New Hope for Malick

All of this was ripped from the Criterion forum just as it appears-

From Ain't it Cool News, bastion of accuracy:

Quote:

I asked [producer Sarah Green] if it was true (as Moriarity mentioned in his article from 12/31/05) if Malick had cut a shorter version of the film for the nationwide release on 1/13/06 and she mentioned the following three details.

1.) The version we saw is the 155 minute version that is presently playing in NY and LA. She mentioned that this version "will always exist" but . . .

2.) Malick has trimmed this version and it will be this new cut that will be released when the film opens nationwide. She said that "none of the scenes were cut out, all the scenes are intact, but he did trim down scenes and made a tighter cut of the film."

3.) But, more importantly, she said New Line has agreed to release an extended cut of the film, even longer than the 155 minute cut, to DVD. Again, this was info straight from Producer Sarah Green. It's not as official as if it came from execs at New Line, but that's what she said, for what it is worth. She didn't confirm if the nationwide theatrical cut will be packaged with the extended cut or if New Line will drop the Extended Cut Super Special Edition (with flair!) some months after a bare bones DVD of the nationwide theatrical cut is released.

Now, having missed the 150 minute cut of The New World, it is mused on the Criterion forum that the new version has only been trimmed of 17 minutes, which another poster rightly noted that Lynch did with the original cut of Eraserhead without it flopping. I suppose all we can do is watch that one and wait for DVD.