Director Sam Raimi and his editors seized creative control and recut Darkman behind Universal's back just before it was set to be screened by critics.
Director Sam Raimi recut his first major studio film, Darkman,Spider-Man Darkman
Raimi's film - adapted from a short story of his own - follows Dr. Peyton Westlake (Neeson), who is researching/developing a new type of synthetic skin that will help burn victims. Amidst his research, a merciless mobster (the late Larry Drake) hired by a corrupt developer viciously attacks Westlake, leaving him for dead in his lab. An emergency treatment saves Westlake, but not his skin, though he unexpectedly develops super-human powers that come with the side-effects of mental instability and somewhat psychotic behavior. With his newfound strength, and a relative ability to control its use, Westlake sets out to hunt down the men that caused his disfigurement. Wholly original and entirely ambitious, Darkman
According to THRDarkmanTHR
I don’t mind saying this now, and Sam will probably be unhappy, but the studio said, “There is nothing we can do to save this picture. Let’s lock it [Smith cut approved].” So we locked the picture on Friday night at 5 p.m. We were incredibly disheartened and dispirited. And Sam’s present editor, a guy by the name of Bob Murawski, said, “There is a much better movie than what we are locking right now.” So, the decision was made that we would re-edit the movie. We spent 48 hours basically recutting the entire movie, restoring things we thought were important. We added nine minutes back in, things we really liked that the preview audiences would recoil from, but that was what it was meant to do. We locked it - and didn’t tell anybody.
Universal came to watch it after the mix, and there was this giant outcry, but there was nothing to be done. The negative had been cut. Critic screenings were 48 hours later. Bob and I advocated very strongly for the deception. Sam, left to his own, probably would not have done that. He is not that kind of guy. But I am.
Additionally, Universal's former president of production, Sean Daniel, recalled that Tom Pollock, Universal Pictures chairman was "seriously f-cking furious." He remembered thinking of the move as "ballsy"as big a breach of every conceivable protocol of delivering a movie in postproduction. It was anmaneuver."
In 2022, the Raimi-directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessDarkman very well may have been his most formative filmmaking experience. Sure, his Spider-Man