Warner Home Video has announced that they will be releasing a director’s cut of Alex Proyas’ cult film Dark City on July 29th 2008 on both DVD and Blu-ray. The original 1998 release ran 96 minutes and the new director’s cut is about 15 minutes longer, clocking in at 111 minutes. The new cut supposedly has improved special effects and a new and improved sound mix.
Dark City has a huge cult following within film industry insiders and cinephile circles. Roger Ebert named Dark City the best film of 1998, and was even featured on the original dvd release in a commentary track, which is considered by some film enthusiasts to be one of the best DVD audio commentaries ever recorded. Ebert supposedly recorded a new audio commentary for the forthcoming release before his health problems.
The studio’s press information states that the new release also features two additional commentary tracks that “take you deeper than ever before into the world of one of sci-fis most exciting and revered tales.” No other information is known at this time.
source: ropeofsilicon
April 28th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I love this movie. And I’ll be all over this DC version.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I hope it doesn’t turn out like the Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I was wondering where the hell Alex Proyas went, he hasn’t had a film out in four years, I looked him up and he has another sci-fi film on the way with Nic Cage.
“Knowing”
A teacher (Cage) opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son’s elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions — some that have already occurred and others that are about to — that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.
Sounds promising.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
FINALLY! A new DVD release for this AMAZING film!
I can’t wait.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@Scott
The Director Cut was better than the original cut..
April 28th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
i love the artwork, id like a poster
April 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
This is such a great film. This is long overdue.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
great film. I can’t wait to check this out.
I had such high hopes for I, Robot when I found out Proyas was directing….and then, such low hopes when I discovered that it would star Will Smith. The Alex Proyas that was behind The Crow and Dark City would have made a much film out of the Asimov material. What happened to that guy?
April 29th, 2008 at 12:26 am
gocitizen,
I was in the same camp too. From what I know, Will Smith is the reason for the film turning to shit. He had the writers dumb down the script and overall storyline. Proyas was pretty much “locked out” from the end discussions having to do with the film.
I Am Legend suffered from the same crap. Along with having some of the worst CG I have seen in film in a while.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Not convinced about the new cover art, but a high-def copy of Dark City is definitely welcome!
April 29th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I don’t know how no one mentioned this yet, but the first thing I thought when I saw this was: “I really hope they remove the initial narration.”
The narration was unnecessary and gives away a lot of things in the movie, and as far as I know, Proyas didn’t want it too.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Wish they could digitally replace Keifer Sutherland. Or at least redub his character’s lines. His performance made it very hard to take this movie seriously.
Conceptually baller otherwise.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:25 am
You know, I’ve seen the W Brothers readily admit being William Gibson fans, as well as being accused of ripping off Grant Morrison’s writing for the Matrix movies, but I don’t really remember too many people calling shenanigans about them ripping off ideas from this movie (which they did).
And as far as the Will Smith discussion, I saw an interview with him where he said that he looked at the top grossing films of the past decades, discovered that they were sci-fi, and that’s why he does the films he does. He doesn’t care at all about the stories or characters, just the box office dollars. And that’s why his movies have been sucking (although people still seem to go see them). Add to that, he’s the new poster-boy for Scientology, and you can count me out of watching his films.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:25 am
One of the best recent cover arts?
April 29th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
@Agony
This film and the first Matrix were not only filmed at the same time, the rooftop sequence from the Matrix was actually filmed on the Dark City set.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Zaaz,
Really??? Holy shit, I had no idea.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I hadn’t heard that Zaaz, but if they were filmed at the same time then it’s an awful big coincidence. But I guess it happens.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
AOL lists pan-and-scan dimensions. I’m hoping the studio is smart enough to offer the widescreen option. And the Director’s Cut of Donnie Darko was an absolute masterpiece, undebatably.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
It’s Widescreen, but the aspect ratio is different.