SuperHero Authority has reported that Disney and Marvel may be considering a theatrical re-release of The Avengers later this year, one that could be labeled as an Extended Director’s Cut with over thirty minutes of new footage. Apparently, the motivation is to give the film the box-office boost it needs in order to overtake Titanic and Avatar as the top-grossing film of all time.
We Got This Covered has done some digging, however, and we must stress that not only is this a rumor, it is one that lacks any sort of source. SuperHero Authority claims the info came from an article on ComicBook.Com, but in that article, the author only speculates, based on previous comments director Joss Whedon has made about how it would be neat to see an Extended Cut in theatres. SuperHero Authority also cites a “another Hollywood source,” but without any information to back that claim up, I see no reason to take it as fact.
In short, this story is based not on quality reporting, but on rehashing a blogger’s musings. I would pull out the old “Judge not lest ye be judged” line, but then again, I’m not the one making news out of nothing.
Even if SuperHero Authority had a credible source, I would be extremely wary of this rumor. First, it comes from the assumption that the cut released to theatres does not represent Joss Whedon‘s directorial vision. This is simply not true. In the Collider interview in which Whedon explained an earlier cut of The Avengers was over three hours long, he wasn’t claiming the studio forced him to cut out a bunch of great footage. He was merely explaining a well-known filmmaking fact that nearly all movies are initially assembled at lengths greatly inflated from their final run-time, and that part of the artistic process involves cutting out the fat for greatest effect. He even denies, in that same interview, that there will be an Extended Version, saying he is happy with the theatrical cut and that there will instead be a series of Deleted Scenes on the DVD.
And, indeed, the DVD and Blu-Ray have been announced, and they contain thirty minutes of extra footage rather than a true extended cut. Joss Whedon was telling the truth. Imagine that.
And even if Disney and Marvel were somehow petty enough to decide on re-releasing the film just to break another record – which I don’t believe they are – then they won’t be assembling an Extended Cut, especially on the timetable this rumor suggests. Yes, an earlier, longer cut probably exists on a hard drive somewhere, but it would take millions of dollars and weeks of work to complete unfinished effects, correct color timing, convert the footage to 3D, bring actors back in for ADR work, etc. Disney certainly could decide to do this somewhere down the line, but they would have had to start work on it a long time ago for it to hit later this year, and if they had, we would have heard about it.
So please, do not take baseless reporting like this at face value. This is a lesson in why readers should always check a journalist’s so-called source, and I’m a little appalled at other websites that are reporting this as actual, authentic news.
It’s not news. It barely qualifies as speculation. It certainly can’t be called journalism.