Fango got the scoop from Subversive Cinema about a bunch of its upcoming DVDs. Most notably, the company has made a deal with Richard Stanley's Shadow Theatre Films to release the long-awaited definitive director's-cut edition of Stanley's 1992 chiller DUST DEVIL. This release will be titled DUST DEVIL: THE FINAL CUT and is tentatively scheduled to street September 26; it hasn't been determined how many discs it'll be, but the feature will be accompanied by three Stanley documentaries (THE WHITE DARKNESS, THE SECRET GLORY and VOICE OF THE MOON), and all four will have commentaries by the director. In addition, there will be never-before-seen deleted scenes from the original workprint, and likely still more supplements.
I guess Stanley has managed to figure out all the legal wranglings that have relegated this film to bootleg obscurity. Here's the deal in an interview he gave:
GG: The cuts were pretty minor.
RS: Pretty minor, in Hardware, yes. I didn't mind most of the changes. The most damaging of the changes were made in script stage, in pre-production, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the deal. With Dust Devil, I've been forced to give digital master copies to people before, because in the case of Dust Devil, no one knows who owns the rights anymore. No one knows who owns the rights to Hardware either, but the situation with Dust Devil is very bad. No one can legally sell anyone the rights to the movie because no one can figure out who to buy the rights from. That means that potential distributors to their best to investigate it for 2 or 3 months and then eventually, get discouraged. Pirate video is the only way to see the real film.
GG: That was a huge cut, about a half hour I think.
RS: More than that, in fact. The stateside version runs at 70 minutes, the full version runs at 105. It only achieved 70 minutes because they run the music from the end roll twice, to bring it up from 68 or something. They needed to meet 70 minutes, and they just improvised and brought in an extra two minutes of black screen music at the end, just to meet contractual obligations.
A little bit more info on what to expect from this DVD. From the Mobius message board:
Richard has also given us access to his cutting copy which includes scenes from the film noone has seen before. We also have the trailer to a 16mm version, commentary track with Richard, the three documentaries, a 5.1 mix, etc. behind the scenes, etc. It will be the cut Richard himself finished after the film had been abandoned. No relation to the version released before on videocasette in the States.
Subversive Cinema have published the specs for the R1 release to be released on September 26th. The edition will be limited to 10,000 copies ($29,95 a piece), and will not be reprinted.
Disc One:
Dust Devil the Final Cut (w/ commentary with Richard Stanley and Norman Hill)
107 min Hi Def transfer, 16×9 widescreen (1.85:1). Transfer approved by Richard Stanley.
5.1 mix, 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix
Richard Stanley Production diaries on the Making of
Featurette: A Demon Reborn: The Final Dust Devil
Making of Dust Devil (from the Laser Paradise disc)
Trailer for long lost 16mm version of Dust Devil
2nd disc CD: THE DUST DEVIL SOUNDTRACK by Simon Boswell
Disc Two:
A reconstruction of the Work Print release, time approx. 114 minutes, non-anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 2.0 stero mix
NEW DUST DEVIL COMIC BOOK by Phil Avelli, STORY APPROVED BY RICHARD STANLEY
Disc Three:
Voice of the Moon - documentary on Afganhastan (w/ commentary by Richard Stanley and Norman Hill)
White Darkness - documentary on Haitian Voodoo (w/ commentary by Richard Stanley)
Richard Stanley Production diaries on the Making of White Darkness
Disc Four:
Secret Glory - documentary on the search for the grail and the neo-Nazi movement (w/ commentary by Richard Stanley and Norman Hill)
Richard Stanley Production diaries on the Making of Secret Glory
The Miramax shorter cut is indeed a travesity. However, we are only putting out Richard's director's cut and his longer work print cut. It is to me the Magnificent Amcersons of the Horror genre...only luckily, the real cut still exists.
The director's cut is so far superior to the VHS version that they are almost two different films.
It is one of my favorite DVDs I have worked on so far...and I have been doing this now for 15 years!
I got a review copy of this yesterday, and this is an extraordinary package. Review of my own to come, but here's one to satiate you for the time being.
