Last week we reported on Alex Proyas’s next picture. At the time the news broke, I was chastised for not being more familiar with Proyas’s body of work. I had seen The Crow but missed Dark City and intentionally stayed away from I, Robot.
Since I was threatened with a caning if I didn’t rectify things, I quickly moved Dark City to the top of my Netflix queue and tossed it in the DVD player the second it got to my house. What I saw was amazing. I’m a big fan of post-modern philosophy and Dark City builds on that in spades. It may not dig as deep into post-modern theory as The Matrix films (which had three movies to dig even deeper with), but on a surface level I can really get into the story of John Murdock.
The reason for all of this back story is that what I’m reporting isn’t exactly new news. In my typically obsessive fashion I went searching for more information on the movie. The “Platinum Series” DVD was less that fulfilling. It turns out that Alex Proyas and David Goyer completed the finishing touches on a director’s cut of the film for DVD. Goyer talked about it in an April episode of Fangoria radio, which means more information really should be coming out at any time.
What’s going into the director’s cut? Well, Goyer talks about how the film was cut for length before its theatrical release and that the result feels slightly truncated. DVD can get away with longer movies (since people can pause the film and get up) so they’ve put material back in that was cut for time. Additionally, some effects sequences have been put in that couldn’t be completed in 1998 (since the film was quite ahead of its time conceptually), and additional music has been put in as well.
This is really exciting news, especially for someone new to the almost-decade old movie. Here’s hoping the DVD gets an early 2008 release as a “10th Anniversary” edition. Thanks to Filmstalker for pointing me towards the episode of Fangoria radio, which they reported on earlier this week.
