I always do harp on about studios hiring people to recut someone elses work and the preservation of an original creative teams vision, but the news that Steven Soderbergh has recut Lodge H. Kerrigan's film Keane for the DVD release. At least he's not outside the team, he was the Producer on the film.

Producer, that's the guy who makes sure everything runs smoothly on the logistics side, mainly making sure the funds are there. More and more now though they seem to be having creative controls on the film itself, and this case shows how far that can go.

From Pan and Scan comes the reason why:

Lest this anyone thinks this is another case of a producer attempting to refashion a director's work to appeal to mainstream tastes, the disc's 'Keane 2.0' proves to be anything but. Soderbergh actually renders the film even less commercial, radically reworking key plot points that make it even more narratively challenging. As Soderbergh writes in the disc's liner notes:

While I was away on location, Lodge sent me a copy of 'Keane' to look at before he locked picture. I loved the film and told him so, but I also sent him this version to look at, in case it jogged anything (it didn't). In any case, we agreed it was an interesting (to us) example of how editing affects intent."

At least the work was done with the Directors consent, and like the two versions of the Exorcist prequel it will give a very interesting take on the creative processes involved in making a film.