movies that are available in 3 more versions

It's not uncommon in the DVD/Blu-Ray era for films to be released on home video containing 2 versions of the movie (eg. rated/unrated, theatrical/director's cut, etc.)... But I was just thinking about the number of films in my own collection where there are 3 or more versions available... it's actually quite higher than you'd think. Just to name a few examples:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (3)
Night of the Living Dead (3)
Dawn of the Dead (4)
Horror Rises From the Tomb (3)
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (3)
Phantom of the Opera (3)
Mr. Arkadin (3)
Raiders of the Living Dead (3)
Frankenstein Conquers the World (3)
Blade Runner (5)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (3)
Touch of Evil (3)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (3)
Avatar (3)
Salt (3)

Right now, it seems that Blade Runner comes out on top, with 5 distinct versions available. The original Dawn of the Dead comes in second place with 4 distinct cuts. Can anyone add any more titles to this list? (Just to be clear, remakes/reboots don't count as a "version"... I'm only interested in discussing films in which there are 3 or more different versions of the same actual movie).

 

Ooops, just noticed my mistake in the thread title... it should read "movies that are available in 3 or more versions".
Could one of the Gorts please fix it? Thanks!

 

I think an obvious one would be Star Wars. Not sure how many versions in total though. Also Back To The Future and The Abyss.

 

I'm not sure if the original US theatrical cut has ever seen the light of day on home video, but Supergirl also exists as an extended international cut and an even longer director's cut. As for other films in the main Superman film series, there's the potential for at least two more examples if only the international cuts for Superman The Movie and Superman II would be officially released...

 

There are three distinct cuts of "Back to the Future"?

On the "Anchorman 2" Blu-ray, there are the unrated, theatrical, and super-sized R-rated versions.

 

In theory, you could say "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" because in addition to presenting the UK and US versions, you could also watch the movie in a version that plays in black and white until Brad and Janet make it into the castle.

 

Aren't there only 2 versions of "The Abyss" - theatrical and SE?

And what alternate versions of "BTTF" exist?

 

Bad Santa - theatrical, unrated, and director's cut

 

Do TV versions count? There are two different versions of Problem Child 1 & 2; the TV versions of both films featured several minutes of extra footage, and they're all great as they actually flesh out their plot lines a bit more.

As a matter of fact, it appears it was a Universal tradition to feature never-before-seen footage in TV versions, whether or not they were from the original filming. The Problem Child movies were from Universal, as were Earthquake and Airport 1970, and so many other films from Universal that had extra scenes on television.

 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

There was the original theatrical Cut... available on VHS and DVD

Then an extended version with additional scenes and dialog that was used for the Television premier of the film..... not 100% sure but I think it was also available on VHS

Finally, Robert Wise's Director's cut... available on DVD

 

Yeah there are only 2 versions of The Abyss that I'm aware of. And I've never heard of any alternate cuts of BTTF either.

 

Only the theatrical cut is out on Blu-ray:

http://www.dvdmg.com/startrekthemotionpicturebr.shtml

The "Special Longer Version" was out on VHS and LD, BTW...

 

IMO, we should "count" versions that played theatrically or were formally released on home video, as I think those are more "official". Because they were often cobbled together just to fill time, I think adding TV versions makes this thread a mess!

But it's fun to know about them!

 

Yeah, I should have specified in my original post that I wanted to limit the discussion to films where the different versions are available on DVD and/or Blu-Ray....

Agreed!

 

OK. Thanks for that information Oatsdad.

True Star Trek fans know about and cringe at the now famous inserted scene for the "Special Longer Version " where Kirk leaves the Enterprise in a spacesuit to follow Spock and it is a raw sound screen shot without any special effects added and you can clearly see the wood scaffolding at the top of the Enterprise exterior mock up !

Now that is classic cinema Ed Wood style...

 

I've seen that raw footage before (I think it was included as an outtake on the DVD)... but I used to have the "special longer version" on VHS and I'm pretty sure the mock-up wasn't visible there. I definitely remember the scene where Kirk travels outside the Enterprise in a spacesuit, though, so perhaps they re-edited or re-framed that scene for the VHS release so that the scaffolding wasn't visible?

 

...and only the finest of cinema!

 

Respectfully, I'm sure it was part of the actual movie that I saw , not an outtake. In fact, after I first noticed it, the next time the movie was shown on TV , I recorded the scene on VHS and showed it to a friend of mine who was also a Star Trek fan . We had a laugh over it together.

I googled to try to find a Trek site that verified my memory on this and I found this on Amazon.com. as one of the reviews for STTMP The Director's cut :

...The DVD also contains a bunch of bonus features, including the original scenes that were edited, the delightfully cheesy movie trailers and TV commercials, and the scenes that were added for the 1983 TV version and then re-dropped. Some of those scenes were kinda nice, but they didn't really do anything for me. The worst one was the shot of Kirk leaving the Enterprise in pursuit of Spock. You can see the scaffolding on the set! They're basically non-essential, but it's nice to have them anyway. The TV commercials are a lot of fun to watch....

 

Terry Gilliam's Brazil has an original version, a US version hacked up by the studio, and a US compromised version. I think two other cuts exist, one being a laserdisk version with a different beginning.

 

Oh hell, there are more than three - considering the original US version had "The Time Warp" instead of "SFDF Reprise" over the end credits (which you can see on the 2-disc DVD). Not to mention, the various audio differences - some copies have Trevor White singing "The Floor Show", some copies have Peter Hinwood singing "The Floor Show", etcetera.

And not that this counts, as it'll never be released commercially in this form (probably for good reason), but some theaters who show RHPS on a regular basis do splice in "Once In A While."

 

The version released by Criterion is Terry Gilliam's preferred final cut. It is different from the original UK and US theatrical versions. I believe the US theatrical cut is available from Universal on Blu-ray. Universal's TV version that was pulled out of circulation is on the Criterion edition as well. I guess Gilliam has said there are five versions, but I'm not sure what other version that is.

 

For the purposes of this thread, if we counted audio changes as different versions, we could name lots of titles!

I always found attempts to create fan edits for "Rocky Horror" that included "Once In A While" problematic, as one can't put it together the way it was intended in the script without more footage. Anything else seems jarring.

 

True "Trek" fans should cringe at the whole damned movie!

 

Definitely! I think there were like 728 different sound mixes for "Star Wars" alone!