor. The director edited the scene for close-ups. Travolta insisted that the scene be re-edited to show his footwork.
During filming of Suddenly Last Summer, Katharine Hepburn was so upset at the treatment her co-star suffered, that when the final "cut" was called, she confirmed that her services were no longer required and then she spat in the director's face. - source
Director David Lynch was contractually obligated to cut his movie "Blue Velvet" to less than 2 hours. His final product was just frames short of that limit.
Director Brian De Palma like a fanedit of his film Raising Cain so much that the edit was released on Blu-ray as the official Director's Cut
The director of American History X, Tony Kaye, wanted his name removed from the credits because he didn't like the final cut. Edward Norton helped with the cut because it was taking Tony so long to do.
According to Director Todd Haynes, watching Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett share their first kiss during the shooting of Carol(2015) was so moving and infused with such tragedy that he had a hard time saying "cut".
The film adaptation of World War Z's final 40 minutes had to be re shot and rewritten due to the original ending not being coherent. Screenplay writer Damon Lindelof suggested rewriting the final 30 to 40 minutes after the room was silent after watching the directors cut.
The Dream Ghost Woman who appears to Ray Stantz in the first Ghostbusters film was part of a larger scene; originally she would appear to Ray while he slept to have sex with him but the scene ended up being cut by director Ivan Reitman
