THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT directors cut edition

The filmmakers of The Butterfly Effect have completed a director's cut of upcoming time travel film for the eventual DVD release. According to directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, New Line Cinema allowed the filmmakers to go for a darker and more controversial ending for a possible DVD release.

"At least they allowed us to shoot our ending, because we knew [the subject was debated] back and forth," Gruber said. "That was one of the problems over the years. Everyone thought the ending was amazing, but they didn't know for a mass release how audiences would fare with that. The differences between the director's cut and the theatrical cut were not the results of test audiences' comments. In fact, the DVD would be the first time the director's cut has ever been screened at all. "It really has not been tested in front of an audience," Bress said. "We were in such a time crunch to finish the real movie and not be too concerned about these extra scenes, we really just didn't have that opportunity, and things were pretty much locked [for the theatrical cut]."