'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Blu-ray: Early Details on Deleted Scenes
There's no word yet on when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital HD. The movie is still too busy trying to break the "Avatar" record around the globe. But when the Blu-ray is released, there will be about 10-20 minutes of new scenes for fans to enjoy.
Back in December, before the movie even came out, Collider talked to director J.J. Abrams about his original first cut, which was about 2 hours, 35 minutes. He said there were around a dozen full scenes they deleted and, at the time, he figured "quite a few of them" would make the Blu-ray.
Collider just updated in January to share a new interview with Neal Scanlon (CFX & SMUFX Creative Supervisor), Chris Corbould (SFX Supervisor), Roger Guyett (VFX Supervisor ILM), and Patrick Tubach (VFX Supervisor ILM). They talked a bit about deleted scenes, including this exchange with details on a cut Maz Kanata scene:
Collider: A lot of people have been talking, and J.J. talked over the weekend, about deleted scenes from the movie. I guess the Blu-ray, I think he told me, would have 10 or 20 minutes of added scenes. I'm curious for both of you, have you seen a lot of the deleted scenes? Do you remember a lot of stuff? Were you sad to see something go?
CHRIS CORBOULD: There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they're going into the underground passageways, and stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling.
From my point of view, [that] worked absolutely brilliantly because you had all the main actors running up and then Maz does her bit and then the whole ceiling collapses in front of them, but that never made it. That was a shot I was quite proud of, actually, it worked really, really well."
Since he didn't specifically confirm that scene will definitely be on the Blu-ray, for now, we should play it safe and consider that a deleted scene that will probably beon disc. Official confirmation will have to wait for the eventual announcement with the release date and special features.
In terms of other things left out of "The Force Awakens," Roger Guyett told Collider there was more of a snowspeeder chase. Patrick Tubach added, "There was a little bit more with the Rathtars going on, just a little bit more of that chase moment going through the hallways and everything. There were some cool stunts and some cool individual shots in there that just didn't make it for one reason or another, and I think it all had to do with the pacing." Collider said we can expect more scenes like that -- parts of action scenes, additional "aerial dogfights," etc.
An official list of bonus features will surely spell out all of the goodies in great detail -- including, we hope, commentary tracks and behind-the-scenes featurettes.
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