Lost Footage To Make Its Way Onto Upcoming Blue Velvet Blu-ray

While films like Mulholland Dr. may be more well known for the provocateur known as David Lynch, it is his 1986 film, Blue Velvet, that may not only be his best, but his most beloved.

Well, the classic is set to not only get the Blu-ray treatment, but the release will also feature some footage that was previously thought to be lost to history.

The director recently spoke to iconic LA based radio station KCRW, and revealed that footage from the film’s very first rough cut will be making its way to the upcoming Blu-ray release:

You know, there is a thing called b-negative, or outtakes, or lifts, that don’t make it into the film. And in the old days, those things sat around and maybe became dangerously close to being tossed away. Then the internet comes, and people want to see deleted scenes and things like this, so those things become more and more valuable. 

So, one day I looked into seeing where the lifts were because some of these scenes on their own would be beautiful to see again. So I find out that  Dino [De Laurentiis], the producer, doesn’t know where they are.   They’ve gone.   His company went bankrupt, it was taken over by another company, and then it was sold to other companies. No one knew where they were, they were gone. So depressing. 

Lately, those have been found. Somewhere up in Seattle. It’s incredible. I’m seeing stuff I thought was gone forever. And hopefully some of those scenes (some of them aren’t worth putting back together) will end up on the new Blu Ray. We did a 5.1 a while back and it was horrible. And now Dean and I did a new one and it is so thick and beautiful. It’s the mix, but it’s 5.1 killer beauty.

Some of the footage in question here will (according to Video Watchdog and /Film) feature Kyle MacLauchlan’s character witnessing a date rape, the introduction of Laura Dern’s character, and a scene where the former’s character, our lead, watches as a woman tosses a human ear into a toilet.   You know, your normal David Lynch stuff.

Personally, while the film itself may in fact be Lynch’s masterpiece (it’s certainly his most iconic, but has lost some steam with Mulholland Dr. being talked about far more often), this extra footage will not only be a great bit of supplements to the actual film, but will in fact help the film grow in many ways.   Having the complete vision of Lynch is something really important with a film like this, and now we are getting just that.

What do you think?

Source: KCRW / Video Watchdog / /Film