I’m not a fan of Ridley Scott’s “1492,” which was a dramatically inert historical piece starring Gérard Depardieu as Christopher Columbus. The film, released in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the America, clocked in at 154 minutes, but a ton of footage was left on the cutting room floor.
Scott tells THR that although he’s “proud” of the film, but that he doesn’t believe his true vision was shown onscreen, so much so that he’s currently working on a 4-hour director’s cut that would re-record Depardieu’s lines.
I also worked with Vangelis again on a film I’m very proud of, 1492, with Gérard Depardieu. The problem with Gérard is he doesn’t speak very good English, and I didn’t have the heart to say, “Gérard we need to [re-record all your lines].” I’m trying to resurrect 1492 because it’s so beautifully shot and acted and scored. I’m trying to resurrect it as a four-hour [movie] for a streaming platform. Now if I asked, “Gérard, can we ADR you with Kenneth Branagh?” he’d probably say, “Yeah, of course.
“1492” was met with negative reviews upon release, and currently holds a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. The thought of Scott adding 90 extra minutes to the film, and redubbing Depardieu’s dialogue is certainly intriguing, to say the least. Over the years, Scott improved some of his films with director’s cuts, especially “Blade Runner” and “Kingdom of Heaven.”