It could be if it’s the difference between a film that can be released to TV and make money vs. one that won’t be picked up by TV distributors, and makers nothing.
Obviously, you can’r spend more than you expect to make by distributing it. So, yeah, these asre mostly cheap films.
Or, as in the cases of Rocketship X-M or Close Encounters, labors of love.
Thanks for that input!
Blazing Saddles had some scenes added for the TV version. The scene with Mongo underwater was not in the version released to theaters.
Return of the King went back to finish the extended cut filming after winning Best Picture at the Oscars.
They filmed the skulls rolling out of the Paths of the Dead. You can see Peter Jackson say something like, “Pretty good deal. Win the Best Picture Oscar. Then finish filming your movie.”
It’s good to be the King.
I wasn;t aware of that.
Several movies had extras scenes in the TV released versionms that weren’t in the theatrical version.
Creator – added a flashback scene of Harry Wolper (Peter O’Toole) and Lucy riding a roller coaster at an amusement park. As it is, in the released version Karen Kopins only appears as Lucy in a very brief fade-out scene near the end. The roller coaster scene occurs in Harry’s laboratory as he looks at Boris sleeping.
The Thing – this movie was absolutely butchered the first time they showed on TV (CBS, late at night). They cut out every scene that contained The Thing! On its second TV broadcast, though, they added som,e scenes of people walking around the camp, with a voiceover explaining who they are. I haven’t seen that version since its original broadcast.
Dune – the David Lynch version. The one that he took his name off, so it’s directed by “Alan Smithee”. It’s actually not bad. They added a scene of them obtaining the Water of Life from an almost-drowned young sandworm that isn’t in the feature release. They also added shots of drawings to explain the basics of Herbert’s future, with a gravelly voice-over explaining it all. It’s not Lynch’s vision of the film, but at least it was done by people who knew and loved the story.
Of course, in all these cases they used existing (but previously unused) footage. Well, except for the drawings at the beginning of Dune.
Superman and Superman 2 had different cuts shown on TV as well.
But did these have any added footage, shot either before or after the film’s release?
If you haven’t sen it, by the way, look up Superman II – The Donner Cut. It’s much closer to his original vision for the movie, but I don’t think it used anything that hadn’t been filmed before.
Star Trek – The Motion Picture was released to TV in a cut that had a LOT more special effects than were in the release version, but I don’t think it used any “live” footage that hadn’t been shot before release.
More replacement footage than added, but for the Final Cut of Blade Runner Ridley Scott brought back Joanna Cassidy to reshoot Zhora’s death scene because in the theatrical version it’s clearly a stunt double in a wig.
The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)
Redubbed and retitled What’s Up, Hideous Sun Demon in 1983, New footage for this version was shot with original director Robert Clarke’s son Cam along with Googy Gress, Mark Holton and Susan Tyrell. Actor and talk show host Jay Leno provided the uncredited voice for McKenna.
Read about this in an article in the magazine Cinefantastique (with pictures!) when they did it, but never saw the film.
Jay Leno also dubbed in his voice to a similar comic take on the 1958 film The Blob, called Blobbermouth. There wasn’t any new footage shot for that, though – just some abysmal animation.
The film’s pretty awful, too. MST3K it ain’t.
That’s interesting. I’m familiar with What’s Up, Tiger Lily? a Woody Allen movie from 1966 that does the same thing with a Japanese-language James Bond rip-off. I wonder if there are other “What’s Up…” films in the same vein, and if there’s any creative connection between them.
Yeah, to make up for lost runtime after cutting stuff to get past TV censors.
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? arguable fits this thread, since they filmed more footage with Woody Allen (and The Lovin’ Spoonful) for it.
I’m a lot less impressed with WUTL than I used to be. It turns out that the film they used, Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi ( International Secret Police: Key of Keys) was already a spy spoof, not merely a James Bond ripoff, so turning a comedy into a comedy wasn’t that difficult – there were already ridiculous scenes to make fun of.
And Mie Hama (“Teri Yaki”) played Kissy Suzuki and Akiko Wakabayashi (“Suki Yaki)” played Aki in the REAL James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. They were both in both films (or all three)
It’s not a released-to-cinema effort, but the 1986 direct-to-video Zacherley’s Horrible Horror was re-released as a “Special Edition” in 2013 with an hour of added footage. I haven’t seen the Special Edition, but the original is wonderfully hilarious. It’s not just trailers, but includes a lot of outtakes and TV bits. It pairs well with It Came from Hollywood. Tweo examples of pre-MST3K movie riffing.
By the way, moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, Spartacus was re-released with added footage that had been cut from the original release because they were afraid it’s be censored – a hand being cut off in battle, and the discussion of “oysters and Snails” between Laurence Olivier’s Crassus and Tony Curtis’ Antoninus. They had to redub the dialogue. Curtis redid his and Anthony Hopkins did a great job imitating the late Olivier. So this almost qualifies as new footage.
To pad out the time slot, the TV version of Halloween (1978) included 12 minutes of additional footage shot several years later during the filming of Halloween II, including a scene where they had to hide Jamie Lee Curtis’s hair in a towel, as it had changed length between the two films.
This film has The Best Unintentionally Hilarious Movie Death Scream. About an hour and 10 minutes in, Old G lights up a police car. The reaction of the incinerated officers is Pants-Pissing funny.
There have been a few different versions of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly over the decades. There was an original Italian version, and a slightly shorter English version. A 2003 restoration included some of the removed footage, but it had never been dubbed into English before. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood returned to do the voices. Both Wallach and Eastwood lived long lives. Wallach died at 98, and Eastwood is 93.
There’s also the case of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. While the film was being made, the leadership of Universal Studios changed. The new head, Sid Sheinberg, didn’t like the film, and used some contract details to avoid releasing it. While Gilliam was trying to generate some positive buzz to force the release, Sheinberg had his own editors go through all the footage and create a more marketable version. The film was eventually released largely as Gilliam intended, but without much marketing or support. The studio version was shown on American television at least once.
ETA: Hmm, not sure why this post came up as a reply to @CalMeacham.
Ah - I forgot one very important case – the 1926 silent version of Phantom of the Opera This movie was re-released several times, and had additions made almost every time. The best quality version is the re=rel;eased v ersion, which has the diva’s mother complaining about her replacement, rather than the Diva herself (as in the 1925 version). They also had later additions in Technicolor and a German color process. And they added sound (which Lon Chaney denounced, especially as it wasn’t his voice). A truly fascxinating case. You could spend years sorting out the different versions.
I was at an early screening, and it was held up while Terry was fighting on the phone with the studio. I went to the bathroom and ran into him in the Lobby. We chatted for a minute and he gave me an autograph and little drawing. He was the coolest!
We never got to see the film however.