It’s a conspiracy by Big Big.
They’re really not that organized, but they have their fingers in many forms of communication. They’re more of a Little Big Medium.
If you search the thread, the DVD commentary actually has come up before, back in 2014, so this isn’t new ground we’re treading, although the transcription hasn’t been posted before.
You win!
Hah!!
It’s like the alternate ending to my post. 
I remember much of Big, including the ending (the actual end, where Elizabeth Perkins kisses Tom Hanks on the forehead before he gets out of the car, and watches him walk away; then looks back and he’s reverted to a little boy in an oversized suit).
But for some odd reason, the scene that most sticks in my mind is when Josh’s friend visits him in his office, and notices an expensive toy. Josh says tells him “that only costs, like, five bucks to make.”
Why “Josh learns about mark-ups” should stick in my mind I don’t know; but as this thread establishes, memory is a weird thing.
I can imagine it being memorable to see a child learning something about the adult world that seems unremarkable to adults, but would be earthshaking to kids.
Well, okay; but I get to be on top.
I missed that it was referenced above. For people that don’t have the Blu-ray I will transcribe the part where Anne mentions the schoolroom scene to the interviewer. This is from 2007 for the twentieth anniversary release.
Gary: "It would be very hard to take this particular plot and find a sequel to it.
Anne: I think the only sequel or some kind of sequel we ever thought of was what if Susan makes a wish to be twelve, and suddenly she is back in Josh’s school saying “here I am honey”.
Interviewer: Did you ever consider using that as the ending for the movie.
Anne: No, no.
Gary: No, other people did.
Anne: Yeah
Gary: other people suggested…
The interviewer moves on and we don’t find out who these other people are, but it’s probably these same people Penny Marshall spoke about in Premiere in 1989 “At one point, the studio wanted her to go back”, “we talked about it”. “this was the script that the studio bought, and if they were worried about the ending being bittersweet, they should have worried about it a few years earlier.”
The studio wanted it so badly they ordered it to be made on a sound stage and screened it in front of audiences. But ultimately the producer and director dug in their heels and stopped it.
This is where you shift from “things that Gary and Anne said” to “things that you hypothesize”
How do you know this? This isn’t on the DVD/Blu-ray. Is it?
My library carries the 2007 DVD. Can you just tell us if that quoted portion is on there or should I reserve it and listen to to see? I mean specifically that they recorded it on a sound stage and screened it.
Very much this.
It’s not even a new hypothesis in this thread:
And the director for that scene? Stanley Kubrick.
Tarantino would have been an interesting choice.
Which is why, if you happened to be in the Rialto Theatre in Kalamazoo that one night that Ol’ Willie Smerdley put on the forbidden third reel (the one marked “Never Ever Show This!”), you’d have noticed a moonscape out the classroom window.
And Josh’s NASA hat was a leftover from The Shining.
The interesting thing is that almost all of the people who think they saw this alternate ending also say how upset they were when they eventually saw it with the actual ending. This suggests to me that they were so unsatisfied with the ending that they (like most of us who don’t like how a film ends) thought of a “better” ending (in this case where the two romantic leads get to stay together.)
I’m taking a little bit of liberty here with the sound stage stuff, that is not on the DVD so you don’t need to reserve it. But let me explain my reasoning for why and how it would be a logical choice.
I am drawing from another source to get Penny’s comment that an alternate ending was put before a “test audience.” It is from Premiere magazine mentioned here:
I am still trying to track down this issue of Premiere The Movie Magazine from 1989 to see the whole interview. Could use some help on that.
To test something to an audience you got to have something to show. Also “the studio wanted her to go back.” We know Penny didn’t shoot this scene, no classroom is seen in any of Penny’s footage. that’s why I am saying the studio had it done themselves. A soundstage is were you can film something in secret. You control who is on set and you can have them sign a non-disclosure agreement before entering. Lastly, I have known about this alternate ending since the early 90’s when the movie came up in conversation with co-workers.
Almost to 1000
Without letting the producer, director or most of the actors know what was going on, “the studio” filmed in secret and made all the remaining actors that were in that classroom scene and the entire crew involved sign a non-disclosure agreement…and then, for ghod knows what reason, they decided to ship a copy of it to some drive-in?
The more details you add to this story, the more ridiculous it sounds.
BTW, tell me again about having all those underage children sign non-disclosure contracts. 