Worst film of the year so far? Zack Snyder‘s massively wrongheaded and overstuffed faux feminist folly is certainly up there, but the film does have its defenders and the debate will start all over again when “Sucker Punch” hits BluRay next month with a longer extended cut which will add 18 minutes to the already overly long movie.
During press rounds for the film back in the spring Zack Snyder and his wife and producing partner Deb Snyder weren’t shy about sharing what they had to cut to in order to please the MPAA and get the film to their studio mandated PG-13 rating. So what can you expect in this fuller version? At least one musical number and a lot of violence. “There’s 18 minutes of extra footage,” Deb Snyder said at the time. “A lot of more battle sequences, a lot of content things—we had to go back to the MPAA like five times—we were able to put back. The biggest thing we took out of the film, in the credit sequence we have the [musical montage] of [Roxy Music‘s] “Love Is The Drug” (sung by Carla Gugino and Oscar Issac) and that was actually conceived as a glimpse of what life was like in the every day brothel world and the shows they put on. It was actually at the beginning of the movie in its entirety, but we took it out because when we put it in the film it just looked like the place was too much fun and there wasn’t enough jeopardy. It was really elaborate and beautiful and in the next sequence Baby Doll [Emily Browning] is crying to get out and [it didn’t work tonally].”
“They were just like, ‘It’s too creepy, it’s too dark,’” Zack Snyder further elaborated. “We cut a bunch of violence—on the BluRay there’s more action—[because] you can only kill so many guys [before] they go, ‘No, it’s rated R.’ Even if they’re robots or whatever, they’re not into it. There were a couple scenes that crossed the line for them, even if nothing happens in them. Just the tone was wrong.”
The new running time for the movie will now be 127 minutes and it will come stamped with an R-rating. And yes, this version will be BluRay only — sorry DVD dudes. And as for that reportedly steamy scene between Emily Browning and Jon Hamm that was nixed? No word if it’s been put back in so we’ll have to wait and see. So, will the film now be more cohesive with this additional footage put back in or will it still be a bad fanboy wet dream come to life? We’re betting on the latter. “Sucker Punch” arrives on DVD and BluRay on June 28th. [via /Film]
