Filmstalker: Goyer talks Dark City Director's Cut DVD

David Goyer has mentioned the Dark City upcoming DVD Director's Cut release and he reveals a little about what the new DVD will contain.

For those of you who don't know, Dark City is kind of a film noir science fiction film that has a spectacular story to it. A man wakes up alone in a bathtub, struggling with his memories and unsure of who he really is, apparently he's being hunted by the police who insist he is guilty of a string of murders. While he tries to uncover who he is and what has happened he meets a mysterious Doctor, and some even more mysterious men in dark coats, and before long his entire world is unravelling before him.

The film is directed by Alex Proyas and written by Proyas, Lern Dobbs and David Goyer. It stars Rufus Sewell, Keifer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Ian Richardson, Richard O'Brien and Melissa George.

It's a superb film, and something that you wouldn't expect, nor would you believe has remained so unknown. Now the Director's DVD cut promises restoration of cut footage, new special effects, new sound mix, and so on. The story comes from Fangoria radio [MP3] through Twitch. The David Goyer interview also touches on Scanners, Wolverine and Ghost Rider.

I'm all for this, the film is great as it is, but getting the original creators back to get the film to the way they would have liked it originally promises much more. However, there is something to say for how great, dark and at times understated the whole film is. I hope they don't go over the top with huge effects and sound and then drown out the actual subtlety of the story.

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Fantastic news! I was wondering when we'd be seeing an updated version of the film. Heck, where's the Criterion edition of this one?

Excellent find Richard.

Posted by: Marina | July 17, 2007 7:33 PM

Cheers Marina. I always wonder why this film didn't become any bigger than it has. Perhaps this might help.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | July 17, 2007 8:22 PM

One of my favourite movies and without a doubt underplayed. It almost bordered on arthouse, it isn't arthouse, but that was how i remebered it being portrayed.

Will buy a blu-ray directors cut when its released.

Posted by: pablo | July 18, 2007 2:24 AM

All they would need to do to make a "criterion" edition of this film is to cut the first 2 minutes. You should "wake up" with Murdoch and have to work out what the situation is as he does, instead there's a stupid introduction scene which explains everything that's going on and ruins the films suspense.

I think it didn't do huge business because it was released in a year with several other films with stylistic and thematic similarities ... most notably The Matrix and The Truman Show.

Posted by: annavsculture | July 19, 2007 12:33 AM

narration is GONE

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/alex-proyas-interview-dark-city-directors-cut-and-more/

Posted by: c. | July 23, 2008 9:22 PM

Hey C., there's much more than that and a release date in a few days on both DVD and Blu-ray. Read this.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | July 23, 2008 11:54 PM

Dark City is one of my all-time favorite films. I have actually seen the Director's Cut and I love it. Don't worry, the effects are NOT overdone at all.

They added in an additional subplot where you find out the hooker John meets outside the Automat has a little girl of her own, and there are lots of slightly extended scenes with additional dialogue (such as Bumstead investigating the opening murder). There are also some bits of dialogue taken out, like John saying "My brand, I hope" when he appears in his apartment.

My favorite scene in the film has always been when Emma meets Mr. Hand at the river ("Small world.") and that scene is a little longer now too, along with many others.

My only gripe is that much of Trevor Jones' marvelous soundtrack has been removed! Whereas before it ran under nearly the whole film, giving it a brooding, moody atmosphere, it's far less audible here or excised completely.

I've spoiled enough, I suppose. I'm definitely anxious for the Blu-Ray release next Tuesday! I'm picking this one up for sure!

Posted by: Matt A. | July 26, 2008 2:16 AM

Thanks for that Matt, I'm keen to get it myself and I've never seen the director's cut so that little taster helps a lot - I'm in!

Posted by: Richard Brunton | July 26, 2008 10:25 AM

A truly amazing movie, and like others have commented here, one of my favorites. The Director's Cut version is very well done, and different enough that I feel the need to retain both versions for my collection (don't ask how many versions of Blade Runner I own). So imagine my disappointment when it tricked me into installing a rootkit onto my computer that has destroyed my ability to use my audio/video editing software to create my own works, from source files recorded with my camera, microphone, and 3D animation software. I don't know if it was installed as part of the "copy protection" software the box said the DVD had on it, or from the web page it told me to go to (with the DVD in my computer so it would know I had a store-bought copy of the film, and therefore exposed that computer to anything on the disk). But if anyone knows how to uninstall this malware attack suite, without having to nuke my computer down to ground zero and starting over, I would appreciate the input.

Posted by: Jerry Strider | October 29, 2008 9:57 AM

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good at all. Is there not a simple uninstall procedure?

Posted by: Richard Brunton | October 29, 2008 4:14 PM