Fanboys can be a curious bunch, both highly protective and critical of things they haven’t seen. We’ve already witnessed the embarrassing reaction to the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman in “Superman Vs. Batman,” while earlier this month, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth about rumored deep cuts being made to Bong Joon-Ho‘s “Snowpiercer.” Even though that report was mostly based on hearsay, a flurry of reaction ensued, particularly given early rave reviews for the movie, and the fact that it has become a runaway hit in South Korea. Well, maybe people should just chill out a bit?
Indeed, the director himself has finally been asked about the cuts being made, and he’s fairly diplomatic about the process. “I came [to Denmark, where the film premieres this week] after editing for the American version. I’ve never produced a new version for overseas premieres, and this is the first time I’m making a new version,” he told MSN. “Weinstein is actually being pretty soft toward editing, probably because it’s noticed how critics have praised the film and know how angry movie fans get over new edits. They even asked me which parts I want to include in the film.”
So, in summary? It looks like it’s as collaborative a process as you can ask for in this situation, and let’s again remember, international edits aren’t always for the worst. Wong Kar-Wai‘s “The Grandmaster” arrived on U.S. shores, ten minutes shorter than it’s international cut (where are the fanboy tears about that?) and as the director told us himself, he had no issue with that. “I didn’t want to do it just by cutting the film shorter or do a shorter version by trimming and cutting out scenes because the structure of the original version is actually very precise…I just wanted to tell the story in a different way,” he said. “So now the American version is 108 minutes, and we have 15 minutes of new scenes, and the story is more linear. So instead of a shorter version, to me it’s a new version.”
Perhaps this is an opportunity for Bong Joon-Ho to turn lemons into some lemonade or find a slightly different way to tell this story? Anyway, we’ll wait until we see the thing before coming down one way or the other. Now what about that release date, Weinstein Company? [via Bleeding Cool]
