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Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse editor confirms there are multiple versions of the film currently in theaters
@Culture Crave 🍿:
SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse editor confirms there are multiple versions of the film currently in theaters "I was wondering when people might start noticing" (via @AlliterAndy) pic.twitter.com/EjEL2siejv
Directly from the film editor as well: https://twitter.com/AlliterAndy
From a creative perspective I think this is a fun and unique way to approach the post production of a film. It allows film makers to include their choice of Easter eggs and multiple scenes that might have otherwise been cut from the film or shown in the credits. It also incentivizes multiple viewings at different theaters. The twitter thread linked to this post lists a number of differences. I'm curious how many versions of the film exist.
What do you think Tildes? Do you like this idea? Do you think it could work with other films or does the theme of the Spider-Verse movie sort of allow for this unique twist on story telling?
I'm not thinking about this from a creative perspective, from a business perspective this is going to be used to target movies to certain demographics in areas where those demographics more or less common.
This is probably not a good thing.
Eh, I think we'd be seeing that already if it were going to take off. Showing different cuts in different theaters is not a new phenomenon. Clue (1985) famously had three different endings and the differences between showings confused audiences.
Movies are already targeted towards different demographics in different theaters anyway -- by showing different movies altogether.
I also don't like the idea of movies releasing with one version in theaters, and then come DVD time they're like "We're only shipping one of the versions of the movie. Guess you should have gone to see it 5 times in theaters to have gotten all the content. ;,,) "
I'd also throw a "this is fun for this specific movie, but future movies are going to abuse it..." clarification, except having just learned that the director was editing finished renders of scenes with animators scrambling to remake new sections... This somehow actually feels worse now with that knowledge.
I don't think this is a feature that gets abused.
Last time I've heard of this being used was with the 1985 movie "Clue."
The butterfly effect with Asthon Kutchner also had different endings. I think they showed one in Europe, and one in USA (no idea what version was shown in the rest of the world!). On the DVD you could see the different endings in bonus material iirc. I remember around the same time a few other movies also would have different endings in the bonus material, but it was just a few.
I hope you are wrong, but I agree it would be very easy to abuse and exploit this idea in pursuit of more money. I'm sure the film makers discussed all of the possible business incentives long before they green lit it.
I've also seen some articles recently about poor working conditions for artists on the film. I wonder if the inclusion of all the extra scenes played a part in their abuse.
The last time I saw a version of this was with Marvel and Captain America’s notebook of things to catch up when he was unfrozen. The things in the book were changed depending on which country the movie was watched in, so I guess it was on a much grander scale.
This already happens. There's a Netflix movie called "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" where the protagonist is heavily hinted to be gay, which is confirmed towards the end of the movie. But it is done in a way that it can easily be erased with a different dub, and I'd bet money that they did that in the Chinese version for example.
Personally, not a fan of this multiple versions of the film thing. I feel like it is a low effort way to boost ticket sales, and, I dunno, just prefer my movie viewing experience to be consistent with my friends, who may have seen the same movie at a different showing.
Is there a non-twitter link outlining some of the differences?
Screen Rant has an article detailing at least two cuts with various differences.
Can anyone confirm seeing two of any of these 11? I've seen the movie twice, once at different theaters, and seen only one of each.
I feel like this doesn't really have to do with business decisions or anything like that. Based on the article about the animators having to redo a lot of their scenes, this just sounds like they have extra scenes they could use and not have it go to waste.
Either that, or they couldn't decide what the final thing should really look like, so instead of having one version, you just keep editing and over editing and just throwing it out there. Especially since a lot of the changes seem very small.
I say that only because the article I linked to said this:
So in my head I'm just imagining them going like maybe this cut might be better. That line might be better. No this would work better. And since they had to rework the sound anyway, might as well re-edit the thing.
Yeah, I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first — on the one hand it's a neat thing to do with a multiverse story, but on the other hand I only had one opportunity to see it in theaters so instead of it encouraging me to see it again, I felt left out. Luckily the changes seem very small and inconsequential, so on balance it seemed cool.
But now that I've read that deeply disappointing article about the working conditions and poor direction, the multiple versions start to feel exploitative and indicative of indecision, not a deliberate choice.
I agree. I was in love with the movie, I still think it's a very good movie. But I was deeply disappointed when I read that article too.
But yeah, when I looked up the list of changes, it did seem like it was done because of indecision.
When I was a kid I thought it could be a really interesting movie gimmick to secretly make a movie with multiple endings and then send them out to different theaters. It’d probably be impossible to keep under wraps though.
Clue did this, having different endings shipped to theaters
Clue did do that, but it wasn't in secret. The movie listings in the paper would show which ending was showing at the various theatres.
That’s really cool. I have seen it many times I didn’t see it in the theater.