Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Avatar reissue?

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-08-2010, 09:56 PM:

I heard somewhere that Avatar is being reissued sometime this summer with extra footage. Is it true? And which other 3-D movie are they going to stomp on?

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 05-08-2010, 10:58 PM:

I heard this too.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-09-2010, 12:11 AM:

A new re-issue in commercial theaters? I haven't heard anything before on that. There's been lots of talk about some super-mega deluxe version in 2D-only to be released on Blu-ray around year's end. No telling on when a Blu-ray 3D version will be offered.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 05-09-2010, 01:34 AM:

Article about it here.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-09-2010, 03:47 AM:

linky (..and the way we have to post media stories here on F.T. - #4 rule)

quote:
"Cameron reveals Avatar re-release"

Avatar will be re-released this summer with an additional six minutes of footage, its director James Cameron has said in a newspaper interview.

"We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to Alice in Wonderland.

"So we know we left money on the table there," Cameron told the LA Times.

Cameron also said the Avatar sequel will be centred on the ocean on the planet Pandora.

The ocean would be as "equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative," he said.

The award-winning filmmaker claimed the release of Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans in 3D, so soon after Avatar came out, meant there were not enough cinemas available to give Avatar a proper run.

By the time the film is re-released, it will also be out on DVD but Cameron believe those who have already seen Avatar at home will still want the big screen experience.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland had record opening takings for a 3D movie when it was released in March.

Avatar became the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£625.6m) in ticket sales around the world earlier this year.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-09-2010, 10:26 AM:

Yup, this is common knowledge. Cameron felt that he was robbed because of the 3D movies that came out (Alice, etc) and made people stop playing Avatar. So he is adding a couple of extra minutes and re-releasing this fall, hoping people will still care.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 05-09-2010, 11:09 AM:

Does making a bad movie 6 minutes longer make it 6 times badder?

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 05-09-2010, 12:18 PM:

Yeah, my bad on the link. It was late and I was in a hurry to get to bed.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-09-2010, 01:05 PM:

Is it ever possible for that bastard, Cameron, to make a movie that is just two hours long?

Avatar is already nearly three hours long and he's adding more to it? The guy is fucking nuts!

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 05-09-2010, 03:45 PM:

I hope that Cameron will use that extra 6 minutes to add a story line to the movie, and not just 6 more minutes of goofy 3D effects.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-09-2010, 09:40 PM:

This could be bad news, actually. I can see this happening: People have bought the DVD and watched it at home, but since the movie is way better in 3-D, they will flock back to the theatres again to see the longer 3-D version. It will do good business, so the studio guys will say: "See, it doesn't matter if the DVD is already out -- people will flock to the theatres to see movies!! Let's put the DVD out at the same time as the theatres get it. Hell, let's put it out six weeks ahead of the theatres! The DVD will be like a big commercial for the theatrical release!"

I hope this doesn't happen but nothing would surprise me any more.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 05-10-2010, 11:18 AM:

Mike, that won't happen because of a re-release of AVATAR. People will come back to the theatre to see it thought becaue of what you stated. Its in 3D and you can't get that at home yet. At least not your average american. I don't know what you guys are complaining about. Its money in your pocket, your not going to be paying huge % to the studio. Just like when AVATAR was making 25mil in its 10th week, you were seeing a bigger chunk of that as the % went down.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-10-2010, 02:49 PM:

quote: Joe Elliott
Yeah, my bad on the link. It was late and I was in a hurry to get to bed.

(N/P .. just didn't want to see you get into a bit of trouble..hope you didn't mind this correction..)

So, what's 6 minutes of added footage - is someon now going to go buy the DVD/BR, watch the whole thing, then anticipate what the six minutes is gonna be? If they were gonna add 20 minutes or so, then it might be worth it, but really... six minutes?

Sounds like another marketing ploy for upping the media sales.

-Monte

Posted by Peter Castle (Member # 1997) on 05-10-2010, 06:30 PM:

I understand that the six minutes of extra footage takes the length of "Avatar" to the limit placed on the length of an IMAX movie. I'd prefer to see more added to make the re-release more promotable.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 05-10-2010, 08:12 PM:

Hopefully a re-release will give me the opportunity to see the film in IMAX. Would definitely have it back at work if the re-release was properly promoted, we have the extra 3D screens to do it now.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-11-2010, 01:02 AM:

Since virtually every expanded movie I've ever seen has been better without the extra footage, I think six minutes is just about right.

Enough to get people to go see it again, but not enough to ruin the movie for those who like it.

I keep thinking of the expanded (on DVD) version of the original "Blues Brothers," and the original Star Wars series expansions. Most of the extra scenes just bogged things down.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 05-11-2010, 02:45 AM:

Agree fully, Mike.

There is a reason why that footage hit the cutting room floor- trouble now is the cynical exercise of re-inserting selections of that footage in order to crow-bar more money from patron's wallets and purses.

Isn't that is what the "extras" segment of most DVD's is for?

Still, if it bolsters the cinema takings then good on him.

Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 05-11-2010, 03:14 AM:

Only Lord Of The Rings had excellent extended edition. I doubt 6 minutes will add anything usefull in this movie.
Demetris

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-11-2010, 06:28 AM:

It is already on video.

Theatres complain about the shrinking "window."

If they play this, they deserve a shrinking window. LOUIS

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 05-12-2010, 01:12 PM:

I'm not an Avatar fan but I applaud any opportunity for people to see non-current movies in theatres again.

I also thought it was neat that many theatres showed Iron Man 1 the night before #2 opened.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-12-2010, 08:11 PM:

The Blues Brothers had an expanded edit on DVD? What did they add?

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 05-12-2010, 08:37 PM:

The extended version of The Blues Brothers adds 18 minutes of footage to the movie. They tried the reconstruct the Picwood preview track and picture print. Which was longer than the current 148 minutes in this DVD version. It amounts to expanded scenes, some are longer takes and afew extra lines. An intermission was to be included at one time for a Roadshow release. Universal junked all the extra footage and that print. We would get calls seeing if by any chance that print or anything from that screening was left during my days at that theatre.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-12-2010, 09:01 PM:

quote: Brad
The Blues Brothers had an expanded edit on DVD? What did they add?

From imdb.com

The Collectors' Edition on DVD runs 18 minutes longer than the original release and includes the following expanded or newly added scenes:
The two Joilet guards come to get Jake in his cell and have trouble waking him up.
One additional line from Frank Oz as he rattles off Jake's material possessions.
An additional line for the Penguin regarding missions: "I'll be sent to the missions... Africa, Latin America... Korea."
Jake and Elwood discuss getting the money for the mission honestly outside of the Triple Rock Baptist Church.
The "The Old Landmark" number is considerably longer, incorporating more dance sequences and extra verses.
After the demolition derby in the shopping mall Elwood parks the Bluesmobile in a hiding place beside an electrical power box. (John Landis explains that Aykroyd thought this would show how the car gets its incredible endurance, but also goes on to explain that it never did make any sense, so the scene was cut.)
A few extra lines of dialog when Elwood and Jake rest in his apartment.
When the cops come to arrest Jake and Elwood in the motel, they first stop at the registration desk and intimidate the manager. They also greet Sam, who seems to be known by everyone.
An entire sequence with Elwood boosting chemicals from his day job, then quitting the job to become a priest, is restored.
After the above sequence, Jake and Elwood study a cigarette box with "the last known address of Bones Malone and Blue Lou Marini".
After getting the new address of Bones Malone, Elwoods thanks Ms Tarantino before leaving.
Jake has an extra line of dialog while pep-talking Murph and the Magictones at the Holiday Inn ("Now, who here at this table can honestly say that they played any finer or felt any better than they did when they played with the Blues Brothers?")
One line of dialog for Henry Gibson is restored for the Illinois Nazis scene at the bridge, with regards to the swastika ("The sacred and ancient symbol of your race since the beginning of time!")
The "Boom Boom" number is much longer, with extra shots of John Lee Hooker laughing and arguing with his band. Jake and Elwood watch for a moment then enter the Soul Food Cafe.
"Think" has extra verses and shots of dancing.
When the band arrives at Bob's Country Bunker, Bob hands the request list to Bones Malone, who looks at it blankly.
The "Theme from Rawhide" and "Stand By Your Man" numbers are slightly longer.
The original Picwood preview included another musical number, "Sink the Bismark", but that footage has been lost.
More lines of dialog for Maury Sline in the steam room scene, mostly regarding to the old gigs having been turned into (gay) discos.
When Jake fills up the tank for the Bluesmobile, he overfills it and gas spills over. When they peel out from the station, Elwood flicks a cigarette out of the window and causes the station to explode. (Landis now says he doesn't remember why this particular scene was cut.)
Before the sound-check Curtis (Cab Calloway) explains to the band that they need to do it for the kids, since the Blues Brothers will use the money raised from that concert to pay the taxes for a church. The look on the faces of the band after they hear it is priceless!
The "Minnie the Moocher" number is considerably extended.
As Jake and Elwood sneak into the show, Elwood takes the chemicals that he stole from the show and sneaks them into the tires of the cop cars.
Both the "Everybody Needs Someone to Love" and "Sweet Home Chicago" numbers are extended.
When Jake and Elwood sneak out, the gas in the cop cars tires reacts and causes the tires to explode on some to delay the police.
An alternate line of dialog for Carrie Fisher in the sewer when she confronts Jake, about how her father "used up her last favors" with the Mafia for her wedding. In the original release it was changed due to complaints of the Italian-American community.
The lengthy climactic chase to (and through) Chicago features many extra lines and shots of racing autos.
The "assault on Daley plaza" and the Assessor's Office scenes also feature extra lines and shots.
The "Jailhouse Rock" number is slightly longer.
As the prisoners riot at the end of the film, there is a brief shot of riot-geared police guards racing into the mess hall that has been added. It changes the end of the film subtly.
The "cast of characters" and end credits are extended to accommodate the new footage.

The film was originally intended to be an old-fashioned roadshow attraction. The original cut of the film had an intermission and may have run as long as three hours. Landis was asked to cut the film after premiering a lengthy director's cut (of an answer print) at the Picwood Theatre in West Los Angeles. That version has been lost. Landis originally tried to restore the original cut several years ago, but found that Universal had thrown out all the outs, trims, negatives, and mix tracks. Landis and George Folsey Jr. restored 18 minutes from another preview print on an AVID for the Collectors' Edition, and correctly timed the picture so that Stephen Katz's photography looks as it was intended to look.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-12-2010, 09:11 PM:

quote: John Wilson
The original cut of the film had an intermission and may have run as long as three hours. Landis was asked to cut the film after premiering a lengthy director's cut (of an answer print) at the Picwood Theatre in West Los Angeles. That version has been lost.

Wow, that sucks. [Frown]

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-12-2010, 09:18 PM:

Mightily.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-12-2010, 09:31 PM:

Well John found a lot more information than I remembered. I would say there are two or three of those extra scenes that are worthwhile, but the rest were completely unnecessary.

The 25th Anniversary edition includes one of those two-sided DVDs which has the regular movie on one side and the expanded edition on the other.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-12-2010, 10:02 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I would say there are two or three of those extra scenes that are worthwhile, but the rest were completely unnecessary.

Agreed. (Although I would have liked to see three hours of it)

The "Minnie the Moocher" number is considerably extended.

Both the "Everybody Needs Someone to Love" and "Sweet Home Chicago" numbers are extended.

The "Jailhouse Rock" number is slightly longer.

I'd be happy with just those four.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-12-2010, 10:16 PM:

Yeah, the extended music is great. The extended acting, not so much. The scenes where Aykroyd says "We've got to figure a way to get that money honestly" and is shown actually having a job(!), just go against the character we know and love.

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 05-12-2010, 10:34 PM:

Were there any (deleted) scenes establishing the relationship between Elwood and John Candy's character? They seem to know each other at the concert, which always made me wonder if there was something relevant that was cut out.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-27-2010, 11:49 AM:

I haven't seen Avatar, but saw this online

avatar

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-27-2010, 03:04 PM:

I was wrong when I had reported the Ward 16 and the Mililani 14 here on the island of Oahu with only one showing a day at the Film Review page regarding the theatrical reissue of AVATAR yesterday. The 12:00 showing was AM and not PM. Both theatres had midnight showings last night and each has scheduled four showings a day starting today. Regal is also showing it only in digital 3-D IMAX at their Dole Cannery 18 complex.

-Claude

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-27-2010, 03:22 PM:

How many screens are they going with? IME has no info on it for some reason.

Posted by Robert D Hall (Member # 5674) on 08-27-2010, 03:46 PM:

Our distributor told me 800 we dident get it becouse we where #805 in line.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 08-27-2010, 06:23 PM:

It's not showing anywhere here in London which surprised me!

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 08-27-2010, 07:42 PM:

Are they going to put a story line in it, this time?

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 09-03-2010, 07:06 PM:

Is anyone doing anything with this? We ran it for one week, just evening shows, did about 20 or so on friday night.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-03-2010, 07:13 PM:

I hear it's pretty much bombing everywhere. I'm sure there were a few busy shows here and there, but it was pretty pathetic especially given the amount of work that had to be done to add the new shit to the IMAX version. The projectionists hadn't been trained for something like that.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-03-2010, 10:03 PM:

Yeah, how did that work?

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 09-03-2010, 10:28 PM:

I've seen reports that the IMAX Film version required 16 replacement reels for each eye.

Posted by David Despain (Member # 5400) on 09-03-2010, 10:56 PM:

It has actually been our busiest show here. Last week it was more than double the next closest show. We have it in IMAX.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 09-04-2010, 02:30 AM:

Last weekend we sold out almost every show except for the last show on Sunday night (10:15pm show) There was a lot of work that went into getting this ready for the public. IMAX shipped out 16 replacement reels to be swapped out. The original cut of the film was 47 reels, after the new reels it is 46. But actually fills the entire deck.

It took me just over 22 hours total time to put the new reels in to both eyes. the easiest way to accomplish this was to run each eye by itself. Once the reels that needed to be replaced had passed through the projector I would stop it, take the old reels off and on to cores. (To ship orginal reels back to DKP)Platter the "new" reels and move forward. This is a slow process, however James Cameron was nice enough to add footage in consecutive reels in a couple spots. [Roll Eyes]

So I was able to make "Ultimate" reels which conisted of 3 reels, this helped to move the work alittle faster.

I think overall it was a success, I mean it made 4 Million for its opening weekend. This is a movie that has been on DVD/Blu-Ray for a couple months and hasn't been in theatres aside from a couple weekend late shows in May, for well over 4 months. Thats a good weekend. Its over 5.5 Million for the week so far. Just alot of work. Like Joe said, we were not trained. Just sent some sheets with instructions (mind you, they were detailed instructions) and told to have at it. I can imagine somebody somewhere had a lot of trouble.

IMAX at the start of this, was going to send someone out to do the additions. But that idea got shot down real fast.

-Edit to fix bad grammer [Smile]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-04-2010, 02:41 AM:

quote: Kurt Zupin
I can imagine some buddy somewhere had a lot of trouble.

Somebody?

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 09-04-2010, 08:18 AM:

The re-release did OK for us, but it was a slow week anyway. The IMAX screens in London look a lot busier. Is there an intermission in the longer IMAX version? The film could really have done with one in the first place.