Internet movie boards are rife with speculation about Warner’s apparent decision to release only a Director’s Cut of Oliver Stone’s Alexander here in the U.S. on August 2nd while international versions will include the theatrical release.
Why the brouhaha? The Director’s Cut is rumored to be eight minutes shorter than the theatrical version. According to some reports, the Theatrical Cut runtime is listed at 175 minutes while the Director’s Cut runtime (usually plumped by extra scenes we didn’t get to see) is listed at 167 minutes. Speculation is rife that the studio has further omitted portions of the gay storyline in order to attract more red state consumers.
So how much footage would have to be cut to eliminate scenes with gay-oriented content already in the film? Only about eight minutes.