Here's some great news courtesy of Ain't It Cool News!
~AICN reports that an MGM employee has found a reel of MPAA-spliced scenes from Stuart Gordon's From Beyond. According to the report, the footage was brought to the attention of Stuart who couldn't have been happier. Now it seems, MGM is interested in releasing a Director's Cut of H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond later on this year!~
Craig
http://www.unfilmable.com
H.P. Lovecraft Cinema
From Beyond DVD news!
Moderators: mgmirkin, Pickman, Moderators
Here's an update from Dread Central in regards to the lost From Beyond footage. Stuart Gordon provided the following details:
"I'm still flying high from the discovery. I've been working on the upcoming DVD release of From Beyond with Greg Carson at MGM and got a call a couple of days before Christmas that they had found some footage. So I went to their postproduction facility in Century City not sure what to expect.
They showed me a small film can full of trims, picture and sound. The can was labeled "For video version" and I recognized the writing of my From Beyond editor Lee Percy. My heart started to race. The trims were threaded up on an old flatbed, and there they were: all the scenes that had been cut by the MPAA nineteen years ago. I had looked for this material in the early 90's but was told it had been thrown out. I assumed it had been lost forever. I almost cried.
The footage includes the complete brain sucking sequence in which Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) sucks out Dr. Bloch's (my wife Carolyn Purdy Gordon) eyeball and spits it out. The eyeball lands on the floor looking up at the camera (it took forever to get that shot). And then we push in on his mouth as he sucks out her brain through her eye socket. I can still remember the lady from the MPAA scolding me about this shot like I was a bad kid sent to the principal's office. "How could you have ever thought we would give you an R rating when instead of cutting away you continue to push in closer and closer AND CLOSER?!"
There is also some extended brain munching, nudity and violence. The only scene that is still missing is one I cut out myself. It occurs early in the film when Crawford goes to tell Dr. Pretorious that the Resonator is working. As Pretorious leaves his bedroom Crawford hears moaning inside and looks in. He sees a beautiful naked young woman trussed up S&M style. In her mouth is a large three-penny nail that has been pounded through her tongue. Crawford frees her and pulls out the nail. She throws a coat over her shoulders and runs out. I cut this scene because I thought the MPAA would never allow such perversion, and now every other kid has a pierced tongue. The lesson I learned is to never censor myself. The good folks at MGM are still looking for this scene.
The plan is to recut the lost footage back into the film and release a Directors Cut. They also plan to release the first wide screen version of From Beyond and are planning a ton of extras to make it comparable to Elite's Millennium Edition of Re-Animator..."
Craig
"I'm still flying high from the discovery. I've been working on the upcoming DVD release of From Beyond with Greg Carson at MGM and got a call a couple of days before Christmas that they had found some footage. So I went to their postproduction facility in Century City not sure what to expect.
They showed me a small film can full of trims, picture and sound. The can was labeled "For video version" and I recognized the writing of my From Beyond editor Lee Percy. My heart started to race. The trims were threaded up on an old flatbed, and there they were: all the scenes that had been cut by the MPAA nineteen years ago. I had looked for this material in the early 90's but was told it had been thrown out. I assumed it had been lost forever. I almost cried.
The footage includes the complete brain sucking sequence in which Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) sucks out Dr. Bloch's (my wife Carolyn Purdy Gordon) eyeball and spits it out. The eyeball lands on the floor looking up at the camera (it took forever to get that shot). And then we push in on his mouth as he sucks out her brain through her eye socket. I can still remember the lady from the MPAA scolding me about this shot like I was a bad kid sent to the principal's office. "How could you have ever thought we would give you an R rating when instead of cutting away you continue to push in closer and closer AND CLOSER?!"
There is also some extended brain munching, nudity and violence. The only scene that is still missing is one I cut out myself. It occurs early in the film when Crawford goes to tell Dr. Pretorious that the Resonator is working. As Pretorious leaves his bedroom Crawford hears moaning inside and looks in. He sees a beautiful naked young woman trussed up S&M style. In her mouth is a large three-penny nail that has been pounded through her tongue. Crawford frees her and pulls out the nail. She throws a coat over her shoulders and runs out. I cut this scene because I thought the MPAA would never allow such perversion, and now every other kid has a pierced tongue. The lesson I learned is to never censor myself. The good folks at MGM are still looking for this scene.
The plan is to recut the lost footage back into the film and release a Directors Cut. They also plan to release the first wide screen version of From Beyond and are planning a ton of extras to make it comparable to Elite's Millennium Edition of Re-Animator..."
Craig