Me too!

But that is all Fiona Shaw! No AI. It’s part of her saying Fight from the overdub as aired, and part of her shouting “Jug!” from her early 90s reading of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, (Part 3: The Fire Sermon) - which sounds close enough in tone and timbre that when slowed down, pitched up, processed, reverbed a little; and delayed, and blended together; and then THAT is blended with the radio static and crowd noise, and then THAT is diffused and moved into the fronts and rears (and delayed a little even more) - it sounds like she’s shouting “fuck!”

Hopefully, convincingly. Maybe! In 5.1 surround! (but mostly in the center channel)

Okay, how about this

https://youtu.be/P0kgfe3uK7M

Octorox said:

I was a little impatient with the Cassian arc at first but personally I wouldn’t cut anything. It’s such a singular work as-is. Maybe would be a cool to see an edit of each arc into a movie, with no episode title cards or credits until the end.

I agree! I feel like The Gilroys/Bissell/Willimon specifically wrote their arcs to be movies, yeah. So far this seems to me like the last arc of The Clone Wars (Victory and Death/Siege of Mandalore) which was so clearly written/directed/edited to be a single film that all you have to do is take the tops and tails off each episode and stitch em together to arrive at their intended form. You’re basically talking about fanedits where you’re making like 5 or 6 cuts total and maybe another 5 or 6 audio edits.

Acbagel said:

You could try just using Fiona Shaw’s delivery of the line where she says “F*** the Empire” in an interview with Variety. I’ve had it saved on my computer forever. Not sure if the tone of her delivery would work, but it’s worth trying since it’s an authentic delivery. Here ya go!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FDEE0U0ZL9hYIRSO032Jhdt3HGKuMmU6/view?usp=sharing

That probably won’t work because she’s very smooth/low-key about it, LOL.

There has GOT to be a line reading of her saying “fuck” somewhere in her long career where she’s basically hissing/spitting that one syllable out in a way that can be mixed/cut in seamlessly (especially with the amount of radio static and audio processing that would need to be applied) but she has acted for so long and been in so many things that I’d imagine the thing that’s prevented this from being discovered is… precisely that! She’s been such a successful actress that you’d have to comb through just a TON of work to find that one syllable.

That said, I do think it’d be a pretty satisfying hunt, because in all of season one, this is the sole fight Gilroy lost, and I would love for that bit to be restored, if only because it is more than clear he is not just building that speech to culminate in that shout, but that speech is the culmination of the whole SEASON. He is building the whole series up to Maarva shouting “Fuck the Empire” as the fuse reaching the bomb and exploding. “Fuck the Empire” is what literally sparks The Rebellion (capital T, capital R) into existence.

I see the “call to action” argument upthread and I know it’s been popularized in the meantime but that’s also kind of a misunderstanding of how “call to action” as a literary idea works, really. The whole speech is the call to action, dramatically. It’s not a description of the final line at all, it’s not describing the LITERAL sentence or line in the text that tells someone to go perform an action.

But anyway: Tony Gilroy knew what he was doing when he built the whole of the series, thematically, to arrive at that speech, and when he built that speech to culminate in that exhortation. And when Lucasfilm said “we’re censoring that” he fought it really hard (and refused to reshoot, resulting in that not-great overdub) which says that artistically - “Fuck the empire” is the better choice.

I don’t know - maybe if/when “Andor: The Complete Series” hits 4K in some special edition steelbook they’ll quietly have reverted the overdub.

Hello there!

10 years ago, EON, Sony, and MGM released Spectre, their 24th James Bond film, the 4th in their rebooted Bond Canon starring Daniel Craig, and the first they’d released after FINALLY getting legal clearance to return to the film’s titular terrorist organization, and its figurehead: Bond’s archnemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Because it was a new canon, because it had been so long since Blofeld’s last canonical appearance, and because EON had uh… I guess forgotten the Austin Powers movies existed (?), they decided to reintroduce Blofeld as Bond’s lost (adopted) brother (!) and then retconned the plots of the three prior movies as secretly being part of Blofeld’s machinations; to (yes) take over the world, but (also) get over on his hotter, younger, cooler adopted brother.

NOW: With No Time to Die taking an even bigger swing with the Bond canon (and boldly, unapologetically standing tall on ALL the choices made in Spectre) - and considering all the hubbub around the recent transfer of creative power from EON to MGM/Amazon, it felt like a great time to take a look back, a decade later; at the big and bruised second entry from Sam Mendes, at Blofeld’s return, to see if there’s a way to take all those years, all that context, all that hindsight, and bring it to bear - almost like staring down the sights of a gunbarrel, if you will - on a new Alternate Cut of the film.

WHAT HASN’T CHANGED:
Oberhauser is still Blofeld, and Blofeld is still Bond’s (adopted!) brother. Considering No Time to Die openly acknowledges this, and considering how No Time to Die plays out, it seems like going to the trouble of cutting that relationship is like spitting into the wind - a wind blowing like 400 missiles at you or something. Especially since the transfer of power from EON to MGM is a clear demarcation point between eras now, anyway. For better or worse, that choice IS a big, defining part of EON’s stewardship: They not only decided to fully reboot Bond with Craig, they made THAT call, and then doubled down. So that call stands in this cut.

Spectre is still (sorta) funny. The blend of suavity, tension, thrills, and what can only be generously called “Dad Vibes” got revived winningly in Skyfall after Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace were straightforwardly serious as a heart attack (or a giant rope knot to the jumblies). Spectre aimed for that kind of balance too, but didn’t quite land it. It might seem easier to then trim off the comedy bits and revert back to that Quantum-styled dourness, but I think the problem isn’t the comedy itself (which mostly works in the moment), it’s the pacing of the stuff leading into and out of those bits that makes the jokes and more classic Bond-isms feel more out of place than they should be. Plus, the comedy still being present makes Waltz/Blofeld’s playing with - and purposeful souring of - that comedic tone work a little better in the context of the film.

WHAT HAS CHANGED:
Color Correction: The film is a very famous example of featuring what’s come to be known - as warmly as possible - a piss filter. Even when Bond is in mountainous, snowy climes, it appears as if everything has been doused in a fine mist of Mountain Dew. This cut has washed that sticky residue right out of the film. Well, MOST of it. The Day of the Dead is still a little sweaty, of course. As is L’American, and the arid nowhere outside of Blofeld’s lair. But if a locale is supposed to have green grass, white snow, blue sky? It’s got it now.

The pacing is quicker: Not a lot of scenes have been cut outright, but a LOT of shots, and beats within scenes and shots, have been trimmed off so Spectre isn’t spending so much time just staring at itself, which is a big part of why the film frequently feels so leaden. This ramps up the closer you get to the climax, too, so the pacing feels even more like it’s moving TOWARDS something eventful.

Bond and Swann have conversations like actual people: A huge part of the quickening of the pace involves these two speaking TO each other, not at each other, and not mooning at each other for three-counts in between line deliveries, and definitely not explicitly stating either the underlying theme of their current status as characters in the story, or foreshadowing a plot element to come. To a lesser extent (because other people did it way less) other characters cut to the chase a lot more (and sound a lot more normal because of it) too. Saves time! Sounds better!

Radiohead! One of the most famous rejected Bond themes in EON history (and you could probably put an album together of nothing BUT rejected Bond themes and it would be a platinum selling soundtrack album by itself) is Radiohead’s submitted title treatment for this film, which was turned down for being “too dour” in favor of Sam Smith’s flatline of a theme song. BUT DID YOU KNOW: the first song Radiohead submitted was its legendary B-side “Man of War (Big Boots”). Director Sam Mendes loved both submissions, but had to reject the first because it wasn’t original, and got overruled on the second by EON. Well now BOTH of them are back in the picture: “Spectre,” takes its rightful place over Daniel Kleinman’s title sequence (with help via elements from GnC Film’s famous rework from 2017), and Man of War goes in the end titles after the classic Bond Theme.

• Runtime is now 2hrs, 19min Burnt-in subs for foreign languages, english subs (srt) and chapters included. Dolby Digital 5.1, 1080p.

Please PM me if you’d like to check it out! As always, any suggestions, questions, critiques, comments, whatever you got, I’m all ears 😃 Thanks!

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Cartoon Network series Star Wars: Clone Wars didn’t air all that long ago, yet (it) already seem(s) to have been forgotten. This is a travesty I try to correct whenever cartoons are being discussed, and sometimes when they aren’t. It should be perched near the top of any list of the greatest animated programs ever shown on American TV. It should also land on any informed list of the greatest action filmmaking of all time, and the Russian-born Tartakovsky should claim an automatic spot on any list of the greatest action filmmakers. And although Tartakovsky is a good storyteller, in a silent-movie sort of way — expressing what’s happening moment-to-moment through picture and sound rather than in dialogue — I never watched either of these programs for their plots, and I don’t re-watch them for narrative, either. I re-watch them for the same reason that I visit art museums, attend live concerts, and pause during journeys from point A to point B in New York to watch dancers, acrobats, or street musicians: because I appreciate virtuosity for its own sake.
– Matt Zoller Seitz, award-winning writer/critic at New York Magazine, RogerEbert.com, Vulture.com.

Hello again!

There’s just something about those mostly forgotten chapters of the Star Wars saga that I got a thing for, I guess, I don’t know! After getting swept up in the pulpy whirlwind of Solo: A Star Wars Story with my Alternate Cut, I found myself chasing after an even more concentrated hit of legend with this go-round.

Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2003-2005 Micro-Series Star Wars: Clone Wars isn’t completely forgotten, of course. And edits joining its episodes together have been a mainstay of YouTube for a very, very long time. For the longest, that was the only reliable way to see the series, after the DVDs went out-of-print, Tartakovsky’s offer to run Lucasfilm Animation dissolved, and the CGI series run by Dave Filoni effectively replaced it. Of course, now the series is on Disney+, under the Vintage label, right next to the Holiday Special Boba Cartoon, and the Ewok movies (and maybe someday, the original theatrical cuts of the Original Trilogy? Ah, dare to dream, we do. But that is a good story, for another time!)

So why not just… go on YouTube and watch one of those then? Or go on Disney+ since they’re not trying to hide it anymore? What’s the deal with yet another “new” version of Clone Wars, 20 years after it ended? What’s the pitch?

The pitch is: I, like Mr. Seitz, think Genndy Tartakovsky - Samurai Jack, Primal - is one of the best action directors of the last 30 years, and this cut - cheekily named after Lucasfilm’s de-canonization branding of choice (do they even still use this label at the company anymore?) - is trying to thread the stone needle, if you will (shout out Radio Drama fans!) It isn’t trying to “update” the show via pushing it thru Topaz Video AI upscaler for that 4K 60fps interpolated HDR 5.1.4 Atmos hit. Nor is it cutting segments and scenes to force-push it into the canon; or otherwise make it make sense to any other narrative but its own. This cut just wants to present the micro-series as a film, in a way that best flows as a film, and feels like a film: A big, fat, gonzo buzzsaw of an action film that just happens to be animated, and also just happens to be a Star Wars movie, one that came out in theaters in some alternate universe 2005, just before a different Revenge of the Sith opened shortly after.

Star Wars: Clone Wars (The Legends Cut) starts with the most recent Disney+ source available, at 1080p/23.976fps, and was further cleaned via a combination of Topaz (solely for compression artifact removal) and Neat Video (for everything else) to address any noise still in the files. It was then color-corrected and filtered to more closely approximate 35mm film, including the application of real grain plates and the emulation of halation effects. The audio has been slightly sweetened and remixed in some places, but it remains Dolby Surround 2.0.

The substance of the cut itself is, like I said, not as drastic as other canon-focused cuts; but there are segments that either got in the way of flow, didn’t connect to the main “storylines” (i.e. excuses for crazy-ass setpieces), or didn’t measure up to the rule-of-cool set by the other segments. Kit Fisto’s segment on Mon Cala is out, as is the tiny interstitial with Qui-Gon and Anakin, and transitions between micro-episodes have been redone vs their initial smashing together for the DVD all those years ago - which is why everything from the meeting in Palpatine’s Office to Anakin’s goodbye to Padme in the beginning is also gone.

The opening has the correct era-specific sparkly-green Lucasfilm logo/A Long Time Ago on it, the title card has been moved to shortly after the (now-cold) Yoda open, and the ending now features not just a proper iris out, but scrolling end credits and an End Titles suite, which include excerpts from Samuel Kim’s re-orchestrated/arranged versions of the ARC Trooper and General Grievous cues from the score (which honestly sound pretty close to the original pieces as-is).

If any of that sounds like something you want to check out - “See it again, for the first time…” if you will - then by all means, please send me a PM and we’ll get that sorted out! 2hrs, 7min. Burnt-in subs for alien subtitles, English subs (srt) and chapters included. 1.78:1, 1080p, Dolby Surround 2.0.

As always, any suggestions, questions, critiques, comments, whatever you got, I’m all ears 😃 Thanks!

Hey thanks for the questions! And I definitely don’t take any offense or anything at all like that, I’m just happy folks are interested and care to toss some questions my way! Onto the bullet points:

• I kept all of the Lando + L3 stuff. Not just because I don’t mind it (I thought it actually fit pretty solidly with that pulp paperback feel I was trying to preserve as much as I could) but because like 99% of Donald Glover’s best stuff in this movie is rooted there to some degree. I also feel like the Kessel Run doesn’t work as well as it can without L3 at full volume, as it were. She’s how they get out of the colony, and she’s how they complete the run, so it lessens the impact of both those things if I truncate the setup for those payoffs by muting her somewhat. The shower scene never occurred to me as a thing to cut, actually! I just thought it was one last physical comedy button on the preceding “Beast” scene where they’re both messing with each other pretty ruthlessly.

• The origin of his name is completely gone along with anything that happens on Corellia.

• The movie is still “Solo: A Star Wars Story” - down to the logo appearing on the screen. it doesn’t look exactly the same, nor appear in the same place though (again, no Corellia. No crawl, either)

• I did address Han’s “softness” to some degree. There’s a few moments where the original version of a scene plays out in a way that makes him look like a neophyte to crime/smuggling that doesn’t track, and I’ve clipped lines/reactions so it reads less like he needs his hand held, and more like he’s just observing or waiting for an opening. There’s at least one moment that’s been edited quite a bit to make his reaction to a meaningful event less sympathetic.

Hopefully that’s not too much of a deal-killer?

Thanks for that! I did a scene-by-scene correction, but not shot-by-shot. I tried to keep it a little punchy/crunchy still, but I didn’t want to lose any details in the highlights or blow out the upper-registers if I didn’t have to - which ended up being harder than I’d anticipated. Often I’d think “well, that looks pretty solid” - and then I’d check the scopes and the shots on either side of it, and realize I’m clipping the hell out of everything past a certain point: suddenly clouds are just solid white sheets, windows are just blank white squares, etc. For a movie that is generally thought of as being flat and dim, you’d think there’d be a lot of headroom to play with, but nope!

Finding the right balance for the saturation levels was also kind of a weird tiptoe through the dials - and I probably slipped here and there, too, LOL. I’m no Dre, after all. But all in all I think I landed in a place where it looks right for the paperback vibe - not oversaturated, not blown out - but not low-contrast or faded, either. Just the right amount of pulpy & vivid, if maybe a teeeeensy bit inaccurate (or color-cast in a slightly too-strong direction) for a scene or two.

Hello again!

I wasn’t really expecting to do another edit so soon after the Alien: Romulus one, and I didn’t really think I was actually doing one until I realized I’d spent couple 2-3am nights in a row poking at what I thought was just an idea or two I had. I guess it was inevitable. You hang around OriginalTrilogy, you’re gonna give a Star Wars edit a go (ya lumpy brute!)

Anyway: Solo! Why that one? Well, I think the last 7 years have been okay to it, really! There’s always been sort of rueful charm there, a ramshackle vibe that feels like a dog-eared Del Rey paperback come to life, and almost 10 years later, I feel like it’s actually grown into that more. I liked that it didn’t really take itself or “Star Wars” that seriously! I didn’t mind its tone, or the irreverence with which it treated its “legends,” none of that!

What I minded was what everyone else seemed to mind: The look is a complete mismatch with that tone (all respect to Bradford Young), it took way too long, and it took way too much pleasure in stopping to pull up Wookieepedia pages and explain them way too loudly. Now, this edit doesn’t get rid of all the “And here’s how Han did X!” stuff, because then there’d be no movie; that’s just the cost of admission here, unfortunately. But there can be some balance between letting backstory just be backstory, in the back somewhere - and letting things also be foreshadowing without signaling that through on-the-nose yapping about it as it’s happening!

So that’s the goal of this Alternate Cut - to keep that paperback vibe alive, while minimizing the “lore”-fest it gets bogged down in visually and metaphorically. I’ve tried to do that via some scene and dialog deletions - primarily conversation trims (a few throughout), especially with Han’s would-be “mentor”/enemy Tobias Beckett, and through the excision of Corellia entirely (that’s the big one). There’s also the removal of that one special guest star since it was always kind of a goofy Marvel-esque inclusion that never went anywhere in the first place; and your by-now-standard color-correction. It’s no “The Bold One” or anything, but hopefully it’s providing the show a little more punch. (examples below).

• Runtime is now 1hr, 59min. Burnt-in subs for alien languages, english subs (srt) and chapters included. Dolby Digital 5.1, 1080p.

Please PM me if you’d like to check it out! As always, any suggestions, questions, critiques, comments, whatever you got, I’m all ears 😃 Thanks!

DAMN! Thanks so much for saying that, and for taking time out of your holidays to check this edit out, too! Very, very much appreciated 😃 - I did in fact remove the Reebok closeup, as part of getting rid of Kay’s self-injection scene/ending giveaway.

That one cut is… yeah, you nailed it - it’s the best option of getting out of that room without Rook in it. I kinda worked backwards from the progression of the “One Directive” shifting over the course of the movie already, and figured that without Andy stopping to talk to Rook after the Corbelan crash (where the “one directive” first starts breaking down actually), I’d need to imply/allude to the module rewriting him pretty rapidly before that. I cut some lines in the previous scene (i.e. “for what purpose I do not know”) and added music to his preventing Rain from trying to pop his module out to hint at this even more strongly than the theatrical already does.

BUT: the real reason I’ve got him up at the front of the room obliquely being confusing/ominous about his One Directive isn’t story-based, I gotta admit. It’s geographical. It’s because without Rook, I need to have a reason to have him separated from the group (the original version of the scene has him huddled down there with them when Navarro comes to), and saying SOMETHING that will cause the whole group to look at him, and specifically Rain to look really shook and Navarro to go “what is he talking about” - and puts him in the position, geographically, to move across the room and intercept Bjorn. And… it’s not 100%. It’s the one knot in the pine board I can’t sand out, haha. I got nothin really, when people call it out, other than “yeah - well spotted! that’s the one.”

I was hoping the deleted/alternate scenes would give me something that I could work with there, but nada. I have heard that for people who aren’t very familiar with the movie, they don’t really question that transition, it just seems like Andy doing weird shit and they roll with it - which helps a little, but considering 99% of the audience for this is probably going to be people who have seen the movie a couple times… LOL.

ANYWAY: Thank you so much for the subtitle spot, that’s been cleaned up, fixed and remuxed - if you redownload at the link you got this from, the file should be updated to the fix now. Thank you SO MUCH for that. And for this feedback. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas Day!

You weren’t wrong! Also I just… don’t think my design chops are that great. The idea’s okay but I don’t know that my execution of it is solid enough for people to be slapping up on their Plex or Jellyfin or Emby or whatever, LOL. So instead I think I’m gonna go with this and call it the final:

It’s taking the ScreenX alternate poster (The Scorched variant, not the Helmet one), reframing/recoloring slightly, and setting it inside the border of the Matt Ferguson alternate poster, also slightly recolored and altered to fit the “Alternate Cut” subtitle into the block. I think it works a little better not just as a quick visual at smaller and larger sizes on a screen, but like you said, it’s a little more representative of the cut itself. The chrysalis is the first thing you see in the movie, but that poster design is basically a callback in and of itself, and nothing much more than that, which is counter to the point of the edit. So - thank you for the critique! This is a better choice.

Okay, this is what I was kicking around for the poster idea

I appreciate the poster designs! They’re definitely the part of this I was not thinking/expecting to be fumbling with so much, LOL. I’ve got a couple ideas I’m poking at myself, I’ll post one here later tonight when I get one in shape (I think I’m close)

The red one with the dripping chin was a base I was thinking of working from, absolutely. My first thought was using the Dolby Vision poster (the facehugger crawling over Rain’s helmet) too. I might go back to it, but I figure I should at least try something

Hey, thanks for giving it your time and a fair shake! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😃

Bumping for updated OP + final version + changelist

Hello again!

Years ago, when I first started thinking about taking the plunge into fan-editing instead of just lobbing suggestions from the sidelines and offering up a test here and a demo there, I actually saw a version of this project through to completion, although I since lost the password to the account (and forgot the username on top of that, LOL). Which is fine - even for an edit as technically uncomplicated as this one is, (it really is, honestly, like 4 total cuts and an audio track replacement in the front channels) it’s probably way better that I start over from scratch on this one.

The edit is named in honor of the “Miami Nice” podcast, from the creators of “One Heat Minute,” where the concept of this cut originated. The hosts have since created their own version of this cut for their own personal use, but I figured I’d try to make that dream a reality as well, since - unlike most dreams - it seemed so easily within reach.

For fans of this once-derided but since-reclaimed film, there’s usually a big dilemma: Which version do you put on when you start to feel that familiar fiending for mojitos? The Theatrical Cut; which most people love for how abruptly and beautifully it starts and never slows down, or the Director’s Cut; which most people love for how it fills out the side stories without interrupting the movie’s immaculate vibes. This cut tries to scratch that itch like this:

• Movie begins as per the Director’s Cut: Universal logo, and two title cards (Universal Pictures presents, A Michael Mann Film)

• Cuts straight from black to “Numb/Encore” in the club as per the Theatrical Cut

• Movie then continues as per the Director’s Cut alllll the way to the Hospital meeting, just before the climactic shootout.

• Movie reverts back to the Theatrical Cut, before the Director’s Cut can include the (not very good) Nonpoint cover of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.”

• The actual Phil Collins version of “In the Air Tonight” is instead placed into the sound mix.

• The movie concludes from the shootout to the end titles there as it would in the Theatrical Cut.

And that’s the “Miami Nice” cut. An attempt to realize the hypothetical “Best of Both Worlds” synthesis of Director’s Cut and Theatrical Version. My only other tweak to the concept was to replace the end credits suite with selections from John Murphy and Klaus Badeldt’s original score.

The edit runs 2hrs and 16min. 2.40:1, 23.976fps, 1080p, DDP5.1. PMs are open, or if you prefer email, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure the gmail address out 😃 Any suggestions, comments, critiques, questions - all are welcome.

Hey, glad you dug the post! And you have a Happy Halloween too!

Haha! Aside from the fact I don’t have any experience in either of those things, it would have been pretty weird to use either of those tools when the point of the edit was to excise a character who could only exist because of those tools.

The craziest thing about Rook as he stands in the movie – aside from the fact the initial concept was apparently a woman synthetic who was (maybe?) a physical version of MU/TH/UR (initially intended to be played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge!), and aside from the fact Alvarez spent most of the PR trail pre-release, talking at length about “real sets” and “practical effects” despite knowing the whole time that primary villain of the movie would be a CGI+AI resurrection of a deceased person – is that Rook is the cause of a weird, ugly sort of metatextual dissonance going on. Especially considering the end of the movie, which is just one big reference/callback to Alien: Resurrection.

The foundational horror of Alien: Resurrection - such as it is, the movie is pretty goofy mostly - is that Ripley has been resurrected and turned into a thing, completely outside her control. She was not asked if she wanted to be brought back, she had no say in it, and she probably would not have agreed to have been brought back as that no matter how good a basketball player she became as a result! But that choice was never hers, the giant corporation that bought the corporation that essentially ruled her life in the first place, decided they weren’t done exploiting the Alien financially, so here she is. Back from the dead.

Romulus does this to Ian Holm in real life. For basically the exact same reason! And what’s even crazier is that when all is said and done it’s not even necessary to the story to have done this at all. It’s a weird, and expensive (!) exposition-laden distraction from the story of Rain and Andy, and nothing Rook says or does isn’t done by Andy himself, in a much more succinct and interesting way. You can cut Rook out of the movie completely and not only does it not hurt the movie, it arguably (hopefully!) improves it. It certainly removes that weird dissonance (and bad VFX work) at the very least.

Well, a mostly Rook-Free Alien Experience… mostly. Aside from two scenes of his prone, immobile and unspeaking half-torso, face-down on the floor, it turns out the character of Rook can be removed from the plot of Alien: Romulus with zero effect! Andy can also save Rain without needing to steal Ellen Ripley’s best lines! This edit is an alternate cut of late Summer 2024’s breakout horror hit, with some of the more egregious “memberberries” trimmed from its tree, along with an answer to the biggest question about it’s release: “Did they really have to do that?”

It’s not too radical a cut beyond that, though. The oft-described “big swing” ending featuring The Offspring is still intact, for example, and there are no CGI or AI implementations used in the edit as fixes. Aside from the edit’s main calling card (the aforementioned de-Rooking) the bulk of the remaining changes are a few second act sequences getting trimmed/slightly rearranged, some dialog removal (largely as part of the un-Rookifying, but sometimes not!) and some score re-edits.

UPDATE 12/2/2024

The finished (I know that’s tempting fate with any fan-edit, but I’m feeling pretty safe in calling it finished) version of Alien: Romulus - Alternate Cut is now ready and available. If you grabbed the original version about a month ago, good news: the link you grabbed it from has already been updated with v2, so all you need to do is redownload, and the final version is yours. If you lost that link, or never reached out for it in the first place, well hey: The PMs are open and the edit is also listed at Fan Edit Central currently (FanEdit org soon, maybe?) so it should be pretty easy to find the contact info.

There’s been about 1-2 more minutes of changes across the film total between the last version and this one, including some edit fixes, some rearrangement of shots/scenes, and some audio enhancements and score additions. Thanks to everyone that gave their feedback, it was very, very much appreciated, and helped greatly with this revision.

Changelist

• Replaced 20th Century Fox Fanfare with remixed version of 20th Century Fox Fanfare (Based primarily on Eliot Goldenthal’s Alien 3 Version)
• Removed Scott Free logos
• Removed premature reveal that Tyler, Bjorn, and Andy are in a 3D printing lab for Facehuggers
• Intercut Navarro’s discovery of X-Ray Torch w/ Rain’s module recovery
• Cut Rook’s jumpscare during Rain’s removal of his module
• Added partial “It’s Here” cue from Alien: Isolation to everyone trying to figure out what’s stuck to Navarro’s face, and deleted Andy’s “for what purpose I do not know” line, to underline Rook’s module changing him for the worse (and to also blend the removal of upcoming Rook scenes more cleanly).
• Cut Rook out of Navarro’s Facehugger removal completely - Andy never points him out, nor do they ever plug him in. Instead, Rain comes up with the solution to getting it off Navarro’s head after the initial scuffle between Bjorn and Andy.
• After Navarro wakes up, Andy now moves to the front of the room instead of comforting Navarro, and refers to his new “One Directive” strangely, and then expands on it; which alarms Rain and confuses everyone else, before crossing the room to intercept Bjorn and prevent Navarro from leaving.
• After the Corbelan crashes into Romulus station, Andy is already with Tyler and Rain as they reach the Facehugger infested hallway, there is no detour to meet with Rook anymore.
• Kay’s hallway sneaking from the crash is intercut with Rain/Andy/Tyler’s hallway sneaking towards Kay
• Kay’s struggle to find the key is shortened, and a continuity error involving the Alien’s emergence from the cocoon is removed. Kay’s fall happens quicker, and her landing starts the Facehugger chase faster.
• Added partial “Alien Reveal” cue from Alien: Isolation to Kay’s abduction.
• Removed mention of Rook in the abduction aftermath, Andy clarifies his new “One Directive:” that “what is required of him” is now simply to “Do what’s best for the company.”
• Removed mention of Rook and his mission from Andy & Rain’s elevator conversation; now the scene is just Andy reminding Rain that everyone’s original plan involved abandoning him on the station.
• Removed Rook (and all mentions of him/orders from him) from Romulus Beta Lab scene.
• The pathogen is explained mostly through visuals and music - Alien, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant themes have been pushed forward in the mix over shots of the pathogen being extracted from facehuggers and being injected into the rat. Andy explains the experiments are meant to combat the miners weaknesses, and that he will be taking the pathogen back to the colony for that purpose.
• Andy’s delivery of “This is a much needed, and overdue upgrade for humanity” from an alternate/deleted version of the lab scene has been restored to the Romulus Beta Lab Scene over a shot of the rat being resurrected.
• Removed Andy’s ADR’d “Busy little creatures” line as they discover the hive below the lab.
• Removed the shot of multiple aliens converging on Tyler due to their disappearance from the scene once he is killed - they never reach his body and they never drop down during Rain & Kay’s escape either. They’ve just completely disappeared in any reverse angles and follow-up shots despite full-on sprinting at him just seconds earlier.
• Removed explicit shot of Kay injecting herself with the pathogen by using match-cut transition from Kay’s arm holding pathogen canister to Rain’s arm unlatching gate to go back for Andy.
• Removed Rook taunting Rain and Andy on monitor at end of blocked hallway
• Removed Rook “seducing” Kay on the monitor in the Corbelan.
• Removed “Get away from her… you b-b-b-bitch.”
• Removed Rook on video screen as Rain and Andy get on Corbelan, Rain gives control to MUTHUR, and they escape the station
• Removed the flight to just above the planetary rings for Andy and Rain to betray Rook. The ship escape/station crash is now one continuous sequence.
• Manipulated shot angles/shot timings to increase focus on Kay’s neck post-cryotube malfunction, to make it clear she had injected herself, and mixed Alien: Covenant cues into the score to underline the pathogen’s use.
• Removed the “Cryosleep Log” since the ship is stolen in the first place so there’d be no reason or point for anyone to log anything or anyone to check for a log.
• Re-edited the “Get Away from Her” music cue originally tracked into the end of the film, both to account for the “Cryosleep Log” removal and to fix the noticeable time-stretch effect applied to it
• Removed the ending Title card
• Removed the Rook credits (kept animatronic credit, and thanks to Ian Holm estate)
• Replaced the End Title track with a new End Title symphonic suite from Wallfisch’s score, using the cues “Andy,” “Prometheus Fire,” “XX121,” and “Searching”
• Added credits under “Songs” for Thematic Elements used from Alien 3, Alien: Covenant, and Alien: Isolation.

Broom Kid said:

My big question is this: Considering the plotting, the way the plotting works, and the way the movie ends up working out - instead of trying to fix the bad mishmash of CGI/AI elements used to digitally resurrect Ian Holm (for basically zero reason), is there a way to simply eliminate the character entirely?

I figured I might as well see if I could answer this question myself, and it turns out the answer was, so far as I could tell… yes! You can!

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Alien-Romulus-Alternate-Cut-A-Rook-Free-Alien-Experience-/id/123857#1614107

Looks like the movie has just hit digital today, so the tinkering should begin in earnest.

My big question is this: Considering the plotting, the way the plotting works, and the way the movie ends up working out - instead of trying to fix the bad mishmash of CGI/AI elements used to digitally resurrect Ian Holm (for basically zero reason), is there a way to simply eliminate the character entirely?

Can you pull Rook out of the movie entirely, remove all the exposition he dumps, and simply have Rain take his chip, put it in Andy, have Andy start acting spooky/weird, and still have the movie make sense as an Alien movie? I think you can. I think you’ll lose one or two jumpscares (starting with Rook grabbing Rain) and some of the explanation as to what exactly is happening in the title sequence, but I think a lot of that explanation is pretty unnecessary anyway, and the lack of it being spelled out might actually help the tension.

I do think ultimately folks are gonna have to wait until the physical release to see what the deleted scenes/scene extensions are, but until then: I’m most curious to see if there’s a way to just pull Rook out of the movie entirely, because so far as I can tell, in terms of what the story is actually doing - he’s completely unnecessary.

Everything else I think you can kinda leave mostly alone (although I think if you simply remove “you bitch” and the smile from Andy’s rescue of Rain, THAT scene is salvaged) - maybe cut the log (why is she leaving a log, it’s a stolen ship) but otherwise I think the biggest offense is Rook, not just aesthetically but in terms of story.

If the r/fanedits mods are cool with faneditors posting links to their fanedits, that’s their thing (fanedits are also a super-niche audience that studios don’t regard as a threat at all and don’t care that much about pursuing) - and honestly, letting those links out in the open is probably for the best for the health of that community. But the problem with a couple folks repatriating myspleen’s hoards and dumping it all on the r/fanedits front lawn is that none of those scans are, by any stretch of the definition, fanedits.

Studios being cool with r/fanedits posting the 4 millionth cut of Justice League is one thing. But a 35mm scan of Titanic isn’t a fanedit. It makes zero sense any of that stuff was ever allowed to stay up in the first place, and then on top of that it turns out the guy being a real punk about what he’s doing, is doing it in a place that has nothing to do with any of this.

DigMod said:
I’d like to better understand the claim that some have made that copyright does not apply to film. Can anyone share that info?

No, because it’s a false claim.

Like any fairly insular community, perspective can get warped a little and people can start to believe “facts” that aren’t really facts; but if someone who illegally scanned and further illegally distributed a copyrighted print (setting aside whether or not they fundraised off it) tries to say they “own” that scan, they’re not really correct. Granted, they would in fact “own” the repercussions should any studio decide (against their better judgment) to go after enthusiasts that have spent an exorbitant amount of money on said studio’s official products.

But the legality of “owning” the scan they made is zero. Which is why putting it up for grabs is always a bit of a risk, because it’s out of your control as to what happens to it after that point, and you’re effectively trusting the small circle of pirates in your pirate community to honor the unspoken code everyone’s presumably operating by.

It sucks when someone decides to - effectively - steal from the dealers (you’ve seen this scenario on TV certainly: “what are the dealers gonna do - go to the cops? Say someone stole their stash?”) and get a brief rush or thrill for playing “robin hood” to some degree. But nothing beyond an unspoken community rule actually got broken.

DigMod said:

Lately we’ve started to notice an uptick in 35mm prints. I just got back from a very extended vacation and see that it has caused a major concern… All 35mm print posts have been removed from the subreddit while the mod team reviews and seeks to better understand the situation. I’ll be reading over this thread and most likely posting follow up questions.

I think honestly it’s probably for the best if they never come back. Not for any of the reasoning that’s been cited previously, some of which is better than others, but because your sub is supposed to be about fanedits and nothing being posted even remotely resembles a fanedit. It’s just straight up piracy, full-stop.

Granted, ALL of this is (and it’s a thing places like this have historically tried to soft-shoe around) full-blown piracy. It’s well-meaning, super-niche, extensive, complicated, caring, careful piracy, but there isn’t any real question of ownership and copyright that isn’t pretty clearly answered by “you’re not supposed to be doing this, because none of this stuff is yours.” The people who scan this stuff know it, the people who upload this stuff to long-calcified private trackers know it, the people who keep a healthy ratio sharing it know it, everyone knows. It’s largely harmless piracy (MOST piracy is, fun fact, but that’s a whole 'nother topic) but it’s still technically illegal activity.

Now: everyone seems to - after almost 30 years now of people talking about and distributing stuff through and around here - have FINALLY realized the tiny piracy niche this place (and the communities orbiting it) occupies isn’t hurting the major studios, and the studios have largely decided since we’re not trying to hurt them, or undercut them, that they’ll leave us all alone.

But so far as a subreddit about fanedits is concerned: I don’t see how someone kicking open the door to myspleen and storing every film scan it’s ever had uploaded to it has anything to do with fanediting. It was off-topic spamming in the first place.

100% would not be surprised if that was the case. People at the company have known about all this stuff (and this place) for quite awhile now, and I believe some of them have even mentioned on social media that they’ve used fan restorations (including yours, Harmy) as reference for various projects.