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The NeverEnding Story - Hybrid Cut

ParanoidAndroid

ParanoidAndroid

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My first proper attempt at creating a FanEdit, hopefully not the last!

Using the longer original German Cut (from the 2019 restoration blu-ray) as a base, I have introduced a few elements of the more widely seen (shorter and partially rescored) International Cut to create my ideal version of Wolfgang Petersen's classic 80s fantasy.

Changes include:
  • English titles in the German Cut style
  • Choice International Cut dubbing and Giorgio Moroder music
  • Addition of a few shots unique to the International Cut
Total runtime 101 minutes, same as the German Cut and 7 minutes longer than the International Cut
 
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I believe that the German Cut opening music sets the scene better, but would not deprive the viewers of the song completely! I left it over the end credits as in the International Cut.
 
Adding back international opening is the first thing I would do in that kind of edit.
 
I made English subtitles for the German version. Let me know if you want the .srt file.
 
Cool project! One of my many ideas to do some day is a "book cut" of this film, and I was wondering if I should use the German cut as one of the sources or if comparatively few people would own a copy of it and thus would be rendered unable to watch my cut. I guess it'll depend on the reception of this one. I will definitely be watching!
 
lapis molari said:
I made English subtitles for the German version. Let me know if you want the .srt file.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, that would be great as I haven't tried extracting or creating subtitles myself yet. I'm keeping things simple for now though, but maybe I could add features like that on a later iteration.

I would like to do an alternate version that maintains the German audio and text (title sequence, shots of the book cover and Bastian's note), only issue is that my International Cut copy has no German track, not sure how I could insert pieces of Moroder music that play over dialogue.
 
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Dwight Fry said:
Cool project! One of my many ideas to do some day is a "book cut" of this film, and I was wondering if I should use the German cut as one of the sources or if comparatively few people would own a copy of it and thus would be rendered unable to watch my cut. I guess it'll depend on the reception of this one. I will definitely be watching!
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I must admit that I have not read the book, how different would such a cut be?

Yes that is an issue on my mind too, the potential limited possible viewership, but if somebody really wants to see the film at least it isn't obscenely expensive. The new restoration (dubbed in English and German) with blu-ray and 4K discs is £23 including delivery to UK on amazon.de (not sure what shipping would be to other places), even less during sales.

One can only hope, but maybe some sort of arrangement to provide the German Cut abroad will be reached to the 40th anniversary in two years time, would be nice to get a proper restoration of the International Cut too.

Thanks for the interest!
 
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ParanoidAndroid said:
I must admit that I have not read the book, how different would such a cut be?

Yes that is an issue on my mind too, the potential limited possible viewership, but if somebody really wants to see the film at least it isn't obscenely expensive. The new restoration (dubbed in English and German) with blu-ray and 4K discs is £23 including delivery to UK on amazon.de (not sure what shipping would be to other places), even less during sales.

One can only hope, but maybe some sort of arrangement to provide the German Cut abroad will be reached to the 40th anniversary in two years time, would be nice to get a proper restoration of the International Cut too.

Thanks for the interest!
Click to expand...
I highly recommend the book, it's an absolute masterpiece (I read it three times as a kid alone, though it is pretty long). The movie does stay mostly pretty faithful to it, though it only adapts the first half of the book, and as a result it feels like just a collection of adventures and Bastian's actual character arc is not developed (the second half are Bastian's adventures in Fantasia and how he becomes less and less attached to reality as a result).

So a book cut would inevitably have an open ending. The film would start exactly as Bastian enters the bookstore, and end as he is riding Falkor in Fantasia and first spots Atreyu, and over that "and that's another story". The ending with Bastian taking Falkor to the real world and taking revenge on the bullies is an absolute treason of the book, and I have no words to describe how appalled I felt at it when I first watched the movie.

Other than that, the movie would stay mostly the same, other than the removal of some odd extraneous moments (Atreyu scratching Falkor behind the ears - what was that?) and the tweaking of scenes present in the book but somewhat changed (for example, in the movie Mr. Koreander is clearly using very obvious reverse psychology to make Bastian steal the book. In the book, it's the TNS book and the TNS book alone what is tempting Bastian, and while Mr. Koreander is indeed a pretty great guy as revealed at the end, he should be antagonizing Bastian at the start and he never has any intention of letting him take the book). My edit title would likely be "The Neverending Story: Book One", though sadly there's no Book Two (the movie sequels don't help, they're nothing like the book).

I see you have already submitted this. I'll be more than happy to review it for approval if you PM me a link! :)
 
Dwight Fry said:
I highly recommend the book, it's an absolute masterpiece (I read it three times as a kid alone, though it is pretty long). The movie does stay mostly pretty faithful to it, though it only adapts the first half of the book, and as a result it feels like just a collection of adventures and Bastian's actual character arc is not developed (the second half are Bastian's adventures in Fantasia and how he becomes less and less attached to reality as a result).

So a book cut would inevitably have an open ending. The film would start exactly as Bastian enters the bookstore, and end as he is riding Falkor in Fantasia and first spots Atreyu, and over that "and that's another story". The ending with Bastian taking Falkor to the real world and taking revenge on the bullies is an absolute treason of the book, and I have no words to describe how appalled I felt at it when I first watched the movie.

Other than that, the movie would stay mostly the same, other than the removal of some odd extraneous moments (Atreyu scratching Falkor behind the ears - what was that?) and the tweaking of scenes present in the book but somewhat changed (for example, in the movie Mr. Koreander is clearly using very obvious reverse psychology to make Bastian steal the book. In the book, it's the TNS book and the TNS book alone what is tempting Bastian, and while Mr. Koreander is indeed a pretty great guy as revealed at the end, he should be antagonizing Bastian at the start and he never has any intention of letting him take the book). My edit title would likely be "The Neverending Story: Book One", though sadly there's no Book Two (the movie sequels don't help, they're nothing like the book).

I see you have already submitted this. I'll be more than happy to review it for approval if you PM me a link! :)
Click to expand...
I have no excuse not to read it now! Such a shame that a good book is only half (or third)-decently adapted, hope you don't feel as sore about the alterations nowadays.

I was wondering at what stage I would actually need to submit the video for approval, thanks!
 
ParanoidAndroid said:
I have no excuse not to read it now! Such a shame that a good book is only half (or third)-decently adapted, hope you don't feel as sore about the alterations nowadays.

I was wondering at what stage I would actually need to submit the video for approval, thanks!
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The movie did eventually grow on me, absolutely. I ended up embracing what it did right instead of staying annoyed by what it did wrong or omitted. And about every fan favorite moment, including Artax's tragic drowning in the swamp, comes straight from the book anyway. Do read it, any fan of the movie will absolutely love it!

The moment you can submit an edit for approval is as soon as you have a version you would call complete and finished. Then if further tweaks are felt to be needed, the person who reviews will let you know and, if needed, guide you through it.
 
Hello Paranoid (love the user name), this sounds like a fantastic project. Would love to be in the loop when you are ready to release it and give a review.
 
Not making a new version yet, but a couple of small fixes are being implemented. Painted over the darker outline around the top of the Ivory Tower (believe this is an artifact of the original compositing process) at 1:26:37-1:26:51; better adjusted the audio transition from DUG to TNS audio at 1:38:16 and exported at a higher bitrate for (hopefully) better image quality.

Future additions would hopefully include subtitles and a choice of audio track, a few people expressed a preference areas of the International Cut track where I chose to use the German Cut version.
 
The v3 version of this cut teased in the trailer for the more recent "The Atreyu Edit" (below) will be arriving shortly.

It will have superior image quality to previous versions, rather than outputting the final video straight from Resolve, an enormous (157 GB) interim render was exported in order to compress using the superior encoder in Handbrake. A few creative modifications have also been made, some resulting from working on The Atreyu Edit and others that I had already been pondering.

  • Added Auryn backdrop, sourced from an original theatrical trailer of the GC, so the main credits are a little more interesting. Added grain and slight gate weave to make the image seem more organic.
  • Reinstated credits that were exclusive to the German Cut (timing is now identical), three credits with the crew roles only available in German were re-created in English using cut and pasted letters.
  • Corrected Teeny Weeny voice as Atreyu rides out. A feature of the old version that bugged me was that the GC (English track) voice was present here, since I had previously swapped in the International Cut version for the scene in the eerie woods. Doing this while keeping the GC music was achieved by selectively muting channels, as well as AI audio extraction.
  • Replaced Atreyu's "Yeah!" as he's riding Falkor with fuller IC version (also done in The Atreyu Edit, thanks @Atreyu for pointing this out).
  • Added a new shot, sourced from an original theatrical trailer of the IC, of the Auryn before Falkor dives down to fetch it (thanks @Atreyu for restoring the image).
  • Borders at frame edge of first shot of the Empress and Bastian removed (thanks @Atreyu for restoring the image).
  • Tweaked the first frame of Atreyu on Falkor's back when they're at the Ivory Tower, previously replaced it with the following one to cover it being sheared horizontally.

In reference to the post above, English subtitles, based on those done by @Atreyu for The Atreyu Edit, will also be made available at some point: there will not however be two different audio tracks as these often involved different editing and I don't currently wish to expend the effort of trying to make this work. For those who want effectively an expanded version of the 94-minute International Cut, check out The Atreyu Edit!

The NeverEnding Story: The Atreyu Edit

Having released my "Hybrid Cut" last year (which happened to also be my first ever edit), some viewers expressed a desire for a version that still mixes together the 94-minute International Cut and 101-minute German Cut but includes a bit more of the IC, such as additional music composed by...
forums.fanedit.org forums.fanedit.org
 
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Updated version (v3) of the Hybrid Cut uploaded to new location, please PM if interested!
 
While this may sound like blasphemy to some I am really interested to hear this, the 1984 film only adapts the first part of the book (and not entirely faithfully) while common consensus seems to be that the less said about the sequels the better.

variety.com

‘The Neverending Story’ Getting New Film Series Adaptation From ‘Slow Horses’ Banner See-Saw (EXCLUSIVE)

'The Neverending Story' is getting a new big screen adaptation from 'Slow Horses' banner See-Saw Films and Michael Ende Productions.
variety.com variety.com

One thing I am slightly apprehensive about is how the fantastical creatures will be depicted, for me a lot of the charm of the old film is its use of puppetry and practical effects, hopefully the producers can be persuaded to resist doing everything non-human via CGI in post!
 
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