The Wolf Of Wall Street And 9 Other Director’s Cuts That We All Need To See

There are a lot of reasons why the idea of a director’s cut surrounds certain movies. Sometimes, when a studio is worried about how a movie will turn out, they will overrule the director and even tamper with the movie in post-production to protect its investment. This usually leads to even bigger problems than the ones that were first established. Other times, cinematic auteurs will be given so much freedom that they shoot too much footage that can’t fit into a theatrical length movie, which leads to fans begging for a director’s cut.

Whether the movie is good or bad, there’ll always be reasons why fans plead for a director’s cut, and as we have seen with Blade Runner and many others, it can greatly enhance a viewer’s experience of the movie.

10 The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

The Wolf Of Wall Street is already a pretty long movie, but the three-hour runtime flies by thanks to the fun but unrealistic fantasy of richness, which is one of the reasons it’s a great satire. However, the movie was originally planned to be four hours long, and considering how so many absurd and ridiculous scenes made it into the movie, including an orgy that takes place on a plane, it takes quite an imagination to fathom what was left on the cutting room floor.

9 The Conversation (1974)

The Conversation is one of Francis Ford Coppola’s best movies, but it also, unfortunately, lives in the shadow of The Godfather Part II, the gangster epic that was released in the same year. However, The Conversation could have been just as epic, as there is reportedly a ton cut out of the movie, including scenes with Harrison Ford.

There is even a whole story arc that has been cut out of the movie in which Hackman’s character, Harry Caul, is the owner of the building he lives in and is continuously encountering issues with the tenants, which is one of the behind the scenes facts of the movie.

8 The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

There’s a lot of things about The Dark Knight Rises that make no sense, but as the movie had the tough job of wrapping up the trilogy in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death, it did a great job. However, there’s one death scene that looks terrible, and it’s the murder of Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley. It’s one of the most awkward deaths ever. But Matthew Modine, the actor who plays Foley, has said that the original death scene that was cut out would have made the movie an NC-17 rated film, and that’s something we all want to see.

7 Hard Eight (1996)

With a ton of tampering from the studio, Paul Thomas Anderson’s debut movie has two completely different versions. According to Anderson himself, one version is his cut, and the other version is the cut that the studio threw together, which is the one that was released. Unfortunately, that director’s cut never saw the light of day, and it probably never will, as PTA and the studio locked horns every step of the way.

6 Fantastic Four (2015)

Fantastic Four is one of the biggest box office disasters in recent memory, and it isn’t because the movie is misunderstood or way ahead of its time. The movie was terrible and it was the result of studio meddling and the director not being able to control his actors, as rumor has it he literally built a wall between him and the set. However, director Josh Trank has stated that there is actually a great version of the movie that he has edited, but that isn’t the version the studio wanted to release.

5 The Thin Red Line (1998)

According to the cinematographer of the movie, John Toll, Malick was actually banned from the editing room due to his indecisiveness, as there were over a million feet of film to cut down. Malick’s cut ran on for almost six hours, and he didn’t want to cut a frame. Though that length might be a little too long, it’d be great to see a much meatier director’s cut of the movie, even if it is already one of the best 90s war movies.

4 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

If you watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and were completely confused when the credits rolled, you’re not alone. The movie is completely confusing and fragmented, and it might have something to do with the fact that the two-hour movie was cut down from three hours and 40 minutes. Fans know about all of this bonus footage as the scenes were released in the messy, disjointed Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces.

The whole thing could even have even worked better as a third season of the show of which the movie is based. But fans of Twin Peaks would certainly sit through an almost-4 hour director’s cut of the movie if David Lynch was to cobble it together.

3 American History X (1998)

Tony Kaye reportedly threw in the towel when Edward Norton got too involved in the editing process and started making outrageous demands, which is one of the crazy behind the scenes facts. The end result of the movie is apparently drastically different from what Kaye had intended, but since the movie as we know it is a work of art, it’d be interesting to see how Kaye’s version would look compared to the original.

2 Batman Forever (1995)

Joel Schumacher gets a lot of heat from Batman fans for turning the movie series into a cartoonish franchise full of different outfits and gadgets just for the purpose of selling toys to children. But fans don’t know that there was actually up to 30 minutes of footage in Batman Forever that was removed, as it was deemed as being too dark. Though it’ll probably never happen, it’d be amazing if a director’s cut eventually saw the light of day.

1 Alien 3 (1992)

The quality of movies in the Alien series varies greatly, but Alien 3 is truly one of the worst movies from the Alien/Predator universe. Alien 3’s quality comes as a surprise as the movie was directed by the celebrated thriller director, David Fincher. The director has claimed that the studio was constantly trying to direct his directing, and he claims that there is actually a decent, concise version of the movie that he edited together before it got reassembled against his will.