Carrie (2013) Director's Cut Petition!

[jPod]

A few days ago, DreadCentral posted an article about fans petitioning Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures to release a Director's Cut of Kimberly Peirce's film, Carrie. After some hesitation, I decided to do some research on the remake, even though I despise the theatrical cut with every inch of my body. I checked out two of the main fan-pages and I came across a number of interesting stuff. It does appear that director Kimberly Peirce did opt to make a film that was faithful to Stephen King's novel, but, unfortunately, it turns out the studio intervened with the editing of the film to "cash-in" on a Halloween release. There were numerous interviews where Kimberly Peirce and producer Kevin Misher said that the upcoming remake was going to be faithful to the Stephen King novel. The teaser trailer that was released in October 2012 was proof that the remake was going to be a lot different from its predecessor. The town destruction, that everyone was looking forward to, was actually filmed. The voices, that we heard in the teaser trailer, were actually from the courtroom scenes, known as the White Commission. I managed to get a hold of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's original screenplay, and I can safely that the original script didn't follow the same structure as the 1976 film. I will admit there were a few homages, but it was a whole new take on the story.

I've come across a number of filmmakers who've had their films tampered with by those in power. Here's what I believe happened: The original cut was all ready to go in March, then the studios looked at the release date and thought they could make more money on "Carrie" during the Halloween season. So they requested multiple re-shoots and multiple re-edits to make it more closer to Brian De Palma's film. It would explain why Lawrence D. Cohen was credited after the film was delayed — they re-shot a number of scenes from his screenplay. There was a 9 month gap between when the announcement of the new release date to the release date of the movie in October, and in those 9 months a lot of scenes would have been dropped or trimmed to fit the new running time requested by the studios. The shorter the film, the more viewing sessions the film has. The question to me is who made the call to re-cut the film and hew closer to the De Palma version: Screen Gems, or Kimberly Peirce? I'm leaning towards Screen Gems.

Apparently, this film was heavily subjected to test screenings and focus groups, with test audiences shown several versions of the prom scene. I came across an interesting conversation on one of the fan-pages, and according to someone who saw the early test screening back in December 2012, the original cut of the film was more violent. A hardcore R rating. I believe the film's brutality and gore were toned down during the editing process because of what happened in Sandy Hook. The person claimed that the audience felt a little concerned about the film and what happened in Sandy Hook. The fact that focus groups played a heavy role in the final cut tells me that Kimberly Peirce did not, and certainly not to a degree where she would be able to effectively dictate her vision of what the film ought to be. Between that and the re-shoots, this was not an auteur project, but a studio project. Interesting, huh?

The petition has been mentioned on a number of websites and blogs, so I'm actually quite surprised at the amount of attention this is getting.

http://www.enstarz.com/articles/7695...lick-video.htm

http://www.horrorsociety.com/2015/02...this-petition/

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/948...carrie-remake/

http://www.scaretissue.com/directors...o-be-released/

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/33...carrie-remake/

http://www.horrornewsnetwork.net/art...ong-for-carrie

http://thetruthinsidethelie.blogspot...e-seen-it.html

http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com....to-carrie.html

Here's the link to the petition:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/carriepetition

After reading the list of scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor, I'm actually looking forward to a Director's Cut of the film. I've attached a number of photos that I took from the fan-pages. Make sure to check them out! Thanks.

A few test audience members have come forward on IMDB.







A few cast members have come forward on Twitter.













A few behind the scenes photographs of some of the deleted scenes mentioned on the petition.

Chris confronting Carrie outside of the dress shop.

Footage of the photographs above:

Filming "Carrie" 2013 - YouTube

The electrocution scene that was described in the novel as a "crazy puppet dance".



Carrie killing the surviving students outside of the school with her telekinetic powers.

The town destruction.