The tug-of-war over the ‘Snyder cut’ of Justice League between fans and Warner Bros. has shone a spotlight on the fraught relationship between studios and filmmakers. This kind of dynamic is not a new thing but has always existed in Hollywood. In an interview, Darkman producer Rob Tapert recalls how Sam Raimi and his crew had to resort to underhanded means to make sure their vision for the 1990 superhero movie was what audiences got to see in theaters rather than a studio-mandated cut.
“Universal sent us away. We came back, and the editor had cut [the film] down from two hours to 85 minutes. We tested that, and it did not test as well as the longer version, which was Sam’s cut. I think we went through four or five more test screenings, and each time the score got lower and lower, and we got more depressed.”
“I don’t mind saying this now, and Sam will probably be unhappy, but the studio said, ‘There is nothing we can do to save this picture. Let’s lock it.’ So we locked the picture on Friday night at 5 p.m. We were incredibly disheartened and dispirited. And Sam’s present editor, a guy by the name of Bob Murawski, said, ‘There is a much better movie than what we are locking right now.’ So, the decision was made that we would re-edit the movie. We spent 48 hours basically recutting the entire movie, restoring things we thought were important. We added nine minutes back in, things we really liked that the preview audiences would recoil from, but that was what it was meant to do. We locked it – and didn’t tell anybody.”
Darkman was the first foray into the world of superhero movies for Sam Raimi, a decade before the filmmaker brought his iconic vision for a live-action Spider-Man onto the big screen. Back then, Raimi was known as the wunderkind who had made Evil Dead, and for Darkman, he leaned heavily into his horror sensibilities.
The resulting movie was considered too dark for general audiences by the studio, which tried to course-correct by editing out major portions of the movie, until, as Tapert recalls, Raimi and Co. sneaked back and added in those elements once again, which ultimately ended up saving the movie, even if Raimi himself was unhappy with the extent he had to go to in order to preserve his vision for the film.
“Universal came to watch it after the mix, and there was this giant outcry, but there was nothing to be done. The negative had been cut. Critic screenings were 48 hours later. Bob and I advocated very strongly for the deception. Sam, left to his own, probably would not have done that. He is not that kind of guy. But I am.”
The final cut of Darkman was a success at the box-office, and met with generally positive reviews, becoming known in the following years as a cult classic of the genre. Amusingly, for the project to succeed, Raimi ultimately had to follow in the footsteps of the rebellious anti-hero whose story he was telling through the film. The Hollywood Reporter.
