Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Editorial changes after a film has opened

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Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 12-11-2005, 11:46 AM:

Recent thread about prints that get shipped with short reels got me to thinking: one excuse for this would be last-minute cuts that necessitated replacing one or more reels of a film where the prints had already been struck. The notorious example is The Program, whose trailer had a scene of a bunch of jocks proving their jockiness by lying in the middle of a busy road with traffic whizzing by. Some kid in Tennessee saw this and tried it, and got flattened (this was before we had Johnny Knoxville to do all our stupid stunts for us), after which Disney thought the better of including this bit in the actual movie.

I can recall two times in my tenure when replacement reels were sent after a film had actually opened. After Queen Margot had played for a week, the distrib shipped replacements for the first two reels with instructions to ditch the original two. I compared the two versions and discovered a number of changes, in particular during a storm-the-castle sequence where some of the gorier parts (a bunch of guys being run through with pikes, for instance) were taken out. (I admit to sneaking the original violent reels back in after realizing this; if anyone at Miramax is reading this - just kidding!).

Another time, a new reel 1 of Marvin's Room was sent after it had played over the weekend. This one left me scratching my head - I ran the two versions side-by-side and couldn't see or hear a dime's worth of difference.

There must be more instances of this sort of post-release switcheroo - anyone have an anecdote?

[ 12-11-2005, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: Peter Mork ]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 12-11-2005, 12:20 PM:

Peter said "There must be more instances of this sort of post-release switcheroo - anyone have an anecdote? "

why do you need an anedote as it is there film and if they want to change it it is their right

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 12-11-2005, 12:33 PM:

Never said it wasn't - I only mean I'm curious to hear about more examples of this not-too-common event. (To clarify: we're not counting various "director's cuts" which come out after a film's initial run, nor changes made for video release, such as when they replaced an offensive line in the opening song in Aladdin.)

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 12-11-2005, 12:48 PM:

Hangar 18 (1980) had the last reel changed out during the first week we had it in Boulder City. Wasn't just a credits change either - the different ending supposedly tested better with audiences and was changed out after the opening. Remember watching my mentor Art drop it in on the platter at the Boulder Theatre.

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 12-11-2005, 01:25 PM:

Just thought of another one: shortly after Smoke opened, Jerry Garcia died and a clip of Jerry singing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", to be spliced after the credits, was shipped within the week. Guess that sort of counts.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 12-11-2005, 01:31 PM:

Two that I remember from wayback are NEW YORK, NEW YORK and EXORCIST II.

Posted by Markus Lemm (Member # 3456) on 12-11-2005, 01:58 PM:

I know that 'Toy Story 2' and 'Monsters, Inc.' had the last reel changed a few weeks after opening to add outtakes into the credits. It was a planned marketing thing to get people to see the movie again. The DTS discs contained both versions of the last reel so they knew beforehand that they would exchange those reels.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-11-2005, 02:35 PM:

Just a few weeks ago at Waltham, we got a replacement last reel for "Ballets Russes" shipped directly from Alpha Cine Lab, apparently due to some sort of dispute over a listing in the credits. Since we only played the film for one week and the replacement didn't arrive until Wednesday of that week and we were only playing the film for one week, it never got swapped in, although I shipped it out with the new reel.

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 12-11-2005, 02:48 PM:

quote: Mark Lensenmayer
Two that I remember from wayback are NEW YORK, NEW YORK and EXORCIST II.

Details?

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 12-11-2005, 03:10 PM:

Napoleon Dynamite had a scene added after the credits.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 12-11-2005, 04:47 PM:

I think Kubricks The Shining also had a change as well... something with a different ending during the first week of release, but I haven't been able to find more info than that.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 12-11-2005, 08:44 PM:

Kubrick's "2001" was changed after the prints had been sent out. Kubrick sent a note detailing the editing that the projectionist was to perform on the print.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-12-2005, 04:47 AM:

Swapping out a reel is one thing, but asking projectionists to do editing work is another. You want to splice out scenes and replace them within a reel, you pay post production editing prices. I got a title that had three small rolls of film with a long list instructions that contained footage counts (the assumption being that every booth has a footage counter -- we did, but I know plenty that don't) and text to look for. The changes had to go into the credit crawl, which had no frame lines. I had to insert three new or changed credits. I say, the theatre should have charged back the going lab fees that would have been incurred if they had to ask the lab to do this.

I wish I could remember what title that was; I do remember I was really peeved that I had to do the distributor's dirty work.

That was about 10 years ago. Imagine if that were to happen today and they handed that replacement footage to the "A" Ushers to deal with it.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 12-12-2005, 09:03 AM:

The Shining originally had an extra scene at the end with the women in a hospital bed talking about what happened. After the first weekend, that scene was removed. Depending upon location, either the projectionist removed it and sent it back, or a new last reel was sent out.