Director Zack Snyder wants you to know that the “Watchmen” experience does’t have to end once you leave the movie theater next month. If you don’t find the two and a half hour theatrical cut satisfying enough or if it leaves out your favorite moment or scene from the comic book (provided it’s the Squid from the final chapter), you’ll just have to wait until this summer for the DVD and Blu-Ray to hit stores.
Snyder recently told Collider that he not one but two director’s cuts of the film complete and ready for release on DVD and Blu-Ray. One is the longer, three hour and ten minute cut that will drop back in some plotlines and footage that were trimmed for the theatrical release. And there’s an even longer version that clocks in at close to three and a half hours that includes the animated footage created to re-tell the story of “The Black Freighter.”
“The director’s cut includes the Hollis death stuff, that’s just a lot more connective tissue…it’s hard for me to even remember exactly what’s in it. But it’s just a lot more,” Snyder said.
Debbie Snyder, a producer on the film and the wife of Zach, said the director’s cut should be out in time for for ComicCon this summer and than the Ultimate Edition will hit stores this fall. The Ultimate Edition will include the footage from “The Black Freighter” comic book within the comic book, according to Debbie.
The Black Freighter version of the movie, which we call the final cut or the ultimate cut – it has a marketed name that I don’t know exactly what it is,” Zack Snyder said. “That version of the movie, because when we were up there we physically shot the in’s and out’s, scenes at the newsstand that go into the movie. There’s like scenes where our characters pass the newsstand and then we pick up action at the newsstand and it gets us into the Black Freighter….with shots that go into it and it comes to life and you follow the Black Freighter story and then come back into the movie. That version of the movie is the director’s cut with the Black Freighter intercut.”
Debbie Snyder said that work is currently underway on the DVD and BluRay release, including a very interesting bonus feature for BluRay users.
“We also did the craziest thing ever called “The In-Movie Experience” for Blu-ray which I’ve never seen before…where Zack actually…it’s like a director’s commentary but it’s him and there are all these boxes and they’ll play the movie and he’ll point to a scene and they’ll deconstruct the scene on all these monitors behind him where you can see the green screen version of it. Or if it’s Dr. Manhattan you can see some great effects,” she said.
So it sounds like we’re getting at least two releases of the film on DVD and BluRay. Or could “Watchmen” be the film that encourages consumers to upgrade to BluRay in the same way that “The Matrix” encouraged consumers to upgrade to DVD?
UPDATE: Several media outlets are reporting that should “Watchmen” do well in theaters, the longer director’s cut could be release in theaters in July. No official word on how much box-office gross would signal the movie has reached the point to send the director’s cut into theaters or if it would be a wide or limited release.
The possiblity raises several questions including will the promise of a longer release keep some fans away initially? And could this be the start of a trend of “double-dipping” in theaters for Hollywood?
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