Monday, November 06, 2006

Director's Cut Of American History X Coming... But Not So Soon

There might be two years to wait until the tenth anniversary of American History X but already Tony Kaye is working on a director's cut special edition of the film.

How is such a project even possible after such an acrimonious split between director and studio? Well, it looks like that Kaye has not only eaten a little humble pie, he is also back in the good books of New Line. I didn't think this possible after his bitter rows with Edward Norton those eight long years ago - rows that saw Norton and the studio winning final cut on the film (well, final cut for eight years, anyway).

No details on how this new version will differ from the one we all know, but I believe the crux of the disagreement hung upon the film's ending. I'm assuming Kaye's involvement will negate the possibility of any new Norton interviews or commentary? Or are they all friends again now?

Reportedly, Kaye is also about to start work on Madness, a thriller from a screenplay by the story structure guru, Robert McKee. For all of McKee's wisdom and professional clear-thinking about the writing of scripts, this would be his first one produced and I'm curious to see if he has practiced all he preaches.

We'll possibly all go grey waiting for those two but Lake of Fire will be released around the world in the coming months. This is Tony Kaye's heavily feted new documentary about the pro-choice/pro-life war - two and a half hours long, reputedly very balanced but undeniably very graphic and shocking.

All that's missing from this Tony Kaye revival is a Director's Label disc of his promos and music videos, but something tells me that must be imminent too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As far as i now from The Original Set of American History X, there where 2 opposite main Characters, not Derek (Edward Norton) and his brother Danny (of cause they were one part of this film, too).

Originally there was the complete story about derek, but in opposite there should have been (heard that this was already filmed!) also a black extreme guy, who was the leader of a Black Power Group and killed some white guy, so he went to prison, too. The other story told about the history of this black guy and his gang and family.

I never heard, who this Black Main Person should have been, but either it was Dereks "Friend" from the prison or the older brother of the black boy, who shot Danny down at the end. (maybe the same person??!)

I am really looking forward for the Directors Cut!!!

Donny from Germany