Published on November 22nd, 2009 | by simeon

“Lovely,” “Wolfman,” “Kites” Re-Cut

The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson tells Reuters that he recut his film adaptation of the Alice Sebold bestseller after a test screening.

Why he recut it though is a reason you rarely here – the audience “wanted far more violence”. The director told the news services that the test groups weren’t satisfied with the death of a character, and he re-edited the film to “basically add more violence and suffering” but still keep things in the PG-13 rating.

* SPOILERS * The article goes into detail as well about the changes made. The death involves a man falling off a cliff to his death. In the original cut, Jackson chose to simply have him disappear off the edge of a cliff. In the new cut, they use digital effects to add shots where (the character) bounces against the cliff on the way down.

The Wolfman
Early last week /Film uncovered an interesting bit of news buried in a Variety article – that editor Dennis Virkler has been replaced.

Instead Mark Goldblatt (Terminator 2″) and Walter Murch (“The Talented Mr. Ripley ,” “Ghost”) have been called in to recut Joe Johnston’s remake of the Universal monster classic.

The move is yet another rehiring on the long troubled project. Johnston replaced original helmer Mark Romanek, Vic Armstrong came onboard as second-unit director on reshoots in May, and the other week Paul Haslinger was hired to replace original composer Danny Elfman.

Kites
Finally, Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour,” “X-Men: The Last Stand”) has been called in to re-cut the English-language version of Hindi feature “Kites” for Reliance BIG Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

Directed by Anurag Basu, the film stars Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori in a love story shot in Las Vegas, Mumbai, New Mexico and Los Angeles. The new version will be released internationally in both Hindi and English.