Writer/director Joss Whedon was very open about the fact that AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON's initial cut was pushing 3 hours. For anyone who's seen Marvel's last flick, you could probably tell a few of the character's had some screen time chopped (Thor anyone?). Blu-ray/DVD has popularized Extended and Director's Cuts, and while a longer AGE OF ULTRON felt like an eventual given, Whedon had a few things to state that suggests the opposite.
Joss Whedon on whether or not a director's cut of ULTRON is in the works:
It has always been my ambition never to do a director’s cut of anything, and always to make the movie with the studio that we both want to make. Ultron was very complex. There was a lot of back-and-forth. My instinct is no. Just as an artist, I’m super fucking lazy and that sounds like it would be hard. I don’t think there’s interest in it, right now. You’ll see a bunch of stuff on the DVD in extras that were meant to be there. But the narrative came together very close to the way that I hoped it would, and I don’t think it needs me to constantly tweak it. I feel you put something out, and there it is. The first time I ever heard a re-mix, I was 13 and I was listening to the radio. I heard a song that had been re-mixed and it freaked me out so much that I turned off the radio and never listened to it since, literally. That is an actual truth. I felt like, “Wait, that was the song. You can’t do that.” Our entire culture consists of doing exactly that, but I’m not for it. If I tell a story, I want that to be the story I told. Ultron may have some transitions that I’m not 100% on board with. It’s also one of the most ridiculously personal things I’ve ever put on screen. The fact that Marvel gave me that opportunity and supported it, I’m very happy and very proud of everybody that worked on it. I don’t feel the need to go in and fix. I feel like, there she is.
While it's clear that there was some scenes cut from ULTRON, I don't think adding them back in is necessarily going to make the movie any better. That film has its fair share of problems outside of stuff that we didn't see. While it'd be nice to have an extended or director's cut for the fans, throwing the deleted scenes on a supplementary disc will probably suit me just fine. As far as the future is concerned, I'm curious to see what the Russo's do with the current line-up of Avengers in CIVIL WAR and AVENGERS 3! You can click here to see what else Joss Whedon had to say at this year's SDCC!
Marvel's next venture, ANT-MAN, hits theaters this Friday
Would you like to see an extended cut of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON?
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