Christopher Nolan doesn’t usually do director’s cuts of movies. He’s stated before that he tries to make the theatrical cut of his films the final cut. However, for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ there were reportedly some scenes that had to end up on the cutting room floor. Previously, we reported on a scene involving Bane that explored his origin a bit more, but it wasn’t seen in theaters. Apparently, there was more than this that was cut that adds up to about 30 minutes, so naturally, the word going around right now is that the Blu-ray release of the final piece of Nolan’s Batman puzzle will contain a director’s cut.
According to Nuke the Fridge (via Blastr), Warner Bros. is looking to reinsert the scenes that Nolan had to cut out of the finished product for a special home release. Here’s the exact wording from the report that describes what sort of thing we’ll be seeing in the new cut of the film:
“Sources have informed Nuke the Fridge that not only is a Director’s Cut being developed by Warner Bros. for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, but it’s going to include Bane’s origin plus a bit more screentime for Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) which were omitted from the current theatrical cut of the movie…. According to our reliable spies…The new Director’s Cut is said to make the film about thirty minutes longer.”
The version of the film that we saw in theaters clocked in at 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the 30 minutes worth of deleted scenes put back in, that’ll be 3 hours and 15 minutes. One reason why the scenes were cut in the first place could have been because IMAX prints have their time limitations, so for Nolan to use his beloved IMAX, something had to go. But now, thanks to the home release, the director can show off everything that he meant the audience to see.
However, there’s been no official confirmation on this yet, so Liam Neeson and Tom Hardy fans need to relax for a second because there’s still the chance that a director’s cut of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ may not happen. If we hear any news on this and whether it’s happening or not, we’ll be sure to keep you informed.
