Why haven't they released Cruising yet?
03-02-07, 10:08 AM
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Originally Posted by Tracer
For those that missed the Warner chat at htf.
"We will be releasing THE HAND this year,
and are at work on a special edition of CRUISING directly with William Friedkin."
"We will be releasing THE HAND this year,
and are at work on a special edition of CRUISING directly with William Friedkin."
05-23-07, 06:15 PM
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Just got back from the one-time Directors' Fortnight screening of William Friedkin's newly restored version of CRUISING at Cannes. The film was presented in HD as part of the promotion for the Warner Bros. DVD to be released in mid-October. The image looked very crisp. Skin tones looked a little pale in the night and club sequences, but colors really popped for the most part, in particular, the yellow NYC cabs. Sound, in particular, the separation between the various songs and ambient noises, was excellent.
The film attracted a packed house, including Quentin Tarantino. Friedkin appeared to introduce the film and was spirited and appeared quite appreciative of the film's positive reception and the Directors' Fortnight selection committee's decision to screen the film in this year's program. Producer, Jerry Weintraub was also on-hand as he is in Cannes to promote his latest film, OCEANS 13.
The crowd was enthusiastic from start to finish and gave a rapturous applause at the conclusion.
The film attracted a packed house, including Quentin Tarantino. Friedkin appeared to introduce the film and was spirited and appeared quite appreciative of the film's positive reception and the Directors' Fortnight selection committee's decision to screen the film in this year's program. Producer, Jerry Weintraub was also on-hand as he is in Cannes to promote his latest film, OCEANS 13.
The crowd was enthusiastic from start to finish and gave a rapturous applause at the conclusion.
Spoiler:
05-24-07, 08:32 AM
#29
Moderator
Originally Posted by Jon Hertzberg
Just got back from the one-time Directors' Fortnight screening of William Friedkin's newly restored version of CRUISING at Cannes. The film was presented in HD as part of the promotion for the Warner Bros. DVD to be released in mid-October. The image looked very crisp. Skin tones looked a little pale in the night and club sequences, but colors really popped for the most part, in particular, the yellow NYC cabs. Sound, in particular, the separation between the various songs and ambient noises, was excellent.
The film attracted a packed house, including Quentin Tarantino. Friedkin appeared to introduce the film and was spirited and appeared quite appreciative of the film's positive reception and the Directors' Fortnight selection committee's decision to screen the film in this year's program. Producer, Jerry Weintraub was also on-hand as he is in Cannes to promote his latest film, OCEANS 13.
The crowd was enthusiastic from start to finish and gave a rapturous applause at the conclusion.
The film attracted a packed house, including Quentin Tarantino. Friedkin appeared to introduce the film and was spirited and appeared quite appreciative of the film's positive reception and the Directors' Fortnight selection committee's decision to screen the film in this year's program. Producer, Jerry Weintraub was also on-hand as he is in Cannes to promote his latest film, OCEANS 13.
The crowd was enthusiastic from start to finish and gave a rapturous applause at the conclusion.
Spoiler:
oh and Warner's stop jerking us around and now give us an uncut version of 'The Devils'!
05-24-07, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by inri222
1900 is listed here as discontinued. [/URL]
The rumor that '1900' was discontinued has been completely debunked.
05-24-07, 11:14 AM
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I'm trying not to read the spoilers, but is he expected to submit this to the MPAA, are there any forseeable problems in securing an R-rating.
I don't know what the plans are for resubmission to the MPAA. The newly inserted snippets, IMHO, are not any more explicit than the footage that has always been in the original R-rated cut. It's just a little more of things that were already there.
Certainly, there is nothing more extreme than the hardcore frames that Friedkin edited into the film prior to its original release.
05-24-07, 11:44 AM
#32
Looks like a lot of the additional footage is lost or destroyed, according to Friedkin:
http://www.laweekly.com/film+tv/film.../16472/?page=2
He does wish, though, that the studio (Warner Bros.) had been able to find some of the 40 minutes of deleted scenes that he was forced to remove from Cruising 26 years ago at the behest of the MPAA, all of which are now feared missing or destroyed. Most of that footage, Friedkin allows, “did not move the story forward at all. It was me filming in great detail everything that went on in the clubs: I filmed fist fucking, in such a way that it could be used as a manual. Golden showers. All of that.”
06-04-07, 10:24 AM
#33
Moderator
here's another story on the release from the Boston Herald:
Cannes Diary Day 9
Posted by Stephen Schaefer at 4:27 am
As if any proof was needed about how different a time the 1970s was, the Cannes Film Festival presented a gorgeously restored, HD-projected director’s version of Al Pacino’s 1980 “Cruising.”
Writer-director William Friedkin, who scored at Cannes last year with the disturbing “Bug,” was lionized at Wednesday night’s presentation. Quentin Tarantino, here in Cannes with his expanded “Death Proof” from “Grindhouse” in competition, came as did producer Jerry Weintraub whose all-star “Ocean’s Thirteen” premieres tonight, Thursday.
With cameras and lights recording the event as a forthcoming DVD extra, Friedkin told how this version while not longer than the original’s 103 minutes is more graphic and explicit. He also suggested that it paved the way for Hollywood’s serial killer syndrome that continues to this day.
What is obvious in the film’s first few minutes is that you cannot imagine any major Hollywood studio making a film like this today as Paramount Pictures did back when. At the time it was made entirely on location in New York City, primarily in the Greeniwch Village’s meat market area that turned at night into a gay playground, “Cruising” was controversial for more than its documentary-style depiction of the gay S&M world.
In 1979 when filming began, the gay movement was along with feminism becoming a dominant cultural force. One tenet, soon to be destroyed by the AIDS epidemic, was that sex was good, an example of shackles unbound, and that uninhibited, anonymous sex was to be celebrated not censured. Gay sex clubs were an anything goes proposition and the image of gay men had radically transformed from a pre-Stonewall effeminate sissy to a macho leather guy.
Friedkin however had first scored in his career with his film version of America’s breakthrough gay play, the off-Broadway hit “The Boys in the Band.” Friedkin’s critically acclaimed 1970 movie wasn’t a hit like his next two pictures, “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” but it found an audience and was highly influential to gay visibility. But by 1979 the gay community had moved beyond Mart Crowley’s “Band” boys, viewing the assorted homosexuals who come together for a Greenwich Village birthday party as self-loathing and pathetic.
The gay rights movement was also campaigning for better treatment in the media. Gay characters were appearing on TV with Billy Crystal being the first gay character in a series but the movies had a long history of negative stereotyping. At this point in history as Friedkin and Paramount came to Greenwich Village to make “Cruising” someone leaked a copy of the script with its story of a serial killer stabbing his leather pickups in full gory color close-ups onscreen. Pacino is a cop sent undercover by his superior Paul Sorvino who gradually goes from heterosexual shy guy with girlfriend Karen Allen (of the future “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) to a leather guy making it with assorted butch types in the call of duty. The ending suggests that Pacino may have crossed over to become a serial killer himself.
“Foul!” the gay activists hollered. “Cruising” implied that gayness was communicable and led to degeneracy. Never mind the leather sex club scenes which included every type of sexual activity imaginable, it was the plot that rankled. Gay groups announced plans to picket the filming and make it impossible for Paramount to make their movie in their community unless they had a say.
Seen today, what remains shocking is not the treatment of gays in “Cruising” – Friedkin is unbelievably non-judgmental about the sexual lives of these men even as the film notes that “This is not the mainstream of gays but a world unto itself.” The shock is how explicit “Cruising” is. At a time when the idea much less the fact of two men kissing was considered outrageous, here is a mainstream release that still had people walking out in Cannes 28 years later.
Besides its documentary feel – and in its depiction of a crumbling Manhattan that makes it a bookend with Friedkin’s “Exorcist” – “Cruising” works as a very personal police procedural. As Friedkin told the audience before it began of the film’s eerie ending with Pacino looking in a mirror wonder who exactly he is, “I still don’t know who the killer is.” Maybe that was part of the inspiration for David Fincher to make “Zodiac” (which received a rapturous critical reception here as it screened in competition) which also has an inconclusive ending.
Pacino’s risky venture as Steve Burns who becomes “Brian Forbes” undercover does not rank among his greatest performances – and he declined to come to Cannes with his “Ocean’s” castmates or for this. But the role seems personal in a Method sort of way as Brian talks about living with his parents in the Bronx (where Pacino was raised by his grandmother).
The cast includes James Remar as the Broadway dancer who is the jealous boyfriend of Don Scardino’s aspiring playwright who lives next door to Brian. Remar had made his debut in “The Warriors” and would go on to be the villain in “48 HRS” and play Dexter’s cop dad in the current Showtime series. It’s nice to see Sorvino as a lawman decades before he did his brief one-season stint on “Law & Order.” A very young Powers Boothe shows up as a gay hankie salesman who is later seen in the sex club. And then there is Joe Spinnell, the fairly frightening looking actor who would become a staple of horror and exploitation movies, as a closeted cop. Spinell died in 1989.
For anyone who wonders how New York has changed, just consider the spacious loft that is Karen Allen’s home in the movie. Then it was realistic to have a young career woman living in such a place, furnished with thrift shop goods and kind of funky. Today that would be home only to someone with $3 million available for real estate and the furnishings, floor and lighting would no doubt suggest a designer showroom.
I couldn’t help wonder what Sherry Lansing, who is Mrs. Friedkin and was Paramount’s president for many years, thought as she watched “Cruising” last night. Offhand I can’t think of one picture she greenlighted that could be considered as risky or offputting as this one of a kind restored classic.
and HiDef Digest's mention as well:
Warner to Give 'Cruising' a High-Def Makeover
Cannes Diary Day 9
Posted by Stephen Schaefer at 4:27 am
As if any proof was needed about how different a time the 1970s was, the Cannes Film Festival presented a gorgeously restored, HD-projected director’s version of Al Pacino’s 1980 “Cruising.”
Writer-director William Friedkin, who scored at Cannes last year with the disturbing “Bug,” was lionized at Wednesday night’s presentation. Quentin Tarantino, here in Cannes with his expanded “Death Proof” from “Grindhouse” in competition, came as did producer Jerry Weintraub whose all-star “Ocean’s Thirteen” premieres tonight, Thursday.
With cameras and lights recording the event as a forthcoming DVD extra, Friedkin told how this version while not longer than the original’s 103 minutes is more graphic and explicit. He also suggested that it paved the way for Hollywood’s serial killer syndrome that continues to this day.
What is obvious in the film’s first few minutes is that you cannot imagine any major Hollywood studio making a film like this today as Paramount Pictures did back when. At the time it was made entirely on location in New York City, primarily in the Greeniwch Village’s meat market area that turned at night into a gay playground, “Cruising” was controversial for more than its documentary-style depiction of the gay S&M world.
In 1979 when filming began, the gay movement was along with feminism becoming a dominant cultural force. One tenet, soon to be destroyed by the AIDS epidemic, was that sex was good, an example of shackles unbound, and that uninhibited, anonymous sex was to be celebrated not censured. Gay sex clubs were an anything goes proposition and the image of gay men had radically transformed from a pre-Stonewall effeminate sissy to a macho leather guy.
Friedkin however had first scored in his career with his film version of America’s breakthrough gay play, the off-Broadway hit “The Boys in the Band.” Friedkin’s critically acclaimed 1970 movie wasn’t a hit like his next two pictures, “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” but it found an audience and was highly influential to gay visibility. But by 1979 the gay community had moved beyond Mart Crowley’s “Band” boys, viewing the assorted homosexuals who come together for a Greenwich Village birthday party as self-loathing and pathetic.
The gay rights movement was also campaigning for better treatment in the media. Gay characters were appearing on TV with Billy Crystal being the first gay character in a series but the movies had a long history of negative stereotyping. At this point in history as Friedkin and Paramount came to Greenwich Village to make “Cruising” someone leaked a copy of the script with its story of a serial killer stabbing his leather pickups in full gory color close-ups onscreen. Pacino is a cop sent undercover by his superior Paul Sorvino who gradually goes from heterosexual shy guy with girlfriend Karen Allen (of the future “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) to a leather guy making it with assorted butch types in the call of duty. The ending suggests that Pacino may have crossed over to become a serial killer himself.
“Foul!” the gay activists hollered. “Cruising” implied that gayness was communicable and led to degeneracy. Never mind the leather sex club scenes which included every type of sexual activity imaginable, it was the plot that rankled. Gay groups announced plans to picket the filming and make it impossible for Paramount to make their movie in their community unless they had a say.
Seen today, what remains shocking is not the treatment of gays in “Cruising” – Friedkin is unbelievably non-judgmental about the sexual lives of these men even as the film notes that “This is not the mainstream of gays but a world unto itself.” The shock is how explicit “Cruising” is. At a time when the idea much less the fact of two men kissing was considered outrageous, here is a mainstream release that still had people walking out in Cannes 28 years later.
Besides its documentary feel – and in its depiction of a crumbling Manhattan that makes it a bookend with Friedkin’s “Exorcist” – “Cruising” works as a very personal police procedural. As Friedkin told the audience before it began of the film’s eerie ending with Pacino looking in a mirror wonder who exactly he is, “I still don’t know who the killer is.” Maybe that was part of the inspiration for David Fincher to make “Zodiac” (which received a rapturous critical reception here as it screened in competition) which also has an inconclusive ending.
Pacino’s risky venture as Steve Burns who becomes “Brian Forbes” undercover does not rank among his greatest performances – and he declined to come to Cannes with his “Ocean’s” castmates or for this. But the role seems personal in a Method sort of way as Brian talks about living with his parents in the Bronx (where Pacino was raised by his grandmother).
The cast includes James Remar as the Broadway dancer who is the jealous boyfriend of Don Scardino’s aspiring playwright who lives next door to Brian. Remar had made his debut in “The Warriors” and would go on to be the villain in “48 HRS” and play Dexter’s cop dad in the current Showtime series. It’s nice to see Sorvino as a lawman decades before he did his brief one-season stint on “Law & Order.” A very young Powers Boothe shows up as a gay hankie salesman who is later seen in the sex club. And then there is Joe Spinnell, the fairly frightening looking actor who would become a staple of horror and exploitation movies, as a closeted cop. Spinell died in 1989.
For anyone who wonders how New York has changed, just consider the spacious loft that is Karen Allen’s home in the movie. Then it was realistic to have a young career woman living in such a place, furnished with thrift shop goods and kind of funky. Today that would be home only to someone with $3 million available for real estate and the furnishings, floor and lighting would no doubt suggest a designer showroom.
I couldn’t help wonder what Sherry Lansing, who is Mrs. Friedkin and was Paramount’s president for many years, thought as she watched “Cruising” last night. Offhand I can’t think of one picture she greenlighted that could be considered as risky or offputting as this one of a kind restored classic.
and HiDef Digest's mention as well:
Warner to Give 'Cruising' a High-Def Makeover
Last edited by Giles; 06-04-07 at 10:26 AM.
06-14-07, 12:07 PM
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Thanks for the link, Giles. Nice story, but it does contain a few big errors.
This was NOT a Paramount film. It was produced by Lorimar and originally distributed by United Artists. Warner Bros. now has the rights as WB subsequently acquired the Lorimar catalog.
The author's final note about Sherry Lansing greenlighting this film at Paramount is completely negated by the fact that Paramount had nothing to do with it.
Pacino goes undercover as JOHN Forbes, not "Brian," as the author repeats throughout his story.
This was NOT a Paramount film. It was produced by Lorimar and originally distributed by United Artists. Warner Bros. now has the rights as WB subsequently acquired the Lorimar catalog.
The author's final note about Sherry Lansing greenlighting this film at Paramount is completely negated by the fact that Paramount had nothing to do with it.
Pacino goes undercover as JOHN Forbes, not "Brian," as the author repeats throughout his story.
06-16-07, 12:18 AM
#39
Moderator
Hot off the presses:
Warner is releasing a special edition of "Cruising" on Sept. 18th!
At least 2 short docs and a commentary track have been mentioned so far...
Warner is releasing a special edition of "Cruising" on Sept. 18th!
At least 2 short docs and a commentary track have been mentioned so far...
06-17-07, 12:04 AM
#42
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Originally Posted by Mao
Hot off the presses:
Warner is releasing a special edition of "Cruising" on Sept. 18th!
At least 2 short docs and a commentary track have been mentioned so far...
Warner is releasing a special edition of "Cruising" on Sept. 18th!
At least 2 short docs and a commentary track have been mentioned so far...
06-18-07, 07:58 AM
#45
DVD Talk Legend
From DVDTIMES:
Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Cruising (Deluxe Edition) on 18th September 2007 priced at $19.97 SRP. William Friedkin’s murder thriller that is set against the gay S & M subculture of the late ‘70s and prompted widespread community protests when it opened in 1980 makes its long-awaited Region 1 DVD debut later this year.
Directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin (The French Connection) from his own screenplay adaptation of Gerald Walker’s novel, the film has as its magnetic centerpiece Academy Award-winner Al Pacino’s (Scent of a Woman) performance as an undercover cop who infiltrates New York City’s leather bar scene, and whose identity and relationships are hauntingly affected by his assignment.
Mr. Friedkin has personally supervised the creation of an all new high-definition master and new 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track for the release with new director commentary. Also included are eminent documentarian Laurent Bouzerou’s two new featurettes containing interviews with actors and filmmakers who provide thorough perspective on the incidents surrounding the production. In addition to Friedkin and producer Jerry Weintraub (Oceans 11 series, Diner The Firm), participants include editor Bud Smith (The Exorcist, Flashdance, Ladder 49) , actors Don Scardino (now a top TV director) and James Remar (48 Hours, TV’s Sex in the City) and real-life cops Randy Jurgensen and Sonny Grosso.
Features include:
Commentary by Director William Friedkin
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
2 New Featurettes: The History of Cruising and Exorcising Cruising
Original Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Español
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Cruising (Deluxe Edition) on 18th September 2007 priced at $19.97 SRP. William Friedkin’s murder thriller that is set against the gay S & M subculture of the late ‘70s and prompted widespread community protests when it opened in 1980 makes its long-awaited Region 1 DVD debut later this year.
Directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin (The French Connection) from his own screenplay adaptation of Gerald Walker’s novel, the film has as its magnetic centerpiece Academy Award-winner Al Pacino’s (Scent of a Woman) performance as an undercover cop who infiltrates New York City’s leather bar scene, and whose identity and relationships are hauntingly affected by his assignment.
Mr. Friedkin has personally supervised the creation of an all new high-definition master and new 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track for the release with new director commentary. Also included are eminent documentarian Laurent Bouzerou’s two new featurettes containing interviews with actors and filmmakers who provide thorough perspective on the incidents surrounding the production. In addition to Friedkin and producer Jerry Weintraub (Oceans 11 series, Diner The Firm), participants include editor Bud Smith (The Exorcist, Flashdance, Ladder 49) , actors Don Scardino (now a top TV director) and James Remar (48 Hours, TV’s Sex in the City) and real-life cops Randy Jurgensen and Sonny Grosso.
Features include:
Commentary by Director William Friedkin
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
2 New Featurettes: The History of Cruising and Exorcising Cruising
Original Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Español
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
06-18-07, 08:55 AM
#47
Moderator
Originally Posted by Geofferson
I don't see it mentioned, but I assume this'll be the director's cut that premiered at Cannes.
now let's see if WB can dig it's head out of it's ass and give us the full uncut version of The Devils fans like myself have been salivating for!!!!
06-18-07, 09:35 AM
#48
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Well now that Cruising is actually being released and given SE treatment (I still can't believe it), now how about Sorcerer?
I'm not surprised Pacino hasn't participated in special features. It seems he wants it to be erased from his filmography.
I'm not surprised Pacino hasn't participated in special features. It seems he wants it to be erased from his filmography.
Last edited by Egon's Ghost; 06-18-07 at 09:46 AM.
06-18-07, 09:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Egon's Ghost
Well now that Cruising is actually being released and given SE treatment (I still can't believe it), now how about Sorcerer?
