It sounds like a good idea, in theory. If you love a movie, you always want more of it. A Director’s Cut is precisely that, more of the thing you love. But is more than that – or at least, it should be. A director’s cut is meant to be the director’s own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. Except, it seems like we’re just using the term to mean “longer version of the movie” these days.
For example, recently, Zack Snyder told Tudum his director’s cut for the upcoming Rebel Moon has “close to an hour of extra content.” He went on to add that: “With Netflix, we shot scenes just for the director’s cut. So in that way, it’s really a revelation because it gives that second kick at the can for big fans.”
But Snyder is, presumably, getting to do whatever he wants with Rebel Moon. There should be no need for a so-called director’s cut, the movie that is being released IS Snyder’s own edit. Sure, he might want it to be longer, but he understands the constraints of the genre and what makes the movie flow better.
If he then wants to release a longer version of the same movie, for super fans, so be it. Hey, the trailer looks good enough that maybe I’ll be watching that too. But Director’s Cut? We should probably retire that term in this context. What Snyder is referring to isn’t really a Director’s Cut, unless there’s some drama going on with Netflix we don’t know about.
Not that it would surprise us from Netflix, or any of the streamers at this point.
And fans have always loved extra content. That was half the reason we bought DVDs in the first place. Zack Snyder is right about that. But we should stop using Director’s Cut to mean just a longer version of something. No, the term applies to Justice League because we basically got two different movies. It likely won’t apply to Rebel Moon, or most other movies in the future.
