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11. Red Dawn (2012)
The Studio Interference: The Red Dawn reboot hasn’t even been released yet, but word of vital studio-enforced changes has already reached us. When the film’s original plot – the Chinese invading America – proved too much for distributors, the execs changed the invaders to North Koreans and painstakingly replaced all Chinese symbols with Korean ones.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: Red Dawn might never have seen the light of day. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing generally depends on your feelings toward remakes, but at least now it has a fighting chance.
12. Miami Vice (2006)
The Studio Interference: Not so much interference as releasing a different cut of the movie. The theatrical version of Miami Vice opens right in the middle of an action scene. It’s terse, frantic, and pretty much dialogue-free. It’s gripping stuff.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In : In contrast, Michael Mann’s director’s cut of the film opens limply with an exposition-heavy scene that defuses all tension. It also makes the error of using ‘In The Air Tonight’ in the film’s final action scene.
13. A Life of Her Own (1950)
The Studio Interference: George Cukor’s original edit of the film ended on a depressing low, with poor old aspiring model Lily (Lana Turner) leaping to her death. The studio were adamant the film should have a happier ending, which is why the film now closes with Lily determined to struggle on alone. Which is still pretty bleak, but at least there’s no plummeting.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: We’re not sure we could’ve taken the original ending, to be honest.
14. A Perfect Getaway (2009)
The Studio Interference: The theatrical release of A Perfect Getaway is far superior in every way to director David Twohy’s director’s cut, which was later released on DVD.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: We’d have ended up with Twohy’s edit, which bafflingly inserts a scene in which topless women sunbathe on a beach, and extends the flashback scene, which all-but undoes the rug-pulling twist of the third act. Wrong.
15. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Studio Interference: The studio opted to go for director George A. Romero’s own initial cut of Dawn of the Dead, which ran at a pacy 119 minutes, instead of the more bloated 139 minute cut.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: The longer cut reinstates several scenes of exposition which add nothing whatsoever to the film except for a seriously lagging pace.
16. Lethal Weapon (1987)
The Studio Interference: In light of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s crackling chemistry, Warner Bros had its eye on a franchise, which prompted Donner to rewrite the final scene in the film as something of a sequel hook.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: The original ending had Murtaugh (Glover) expressing a desire to retire and bidding farewell to Riggs (Gibson). By no means a disaster, but the filmed ending nodded more directly to a LW2.
17. Daredevil (2003)
The Studio Interference: Difficult to ever say anything good about this comic adaptation, but the theatrical cut released by 20th Century Fox is far superior to director Mark Steven Johnson’s director’s cut. Why? Well, it all comes down to one scene. In the theatrical cut, when Daredevil and Elektra kiss on a rooftop, he ignores a boy’s cry for help to canoodle with her instead. In the director’s cut, he rushes off for a boringly predictable rescue. Dull. It's a rare example of the studio sanctioned version being darker (and funnier) than the director's version.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: We’d have Johnson’s cut instead, which lops out one of the only interesting scenes the film had to offer, and chucks in a load of family stuff that doesn’t really work.
18. Killing Them Softly (2012)
The Studio Interference: Not so much interference as a condition. After director Andrew Dominik’s first film The Assassination of Jesse James ended up running over three hours long, the Weinstein’s condition for supporting him on Killing Them Softly was that the running time be a breezy 95 minutes.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: We could’ve ended up with another three hour epic. That may not have been a bad thing, but as it is, Killing Them Softly is a punchy, electrifying experience.
19. Suspicion (1941)
The Studio Interference: Hitchcock’s original ending had Cary Grant’s Johnnie revealing that he is in fact the ruthless killer after all. However, studio RKO were concerned about tampering with Grant’s image as a hero and forced Hitch to change the ending.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: Our perception of Grant as the impervious good guy would’ve been shattered, and that’s never a good thing, right?
20. Bad Santa (2003)
The Studio Interference: Just one of many examples where the director’s cut wasn’t as good as the one released by the studio. The theatrical version of Bad Santa has Billy Bob Thornton giving a drunken opening voiceover, while the comedy is more in the foreground.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: The film would’ve been a lot darker, as shown by director Terry Zwigoff’s director’s cut. Adding in three minutes, it scraps the opening narration and plays up the tragedy. Unnecessarily, you might argue.
21. Halloween II (1981)
The Studio Interference: John Carpenter added a little juice to the Halloween sequel when producers expressed uneasiness about Rick Rosenthal’s original, mostly gore-free film. Carpenter shot some extra killing scenes, having already acquiesced to writing the film’s script when the producers insisted they’d be making a sequel with or without him.
If They Hadn’t Stepped In: Halloween II would be nowhere near as fun as it is. Sure, the added death scenes fail to further the story in any way, but they’re fun nonetheless.
