Guillermo Del Toro Says There Will Be No Pacific Rim Director’s Cut
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Although Pacific Rim under-performed this past weekend, taking in only $37.2 million domestically, the film is far from disappointing, as there is still a lot of buzz surrounding the film among genre fans. Guillermo del Toro’s film is epic, with a massive scale to back it up. Del Toro mercilessly edited and cut down Pacific Rim until it he was satisfied by it, so there’s no surprise that del Toro says there’s no “director’s cut” being held back for the home video release.
One of the way Guillermo del Toro cut Pacific Rim down to size was, he watched and edited the film with fellow Mexican directors Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (the upcoming Birdman, Babel). The trio rigorously edited the film until it was paced correctly, yet still had a giant punch behind it. In the end, Guillermo del Toro cut about 10 minutes out of the movie. Del Toro told Bleeding Cool, “This is my director’s cut. There will not be an extended cut right now, we’re not planning on it, but there will be deleted scenes and they were deleted for a reason.”
In addition to the deleted scenes, there were three alternative endings to Pacific Rim, which will likely accompany the film’s Blu-ray/DVD release. In an interview with Badass Digest, del Toro explained why there were many different versions of Pacific Rim‘s ending. Each of the alternate endings centered on the relationship between Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Del Toro explains:
When I was working on the movie we had three or four different versions of the relationship between Charlie and Rinko because I wanted to see if I could make a story about two people liking each other without having to end in a kiss. So when I shot the ending we shot three versions. I’ve never done this before, but instinctively I thought we should do three versions. We did one version where they kiss and it almost felt weird. They’re good friends, they’re pals, good colleagues.
In the end, Guillermo del Toro made the best possible ending for Pacific Rim. The film works better with Becket and Mako remaining close friends who went through a traumatic experience together, rather than having a romantic relationship crammed in where it didn’t belong. It’s obvious if you watch the movie that there is an attraction between the two, but it actually deepens the relationship the way it ends in the final version of the film. It’s surprisingly refreshing to see a man and a woman as just close colleagues in a major summer blockbuster, rather than an intimate couple.
Considering the film was only released this past Friday, it’s unclear when Pacific Rim will be released on Blu-ray/DVD. The science fiction film still has to open in a few more countries, which will probably increase the monster movie’s overall box office to make it more financially successful for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.
