James Cameron’s bold prediction about the future of cinema is coming true… kind of.
Remember a while back when James Cameron predicted that the future of cinema lay with films having more than one cut? Well, Netflix is taking things in that direction, kind of although not quite in the way that Cameron’s futurist thinking predicted.
It’s been announced that not only will Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon be coming in two parts, but each part will also be coming in two cuts according to Snyder himself who has revealed that ‘the first is a general cut “anyone can enjoy and watch,” whilst the second cut is “for fans of mine and people who are ready to take a deeper, harder dive, that’ll be fun for them.”
Whilst Zack Snyder releasing multiple cuts of a film is nothing new, the fact that the alternate versions of his take on Star Wars are releasing at the same time is rather novel. If you recall, James Cameron predicted a while back that the future of blockbuster cinema could lie in films getting two cuts, a shorter one for cinemas and a much longer, perhaps even episodic cut for home viewing. Whilst the approach Snyder and Netflix are taking with Rebel Moon isn’t exactly that, it does highlight the increasingly diverse array of options filmmakers possess to present their films to audiences in different forms.
Rreports are suggesting that Netflix stressed to Snyder that the film had to come in under two hours (hence it becoming a two-parter), but it looks like the streamer has indulged Snyder in a different way. Again showing that although not every filmmaker will be afforded the largesse afforded to Martin Scorsese for The Irishman and its 209 minute running time, the platform will try to give filmmakers freedom in other, sometimes novel ways.
The film promises to be a sci-fi adventure where ‘the story is set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. Desperate people dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighbouring planets to help them make a stand.’
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The first part of Rebel Moon is set to arrive in December, and once again, the approach to the release of the second part might be different to a traditional theatrical release which would normally come a year later. Snyder has told us to expect it sooner than that but we have no firm details yet. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
