My review of Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy is lost somewhere in the archives from before our last make-over, but I was generally favorable to it. I don’t hate the movie as much as some people do, although I would never say that it’s a great film.
It’s already a long movie, but not long enough, I guess – Wolfgang has gone back and put in about an extra half hour of footage, bringing the running time to an epic 3 hours and 12 minutes. And this time, Wolfgang says, he didn’t forget the gravy. The red gravy, that is – he promises this cut will be more violent.
Warner Home Video put a million bucks into the film, which also required new SAG clearances from the actors. It’s premiering at Berlinale this weekend, and will then get a limited German theatrical rerelease – no word yet on when it’ll hit American DVD, but Petersen says he’s going to record a new commentary for it.
Variety reminds us that this is just the latest in Warner Bros’ return to classics – they did the utterly useless Donner cut of Superman II last year, and in two weeks we get the third edition – subtitled “The Final Cut” – of Oliver Stone’s modestly disastrous Alexander (and yes, I’ll be buying that. Sue me). There’s also a director’s cut of The Natural coming our way on DVD in a couple of weeks. Let’s just hope nobody gets any funny ideas about Poseidon…