Calling All Fans! An Ideal Extended Cut

[Serum]

Our major advantage over movies like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and the original 1973 The Wicker Man is, oddly enough, time. The amount of time that passed before they pieced back those movies is each over three decades, we've only been missing our footage for two-- a one decade difference doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a good number especially if you throw the technological advancements made between 1973 and 1993 into the mix.

If the footage exists (which, as you all know I firmly believe it does) then it's most likely a matter of cleaning it up, remastering the picture and sound and reinserting it into the initial edit that was discussed in an interview on the site some time ago. I highly doubt anyone would just throw it away, even if they didn't know what was in the canisters, they'd either keep it or sell it to someone for profit who now is in knowing or unknowing possession of it.

[KoopaBro64]

From the interviews it sounds like an extended cut does exist somewhere, or rather did at some point. There's a lot of movies around that are infamous for lost footage, like the removed 30 minutes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've heard many stories of studios that dispose of excess scenes, and Mario could be a victim to this, but I'm not quite sure.

I suppose recovering the deleted footage would all depend on tracking down the original cut of the film from Allied Filmmakers. One of their animated films, "The Thief and the Cobbler" was released on DVD along with a completely different cut as a special feature. This possibly raises the chance of them preserving an extended cut of Super Mario Bros.. If anything, I think the extended devo chamber scene could be restored since it did make it into many theatrical prints of the film.
I believe if there was any time to track down the fabled extended cut, it would be now for the blu-ray release, but I wouldn't get too anticipated for anything substantial.

[Serum]

Who was it that insisted the "Producer's Cut" of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers would never be seen?

Well, it's being released on Blu-Ray on September 23rd.

I'd say we're getting closer and closer, if even only by millimeters to people discovering the rest of the missing footage from Super Mario Bros.!

[Serum]

Okay, I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record but 2014 is proving to be a good year for restored footage from old movies and I can't keep stressing this enough.

First the powers that be discovered most of if not all of the missing footage from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, then they restored the 1973 classic The Wicker Man to its original cut and as announced recently the never before seen "Producer's Cut" of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is being released in its entirety on Blu-Ray, something another user on here (forgive me, I honestly forget who it was) said would never happen because it "couldn't" happen because it was highly debated whether or not the "Producer's Cut" even existed. Well, apparently, it does and we'll be seeing it on Blu-Ray before the end of the year.

But now, now, here's the big one-- well, second-biggest. This is second only to Super Mario Bros. being restored to the two and a quarter hour cut it was supposedly intended to be released under. On September 30 the 269 minute cut of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America will be released for the first time on Blu-Ray along with, as a special feature on the second disc, the much reviled and hated, but seen only once in a lifetime so-far 136 minute "theatrical cut" of the film will also be presented-- that version hasn't been seen since the film's dismal theatrical run thirty years ago.

Once Upon a Time in America is the notorious final film of famed 'spaghetti Western' director of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Sergio Leone. It stars Robert DeNiro and James Woods (filling in for a role written for the late John Belushi) as well as a young Jennifer Connelly and details in a non-linear sequence the lives of Jewish gangsters in Manhattan during the prohibition of the 1930s, their coming of age years in the 1910s and their twilight years in the 1970s told in a magnificent mosaic of out of order and yet somehow orderly narrative. It's based on the novel The Hoods by Harry Gray, which is the autobiography of the real life character who Robert DeNiro portrays in the film.

I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but from what I can tell you Martin Scorcese is behind this brilliant restoration. For many years the only version anyone's seen is the 229 minute cut of the film, which right now is considered the 'most complete.' Despite the fact that Leone shot enough footage to make three four hour movies, his initial cut of the film was 269 minutes-- the runtime listed on Amazon, as confirmed by Warner Brothers. A few years ago a 251 minute cut was released on Blu-Ray in Italy only and was played for a select few at the Cannes Film Festival but Scorcese mysteriously pulled it saying 'more work needed to be done.'

It would seem he's completed his mission, one that for thirty years people have been saying was a fruitless, impossible endeavor that couldn't happen. But he did it, he searched high and low and he found every remaining second of the original cut of this massive film and has restored it to be seen the way Leone intended it to be seen. Four and a half hours, with an intermission. This is amazing, and frankly a little obsessive on his part, but it seems his efforts paid off.

So, that leaves me to continue begging the question: If all these films with 'impossibly lost' footage can't get a restoration because their lost footage is 'destroyed beyond repair,' but then suddenly they get repaired and debut on Blu-Ray, why can't the same be done with Super Mario Bros.?

It's pretty clear to me that nobody in the film industry throws anything out-- so now it's only a matter of locating this supposedly "lost, destroyed or damaged" footage and restoring it and piecing it back together because frankly, if Scorcese, one of the most revered directors in the world can get all his horses and all of his men and put Once Upon a Time in America back together again after thirty years then it should be a breeze, and I mean a walk in the park-- for a ragtime misfit team of fans like us to get some professional at Buena Vista to "locate" the "lost" footage and "restore" it and re-release it.

Serum has spoken. So shall it be done.

[KoopaBro64]

I never noticed that so many extended cuts were being uncovered this year. You make a good point, Serum. I definitely have my high hopes and wishes for a Super Mario Brothers director's cut, especially since It's evident the final cut is not what Rocky nor Annabel had in mind.

Actually, I recently re-watched the theatrical trailer, and noticed small little clips that had never caught my eye before. Such scenes like Mario rushing around a corner in Koopa's tower while dodging flames. We've uncovered so much information over the years on deleted scenes, but it's obvious so many little things never even made past the editing stages.

All of your points and more make me anticipate Second Sight's release. I doubt this release will ensure the alleged director's cut (but I'm crossing my fingers for any deleted scenes!). If anyone has that footage, it's Disney. If anything, I'm certain Rocky and Annabel will enlighten us on their intended direction for the film and what had to be cut due to disagreements among other reasons, and I'll be more than happy with that. Though I'll still keep my fingers crossed.

[Serum]

It's all coming together.

I mean, come on. If they can restore Once Upon a Time in America to its entirety after three decades, then not only is Super Mario Bros. restorable, but it's guaranteed that the footage in question is safely tucked away somewhere. People keep saying it's with Disney, which, while may be true in a sense, I would think that if the footage we're seeking is in America, it'd be at one of Buena Vista's (formerly known as Hollywood Pictures) offices or warehouses. This is all a whole lot simpler than we're making it out to be.

If we stop acting like we're dealing with trying to translate the Voynich Manuscript or trying to decode the Zodiac Killer's final 340 character cipher then we could come to the most logical and obviously truest conclusion that not only does the cut/footage exist, but it's in fine shape and it's hidden somewhere safely, probably a steel filing cabinet in the back of someone's lonely branch office who's sitting there right now, sipping a styrofoam cup of coffee from Starbucks, reading a hopelessly out of date magazine and waiting for somebody to call him on the phone about something business related.

And this is business related.

[Serum]

I was looking at some Blu-Rays I bought last year from Shout! Factory (a would-be ideal American Blu-Ray distributor if the Mouse didn't have its mits on our movie) and one was a movie called From Beyond, a venereal horror flick by Stuart Gordon from the mid 80s and there was a special feature on there about how they put the director's cut back together from heavily damaged "lifts" that were found in boxes of film canisters and on tapes at a studio and in the editor's house and the digital restoration team took these deleted scenes that were so awful-looking and seamlessly put them back into the movie as they were before they were cut by the MPAA for graphic content. I cannot see where the old footage ends and the new footage ends.

I'm making it my life's mission to see the 135 minute cut spoke of by the editor in that interview. I might be chasing shadows but at least I'm doing it for something I love, but I still hold firm that the footage exists and is restorable to seamless transition. If I have to go to Bob Iger himself and buy the rights to the film from him out of my own pocket I will. All I need is information. I already have one other person who's more than able to assist with this charismatic operation and I'm not going to stop looking or give up hope because I still have dreams that I'm seeing the movie as a whole. Like I said, the extended cut of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America came out on Blu-Ray recently and that movie's from nine years before Super Mario Bros., so we have more than enough to hope for.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I was looking at some Blu-Rays I bought last year from Shout! Factory (a would-be ideal American Blu-Ray distributor if the Mouse didn't have its mits on our movie)

Disney being involved needn't preclude it from being released by Shout; they've released stuff from Nick, Warner Bros., and even Marvel, which is owned by Disney.

If Disney has no plans of their own, they could be willing to license.

[Serum]

I was looking at some Blu-Rays I bought last year from Shout! Factory (a would-be ideal American Blu-Ray distributor if the Mouse didn't have its mits on our movie)

Disney being involved needn't preclude it from being released by Shout; they've released stuff from Nick, Warner Bros., and even Marvel, which is owned by Disney.

If Disney has no plans of their own, they could be willing to license.

That's true, but the Mouse is two-faced. One side of the coin is kind, giving and friendly, whereas the other side is cruel, cold and calculating. We're not the Libertarian Party here, we don't have to get up at a podium every year and say "This is our year!" when we know it isn't. We have a choice and my choice is to see the greatest movie ever made restored to its utmost glory-- a task that is far simpler than we're making it out to be.

Now, I've contacted Shout! Factory about getting my second favorite movie (the movie that's second only to Super Mario Bros. in my book) The Lawnmower Man, starring Jeff Fahey and Pierce Brosnan, a director's cut on Blu-Ray, as the director's cut of that movie is "widely" available on VHS and LaserDisc, unfortunately those are both obsolete formats and Shout! Factory said there was no chance due to Warner Bros. owning all the rights to The Lawnmower Man, which is what discourages me from inquiring them about an extended cut of Super Mario Bros., however, that won't bar me from doing so in the future, as like you said they've released stuff licensed by Disney in the past.

This isn't exactly a tall order, it's just an odd request.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Indeed. Also, unless Second Sight is some division of Disney, that could work in its favor as well. At the very least, they should maybe talk about the prospect, as SS has done the DVD/Blu-ray, so they apparently know how to deal with the Mouse.