One of the cool thing about seeing a movie at a film festival like TIFF, is that sometimes the films are not quite complete when they are screened for the first time. Case in point, this year’s opening film at TIFF, Outlaw King.
Outlaw King tells the true story of Robert the Bruce, who becomes an outlaw hero during the occupation of Scotland by Edward I of England, and it stars Chris Pine in the title role. After the film made it’s debut and people started talking about it, the one thing in common in the discussions was that it was a bit too long. Even though the film was only 137 minutes in length, which is not that long in comparison to many epic films, critics and film-goers thought the movie crawled along to the final battle scene.
In order to help speed the film up, director David Mackenzie apparently cut 20 minutes from the film. He told Deadline that “I could feel what the audience was like in the theater. I’m sensitive to the way they felt.” He went on to say that the cut “was entirely my decision.”
Outlaw King is set to premiere on Netflix on November 9th, the same day it will start a limited run in theatres.
By: Roderick Thedorff
