Did they cut out a lot from the film?
This movie has a "studio cut" written all over it. Was this in fact the case (it was suppose to be R) or is this really the actual "director's" cut?
shareHonestly, I think no one really knows except the people involved in this film. In the past, I heard that John McTiernan was asked to cut around 30 minutes out of the film because the studio wanted the movie to be shorter and PG-13 so that they could fill more showings during the day and hopefully make it a success after it was poorly testes. But it was in a French magazine and I haven't heard the exact same thing since then.
What I do know is this. The original script for this was supposedly brilliant, Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News had a chance to read it and thought so. But when John McTiernan came on board to direct, he completely changed the script because he thought it wasn't focused enough on what people wanted to see. He was quoted in Cannes, at the time, saying that the problem with the original Rollerball is the title makes the audience think they're going to watch something like the futuristic sport from hell and instead they got a social commentary, so he wanted to make this movie more brutal and focused on the sport.
Then that script was rewritten several times. John McTiernan wanted this movie to be a movie about showmanship and that's why it's so focused on all the crazy stunts and costumes etc. because they're putting on a show. He was fascinated by WWE and wanted to make this film about the same thing.
There were some disastrous test-screening, one of which Harry Knowles saw and he said that the only good thing about the film was that it was an unapologetic R. In the end though, after those screenings, the film was re-cut, the violence and nudity were taken out of the film and the ending was reshot, it used to be something different.
Now of course we've never seen that footage and that really intrigues me. This film is a mess but you can still see it had potential and some great ideas. It just seems like it has no story and no action at all which, for a 70 million dollar action film, is kind of unacceptable.
DBE: 'I am.. Goku... I.. am Oozaru... To be at one with myself I must be two...'
Thanks. That makes much more sense.
shareThat's pretty hilarious :o
shareI can't think of a remake that does more violence to the original than the remake of "Rollerball." I know it was fairly art house, but the original Rollerball was outstanding social commentary. This was action/adventure mindless garbage. It's good to hear at least at the beginning they had a little more respect for the original.
sharethey would have cut a whole lot more out of this film.
share