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Films that were released unfinished

matrixgrindhouse said:
I still think TROS is fine, but could do with an extended cut to let things breathe better.  Back on topic...

Bruce Lee's Game of Death.  He had filmed about 30-40 minutes to serve as the movie's climax before his untimely passing.  The version released in 1978, directed by Robert Clouse, has absolutely nothing to do with Lee's original vision of the plot or philosophy.  And it only uses about ten minutes of the original footage, rendering the entire endeavor pointless.  The unabridged Lee footage is available in a number of formats today, but as far as I'm aware no effort has been made to actually complete the project as scripted.


Jackie Chan had filmed some amount of Fearless Hyena Part II (not a made up title, I swear) before cutting ties with the production company in favor of a more profitable venture with Golden Harvest.  In his autobiography, Chan alleges that his former employer, Lo Wei, orchestrated his abduction by Triads, and was forced to film more scenes more or less at gunpoint.  He was eventually able to flee Hong Kong until the matter could be resolved, and the movie was released, padded to feature length with outtakes from Part I, and body doubles.  It is unlikely this would have corresponded to the original vision, if there even was one.
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There was a documentary that partially created part of Lee's original script. I found part of it here: 

Never knew about the Fearless Hyena films, thanks for sharing it!
 
Okay, so I read an interview , that Game of Death Redux that's on the criterion set is edited as a 40 minute short film, and it apparently manages to have a 3 act structure, I don't know. But now I've gone down the rabbit hole of reading about Game of Death, it's crazy. Apparently the 78 version uses actual footage of Bruce Lee's funeral (or a memorial thing according to YouTube comments), and shows his actual corpse, I can't believe that they got away with that. And apparently there's a Game of Death II? And I had no idea about Bruceploitation genre of movies starring fake Bruce Lee's, which included several knockoffs of Game of Death made before the 78 film just based on the original story after Lee's death. This is all so fascinating, I definitely need to check out some of these documentaries.
 
jrWHAG42 said:
Okay, so I read an interview , that Game of Death Redux that's on the criterion set is edited as a 40 minute short film, and it apparently manages to have a 3 act structure, I don't know. But now I've gone down the rabbit hole of reading about Game of Death, it's crazy. Apparently the 78 version uses actual footage of Bruce Lee's funeral (or a memorial thing according to YouTube comments), and shows his actual corpse, I can't believe that they got away with that. And apparently there's a Game of Death II? And I had no idea about Bruceploitation genre of movies starring fake Bruce Lee's, which included several knockoffs of Game of Death made before the 78 film just based on the original story after Lee's death. This is all so fascinating, I definitely need to check out some of these documentaries.
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Somebody could probably reconstruct Lee's original vision for Game of Death by using some of the Bruceploitation films and some dubbing/new subtitles for dialouge.

As far as I can tell, Game of Death Redux is just a different version of the original footage shot of Lee for Game of Death before he died. The other 2 being the edit for a documentary (
) and the other being for a DVD release for the 78 version Game of Death (
).

If I were Golden Harvest back in the 70's, I would have just used Lee's original story but cut it down (only have 3 floor and 3 fighters as opposed to the 5 planned), and used body doubles to go finish the film.

Game of Death has so much fanediitng potential due to all the different versions, and with deepfaking becoming more advanced, maybe somebody can finally recreate Game of Death as it was originally planned.
 
jrWHAG42 said:
According to Wikipedia, in 2019 there was a reedited version of Game of Death...Very interesting how they only used the original footage that was shot, it couldn't possibly be edited to tell a coherent plot with so much unfilmed, could it? I'm very curious to look more into this, and the history of Game of Death in general I suppose.
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Almost everything he filmed was from the ending third, so it's coherent in that sense. Bruce had envisioned a pagoda with a different test at each level. The Jungian warrior would have to defeat an opponent at their own game on each of five levels. He filmed 3 of them if I remember correctly. One is a very traditional fighter, another uses weapons, and the third is another of Lee's irl students: Kareem Abdul Jabar. There's speculation about who would've been on each level and what order they would've been in. Reportedly, Lee talked to Hwang In-shik about being one, but he ended up using him in Way of the Dragon instead. Supposedly he also wanted another of his students, Taky Kimura, to fight using the locks and grapples of Praying Mantis Kung Fu.

Most people assume Jabar would've been the last fighter, but I read Bruce musing on it and he was far from certain. He felt the last fighter should be symbolic of a warrior conquering his greatest opponent: himself. He was still trying to figure out the best way to show that, and hadn't figured out what would happen after the warrior defeated all opponents and entered the final room (enlightenment).

Anyway, you can see the 3 fights in a row (and much more) in the documentary I recommended: A Warrior's Journey. I just found out that it apparently was released as a 2nd disc bonus on the 2004 DVD of Enter the Dragon.
 
wilhelm scream said:
Game of Death has so much fanediitng potential due to all the different versions, and with deepfaking becoming more advanced, maybe somebody can finally recreate Game of Death as it was originally planned.
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There was a thread where somebody was going to try a fanedit back in the day, and even got the various DVD releases that came out in Singapore, China, the UK, etc. (They have different endings and some different scenes). They gave up. That film is just godawful. I mean, the guys' frames look very little like Lee, and nobody even moves close to like him. They literally use a cardboard cutout of Lee's face pasted over a body at one point. It's an abomination.

The script is also completely different than Bruce's idea, which was heavily based on his martial arts philosophy (he had a degree in Philosophy from the University of Washington). You'd have to get someone to try to imitate and expand on his ideas, like writing Conan The Barbarian stories after Robert E. Howard died. It'd be pure speculation if the end result was what Bruce would've liked.

What we've gotten instead is other movies stealing Bruce's iconic presentation, though they usually miss the significance of why he did it. From Kill Bill to The Raid to John Wick 3, lots of directors have tried to use Bruce's ideas. Sorry to write so much on the Lee legacy, it's just pretty personal to me. I literally have Bruce Lee quotes tattooed on my body. lol
 
mnkykungfu said:
wilhelm scream said:
Game of Death has so much fanediitng potential due to all the different versions, and with deepfaking becoming more advanced, maybe somebody can finally recreate Game of Death as it was originally planned.
Click to expand...

There was a thread where somebody was going to try a fanedit back in the day, and even got the various DVD releases that came out in Singapore, China, the UK, etc. (They have different endings and some different scenes). They gave up. That film is just godawful. I mean, the guys' frames look very little like Lee, and nobody even moves close to like him. They literally use a cardboard cutout of Lee's face pasted over a body at one point. It's an abomination.

The script is also completely different than Bruce's idea, which was heavily based on his martial arts philosophy (he had a degree in Philosophy from the University of Washington). You'd have to get someone to try to imitate and expand on his ideas, like writing Conan The Barbarian stories after Robert E. Howard died. It'd be pure speculation if the end result was what Bruce would've liked.

What we've gotten instead is other movies stealing Bruce's iconic presentation, though they usually miss the significance of why he did it. From Kill Bill to The Raid to John Wick 3, lots of directors have tried to use Bruce's ideas. Sorry to write so much on the Lee legacy, it's just pretty personal to me. I literally have Bruce Lee quotes tattooed on my body. lol
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I think Game of Death 78 could be made into a entertaining movie, apparently somebody already did it called game of death: integral, although I have had no luck in finding it.
 
I can't believe Joe Dante's Explorers hasn't been mentioned once this entire thread.

... Nor Event Horizon either? Jeeze!
 
I found out that Oliver Stone had to rush out his cut of Any Given Sunday. That's why his "Director's Cut" DVD isn't just added scenes, but actually a reworking and re-editing of the film. He didn't have the time to actually get it where he wanted before release.
 
Moe_Syzlak said:
Rise of Skywalker belongs in the “Movies that were released after listening to the fans” thread.
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If they actually listened to the fans, they wouldn't have brought back Palpatine.............

Sinbad said:
Highlander 2 : The Quickening was shut down when it ran into finance issues with much of it still to film. The Director was forced to cobble together a cut from what was completed and by God is it wonderfully awful! He managed to raise a few million three years later to try and salvage the movie recalling some of the cast to film extra scenes. The Renegade Cut. Still bloody awful.
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Later on, he even started work on a HD version with new effects but that had to be released unfinished because the studio behind it went bankrupt 3/4 during the making of it. Which is why the Blu-Ray is missing scenes in the Renegade cut.
 
Editzilla said:
If they actually listened to the fans, they wouldn't have brought back Palpatine.............
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If they actually listened to the fans they would have not did what they did with all 3 movies of The Kathleen Kennedy Trilogy & Jake Skywalker
 
Every MCU film......they have to tack on those credit scenes because they haven't made the whole thing yet......😉😅🤣
 
Editzilla said:
If they actually listened to the fans, they wouldn't have brought back Palpatine.............
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If The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker were medical procedures:
"Oh, uh, hey there, doc? It looks like you've cut off my hand? I really wish you wouldn't have done that..."
-"Oh, you didn't like that I did that? Huh, well, I guess I can try to...uh...put it back on? Somehow..."
Some things you just can't unf***.
 
Well the analogy doesn't work well here. Luke got his hand cut off and it worked out right? ROTJ wasn't that bad :p
 
mnkykungfu said:
If The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker were medical procedures:
"Oh, uh, hey there, doc? It looks like you've cut off my hand? I really wish you wouldn't have done that..."
-"Oh, you didn't like that I did that? Huh, well, I guess I can try to...uh...put it back on? Somehow..."
Some things you just can't unf***.
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DigModiFicaTion said:
Well the analogy doesn't work well here. Luke got his hand cut off and it worked out right? ROTJ wasn't that bad :p
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I think the analogy works quite well as the hand getting cut off (ESB & TLJ) were easily the best (if flawed) entries in their respective trilogies. But only one trilogy was made in committee with the fans.
 
I'm pretty sure the 2018 Gotti film was released unfinished (considering how messy the struture is and all the archival news footage they use)
 
Moe_Syzlak said:
But only one trilogy was made in committee with the fans.
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Not to let this derail into a Star Wars fight, but this is patently false. Lucas has always paid attention to what the fans are saying, and pivoted between films. You can see him discuss it in literally 100s of interviews from '77 throughout. He always talks about trying to be attuned to what people are responding to but also putting in things to surprise them and stay true to the story you want to tell. A quick example is when N-Sync was outfitted as extras for the Prequel Trilogy, but after massive fan outcry, you never saw a whisper of them. Lucas' kids were huge fans so he thought it'd be fun, but settled for other cameos instead.

Anyway,... Lucas is famously quoted as saying "Films are never finished...they are only abandoned." Food for thought on this thread.
But actually one film that was both abandoned and finished is The Two Jakes. Robert Towne directed this Chinatown sequel from his own script, but was constantly arguing with producer/co-star Robert Evans about the direction of the film. Evans kept delaying the start date for shooting, from 4 days out to a week to more. Turns out he wasn't paying the crew and was sabotaging Towne, so everyone eventually walked. He re-assembled the production with some new crew and Nicholson directing instead...and it flopped. Maybe if Towne had gotten a chance to finish his version... But what can you do, Jake? It's....
 
Kill Bill 1 & 2, it was meant to be a single movie but had a runtime of over 4 hours!
 
Heaven's Gate (A minor obsession with me).
Released/premiered unfinished, hated by everyone, withdrawn by the director, recut by him from scratch, released again, flopped/ignored, then forgotten. Decades later Criterion remastered the first unfinished version which the director now claimed was the finished version. The recut/finished version later got remastered too, if you can find it on a bonus disc on one German blu-ray release. Steven Soderbergh did a fanedit of it too.
 
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