Late last week, Midsommar director Ari Aster took to reddit to conduct an AMA where he revealed a lengthy battle with the MPAA and the promise of an extended cut that could top three hours in length.
Movieweb caught up with the filmmaker who clarified what we can expect from the longer edit, which may or may not have its own festival premiere.
“The first cut of the movie was about 3 hours and 40 minutes. I am working on an extended cut that would be about three hours, maybe a little bit less,” said Aster.
When asked to elaborate on what we can expect to see in that larger cut, Aster didn’t go into full details but did promise, “A more nuanced picture of Harga, more rituals and more nuance for the relationship between Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor), and more by way of the thesis competition between Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Christian.”
After a six-week-long battle with the MPAA for an R-rating, I’m wondering what “more rituals” means? We’ll find out as soon as Midsommar is released on home video this fall (date TBD).
Another piece of info that came out of the reddit AMA was news that Aster was planning a “zonkey nightmare comedy.” While he wouldn’t go into further detail, he did add that, “It’s an absurdist, evil comedy.
“I’ve also referred to it as my anxiety comedy.”
Unfortunately, Aster told reddit that it may not be his next project: “It might take me a few movies before I wind back around to it, but I love horror and I’m sure I’ll be back.”
