Joker is a solid hit at the box office and with many fans. There's talk of it competing for major awards as we get closer to the end of the year. It seems to be the sort of movie that a lot of people are watching in the theaters more than once. Those same fans likely will be interested in picking up the eventual Blu-ray release, but if you were hoping for an extended cut of Joker or a lot of deleted scenes, you can stop hoping now.
While creating "extended cuts" of films, or at least including deleted scenes as extras on the home release of a film, is pretty standard practice, it seems unlikely that anything of the sort will be happening with Joker. Director Todd Philips appears to have a particular animosity for the concept. He recently told Collider...
I hate fucking extended cuts. I hate deleted scenes… They’re deleted for a reason... The movie that exists is exactly the movie I want it to be and I will never show a deleted scene.
Todd Philips certainly isn't the first director to decry the concept of the "director's cut." Many directors have taken issue with the idea that scenes which they choose to delete for good reason should be included back into a film they made. Having said that, many of those same directors have no problem including deleted scenes as extras.
While a scene may not have ultimately worked in the final edit of a film, that doesn't mean the scene is entirely without value. Getting a glimpse at it gives viewers a look at the filmmaking process and can help fans to understand why certain directorial decisions were made.
Todd Philips seems to have a slightly more militant view of the concept. He claims here that he will never so much as show off any scenes from Joker that were edited out of the final cut.
If Todd Philips has final say over what makes it onto the Joker Blu-ray then we shouldn't be looking forward to seeing any more of the movie then what's included on the big screen right now. Of course we have no idea if that's the case.
Some of Todd Philips' previous films, like Old School and the first Hangover, have released Unrated versions on DVD that included additional footage not part of the theatrical release. The fact that the discs were called Unrated and not "Director's Cut" would at least imply that Philips may not have been the one putting the footage back in. Whether he completely disavows those versions of the movies is unclear, but if he does, and they were released anyway, it would be evidence a director doesn't always have the final say on what ends up on Blu-ray.
And it's always possible Todd Philips will soften his feelings on deleted scenes. I don't think Joker needs an extended version by any means, but seeing the additional work that Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Philips did on the movie wouldn't be a bad thing.
Joker is in theaters now. We'll have to wait and see just what the eventual Blu-ray release brings us in a few months.
