There was a 6 hour cut of the Phantom Menace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQWxz5Eqi8

"If you ever get a chance to talk to Matthew Wood, the guy who did the voice for Grievous, he was one of the first people to watch the 6 hour cut. And he said it was mindblowingly awesome."

Lucasarts you stuuupid fuuuuucks! Imagine the possibilities! Grrr. -grumpy grump grump-

Meh.

Well I have the feeling a 6 hour cut could be more watchable than the 2 hour cut

Honestly, I would love to get my hands on that cut.  I'm among a minority, but I think TPM has a lot going for it, ruined mostly by Jar Jar and the bizarre pacing.  The movie moves from scene to scene far too quickly, and yet it ultimately feels boring.  I think a fan edit could cut out a lot of crap, yet extend the scenes so the pacing is improved.  Good cutting could still improve the tension, and ultimately it could be a far better movie.  Again, I think a different cut could drastically improve the film, and a six hour cut could be a good starting point.

I guess we'll have to wait untill the copyright runs out, or lucasarts starts auctioning their archive. About a hundred years from now, give or take?

Now that Disney has the helm, try never...

That's really interesting. I can only imagine the fancut potential if they were to release all that footage.

I think there is no reason to believe the extra footage contained anything but 13 more laps of the podrace and an extended tour of Otoh Gunga in which we meet all 27 members of Jar Jar's family.

One thing I would consider plausible would be some subplot involving Darth Maul to give him at least a hint of personality.

Here's the deal: Matthew Wood said this. The same Matthew Wood who can't tell the surround channels apart, doesn't give a shit about the Force-fanfare and screamed his brain out at a parking lot just so he could get to play Alec Guinness playing a Krayt dragon.

"Mindblowingly awesome" is probably the least fitting description. I don't trust this man.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Six hours of PM would probably induce necrosis.

But how about six hours of CPY?

LexX said:

The four hours were only more Jar Jar.

I'm sure more pod race is also involved.

Seriously, though; workprints are pretty cool - for significant movies. I don't think TPM quite fits the bill.

But I'd like to get my hands on the pseudo-workprint of Big Trouble in Little China that's floating around.

I would be fascinated to see it.

I'm pretty sure we got the wrong 2hrs.

I've never seen any stills or productions shots of the filming at Hever Castle so maybe that's in there but maybe they only intended to film some architectural elements (like stairs for Naboo) there???

IMO, a 6 hours cut means 4 more hours of unfinished special effects shots of people talking and walking in corridors.

We know Lucas was very concerned with the use of his money during the making of the prequels. He always said his goal was to make the most visualy amazing movie with the less possible money. There is no way there is a 6 hours cut of TPM around with plenty of finished special effects scenes. Well, I doubt it anyway.

Maybe it's not a six hour cut but six hours including alternate takes.

George liked to shop an actor in one take and another in another take together to get his 'perfect' take.

There is documentary footage of him moving Pananka from one take and mixing him with Obi-eWan from another.

I don't think it's a six hour workprint with more character scenes but who knows?

I would like to see how bad the stuff not in the film is (or not).

Tack said:

OK, I though the claim of a 4 hour cut of Blade Runner was insane! I knew there were a lot of cut scenes for TPM, but not 6 hours worth! 

Why is it insane? A rough assembly cut would easily clock around 4h and seeing as Scott tended to shoot quite a bit of footage I'm actually surprised it wasn't longer (as a matter of fact there are reports that even this cut had some missing scenes). Basically, the approach was to cobble together some footage in order to create a rough structure and to work from there. It's probably the most sane approach to dealing with truckloads of film there is.

And since we're already talking about this, I'd kill to see this cut of Blade Runner and (getting back on topic) I'd kill not to be forced to sit through 6h of a TPM.

Try editing them all into a new cut, and see how long THAT is! :)