Skip to footer

'The Dark Knight Rises': Will there be a director's cut?

Rumors have swirled that a director's cut of 'The Dark Knight Rises' will be released. Will it happen?

|
Ron Phillips/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP
'The Dark Knight Rises' starred Christian Bale as the caped hero.
  • By Kofi Outlaw Screen Rant

Fans of Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy have been listening intently to talk about extra material that was cut from the The Dark Knight Rises – for example, an extended sequence of Bane’s origin story – and naturally there sprung a small hope that the DVD/Blu-ray home video release of TDKR would feature all the extra bits audiences didn’t get with the theatrical release.

Last week, in answer to fans’ hopes, a rumor surfaced that Dark Knight Rises was going to get a Blu-ray extended director’s cut. Today, we get contrarian confirmation that this is NOT in fact the case.

The Playlist spoke with the Nolan camp, who (in no uncertain terms) crushed the initial report from Nuke The Fridge that the extended director’s cut of TDKR was coming next summer ahead of the Nolan-produced Superman reboot, Man of Steel.

This really should come as little surprise, since anyone who’s spent time reading Christopher Nolan interviews (we admit, we’ve stalked him a bit ourselves) will know that the director believes in meticulous planning, efficiency and cost-saving when it comes to his films (despite their now-standard $150 million+ price tags). That’s all to say: Nolan usually plans what to cut and what to save at the pre-production stage – i.e., revising things in the script and storyboarding phases – and what he leaves on the cutting room floor in terms of footage (presumably less than a lot of directors), he wholeheartedly wants to leave on the floor.

On the other hand, Oscar-winning TDKR costume designer Lindy Hemming spoke at length about the Bane origin sequence in the context of them filming it – including mention of the early-version costume and mask Bane wore in that sequence. So we know that there are definitely “deleted scenes” from the film that exist – we’re just not going to get to see them.

Chris Nolan, as stated, is very meticulous (controlling?) about the craftsmanship of his films. While his singular driving vision has often resulted in some great films, this is a case where I’m genuinely wondering if he isn’t adhering a bit too strictly to his own rules. Throughout the run of The Dark Knight Trilogy Nolan has amassed legions of fans who have translated their adoration into (literally) billions of dollars for Warner Bros. – and a nice paycheck for the filmmaker himself. Not to mention, the same fans and their dollars fosters new career opportunities for Nolan to make his own original films like Inception.

Even if the Bane origin sequence or other cut scenes like it aren’t perfect, Nolan and his team of collaborators could almost certainly put together something that would let fans further enjoy his Batman movie universe. If not just deleted scenes from one film – which Nolan has pointed out are too scant to really excite – then a featurette of deleted scenes from all three films. The point is: it’s possible to do this, it’s just not being done.

Kofi Outlaw blogs at Screen Rant.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'The Dark Knight Rises': Will there be a director's cut?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2012/0913/The-Dark-Knight-Rises-Will-there-be-a-director-s-cut
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe