"Prometheus" is Ridley Scott's return to science fiction, and he's not done with the genre yet. Not only has Scott been discussing a sequel since before the film's release, but now he says there will be an extended director's cut of "Prometheus" when it hits DVD and Blu-ray later this year.
The director claims the extended cut will be about 20 minutes longer. The release will also feature other deleted scenes to give viewers a look at what could have been. Scott has mentioned that an extended fight scene with the Engineer toward the end of the film will be among the sequences on the cutting room floor, but Scott withheld specifics about what the actual extended cut will feature.
One scene that won't make it in is the revelation that The Engineers are upset with humanity because they crucified Jesus, who was one of their emissaries. Scott never even filmed this scene, as he found it to be a little "on the nose."
Such a plot point would have been pretty fascinating, so fans must be wondering just what else didn't make it into the final film. Scott made no bones about his joy in keeping viewers guessing.
"Fundamentally," he said, the cut that made it to theaters is "the director's cut," but the extended version on the Blu-ray is his way of being "user-friendly."
Multiple cuts of Scott's films aren't a new thing; "Blade Runner" infamously has no fewer than five different versions (and was one of the first films to help popularize the phrase "director's cut"), including one that was completed just five years ago. Likewise, "Legend" and "Kingdom of Heaven" received revised cuts after the studio released edited versions to theaters. In these cases, Scott was able to restore his original vision, but that doesn't seem to be the point of an extended "Prometheus."
In fact, the new "Prometheus" cut sounds an awful lot like the "Alien" director's cut released in 2003 that Scott insists isn't his actual preferred cut. Instead, it was something he crafted when Fox expressed interest in re-releasing the film. If both that instance and "Prometheus" sound like a cash-grab, Scott actually agrees with you.
"To a certain extent, I'm a businessman," he said when discussing the "Prometheus" Blu-ray, noting that he's "aware of what [he] has to do" for the studio in terms of delivering extra content for home video.
At least he's honest about it, right?
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