When this movie came out i remember seeing a downloaded version of it and sort of liking it.
I recently re-watched it on tv and it was completely different! The ending was different. several scenes where missing. I realized the one I saw earlier must have been the original before reshoots...
I'd love to see the original again....
Has anybody else here seen the other version?
Yes I have, back in the summer of 2004 I was on holiday in Scotland, we had to catch a plane from Glasgow airport to the island we were staying at, at the VUE cinema in Glasgow City Centre they had the poster up in it's big curved windows, it looked fantastic to my eyes, I would have rather gone to see that then go on holiday, well anyway, I had the bootleg copy downloading back at home, back then my download speeds were rubbish as I was still on a dial up connection, when I returned from a two week holiday it had not long finished downloading, it finished about two days before we returned (I had set endless other things to download as well which is why it took so long). I had heard a lot about the problems on set and how the international(UK) trailers were selling the film better than the domestic(US) ones, which I myself agreed with. Here is the international trailer which I think does a better job: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqln29_the-stepford-wives-full_shortf ilmsThe international adverts made no lie about the women being robots to it's detreatment as there not in the film, however, the domestic trailers hid that fact, which for the film as it is was a better thing to do, however I still prefer the advert we got which sells the bootleg copy I had and prefer better than the domestic trailer. Obviously the international trailers heavily featured the robotics which were removed from the film in favour of the microchips, which will have made the plot even more nonsensical to international audiences who expected robots but got microchips, for example Faith Hill still shoots sparks despite not being a robot by the end. Obviously the twist of having robots in the film would have been no surprise to many who had seen the original or read the book, which made me question what the test audiences thought a Stepford wife was because apparently they are to blame for the version we got in cinemas and that I subsequently bought on DVD.
I enjoyed the bootleg copy enough to purchase the DVD and was shocked to see a different film. If you have not seen the legitimate DVD I can assure you that it is the TV/cinema version, however it does include some of the deleted scenes that were in the bootleg but not all of them. For example it has the Bobby malfunction scene in full and further to this it is also slightly extended as the bootleg copy doesn't feature her arm turning into a hover to suck up the dust bunnies as it does on the DVD. What is missing from the DVD is the alternate opening with all the women walking around New York in suits, that scene is what opens the bootleg copy I got off pirate bay I believe. There are other scenes on it as well however my memory fails me as to whether they were in the bootleg or not. I also can't remember if there are any scenes other than the opening scenes that are in the bootleg but not the DVD/cinema release.
If you are looking for a copy check pirate bay look for a telecine copy as all the DVD rips will be just that in other words useless.
I have a feeling this will get a reboot as a TV series, probably just called Stepford.
There comes a time to put away childhood things. But some things just won't stay put!