Here’s a BBC News story about Tarantino at the Cannes film festival.
Apparently, according to the story:
“The disappointing US box office performance of Grindhouse has seen plans abandoned for the double bill’s international release.”
….So they’ll be releasing longer versions of the separate films.
executive producer Harvey Weinstein insisted that the editing of the movies to make the double bill had “removed some of the essence of the films”.
“European audiences are going to get a lot more, and a lot more enjoyment, when they see the films as intended.
“You are going to get Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino doing their thing, and it will dwarf Grindhouse.”
Tarantino said: “We didn’t cut our movies to the bone, we cut them past the bone.”
The longer version of Death Proof includes long conversational scenes involving actresses including Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan and Tracie Thoms.
Huh.
I’m really glad that I got the whole double-feature-with-trailers experience at the theatre, but I have to admit that I’m curious to see longer versions.
Here’s hoping for a collectors-edition extra-long DVD (with a direct-to-video Machete feature, although that’s probably wishful thinking, since the experiment was deemed a failure)…..
Sounds like a lot of backpedaling to me. I thought Tarantino and Rodriguez were 100% stoked about the grindhouse format and that it was going to be the experience to end all experiences. While I think the separate longer movies would be cool to watch, I think it’s disingenuous to say that the “essence” was removed by putting them together in the format they did.
I’d be happy with a nice SE of Grindhouse; something with both of the longer cuts and the double-bill. I’d also like to see “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair”, but because of litigation and rights issues at Miramax, it doesn’t look like anyone’s in a rush to put that out in a hurry.
Tell me about it. I’ve actually avoided purchasing the DVDs of “Kill Bill” vols 1 & 2 because I was waiting for “The Whole Bloody Affair”, but at this rate, I may just end up giving up on waiting.
I’m with you — going to see the whole thing in theaters really was an excellent movie-going experience. Our theater wasn’t chock-full, but it was full enough of people who were having fun. Imagine: people having fun at the movies. :P
Longer versions, and/or separate versions, will be interesting, but won’t adequately duplicate the theatrical experience.