Unfortunately for some fans, the recent rumour that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises would have an extended director’s cut on DVD and Blu-Ray has just been disproved. According to The Playlist, insiders close to the director have revealed that no extended cut of the film exists or is planned.
Last week, it was rumoured that the extended director’s cut would feature 30 minutes of extended film, including Bane’s origin scene and more of Ra’s Al Ghul. This version was said to be set for a June release, shortly before the premiere of Man of Steel, which Nolan is producing.
News that the director’s cut won’t be happening should not come as a big surprise, considering the fact that Nolan never includes many deleted scenes on his movies’ home video releases. Shortly after the release of The Dark Knight Rises, he told MTV:
I tend to try and weed things out on paper because it’s crazy expensive to shoot things that aren’t going to be in the film. It also takes up a lot of time and energy. Pretty much with all my films, there are very few deleted scenes, which always disappoints the DVD crowd.
With a running time of 165 minutes, The Dark Knight Rises is by far the longest out of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and already tells an epic and cohesive story. So length-wise, I think the film is fine the way it is. In fact, there are some extraneous scenes that the final cut of the movie could do without, or replace with more background about the characters – especially Catwoman and Bane.
Speaking of whom, the one thing I would miss from the lack of a director’s cut would probably be Bane’s origin story. But that alone would not warrant 30 minutes of extra footage and could just be included as a short deleted scene.
What do you think? Would you have liked to see an extended director’s cut of The Dark Knight Rises?