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DARKMAN (1990, Sam Raimi)

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Universal came into conflict with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert during the arduous post-production of "Darkman" (1990), which saw extensive editing and poor preview scores. Initial cuts of the movie by editor David Stiven performed poorly. Stiven was so befuddled that he wanted to cut 'Darkman' into a romance movie. He had a breakdown and one day said, “I can’t do this,” and left. Early preview screenings did not go well as audiences laughed in the wrong places and complained about a lack of a happy ending. Universal executives described the film as one of the worst-scoring pictures in the studio's history, with some preview viewers rating 'Darkman' as the "worst film" they had ever seen. Editor Bud S. Smith was brought in by the studio to salvage the film, working solo for three weeks without input from Raimi or Tapert. Smith cut "Darkman" down from 2 hours to 85 minutes, working to improve the flow of the film and cut some of the more outrageous moments, yet preview scores continued to drop. Tapert was disappointed with the studio's reluctance to include many of the "wild things" Raimi had filmed. The studio finally approved an edit of Smith's. Dispirited but still believing a much better cut could still be made, Tapert and editor Bob Murawski reedited the entire movie & included nearly 9 minutes of previously cut footage. This edit which was created without the input or approval of either Raimi or Universal, was then delivered as the final picture. Studio executives were outraged by the deception, but as the negative had already been cut and sound had been mixed, the renegade edit proceeded as scheduled to critic reviews and the final release. However, Sam Raimi liked the "brilliant" marketing campaign that the studio came up with, releasing posters in advance with a silhouette of the main character and the question, "Who is Darkman?". According to the Raimi, "the marketing made the film a money-maker." P.S: On this day, 46 years ago, "Darkman" (1990) was released in the USA and Canada.

DepressedBergman

41,540 views • 25 days ago