Lost 'Horizon': Scream Factory seeks public's help to find unused Event Horizon footage

With the Snyder Cut of Justice League set to hit HBO Max next year, the Pandora's Box of original director edits has been opened. Presenting a filmmaker's original vision for a movie in a home-video release is nothing new, but humanity's taste for fabled or long-lost footage has grown rather insatiable over the last few years.

The latest campaign looking to re-assemble a mythical director's cut centers on Paul W.S. Anderson's Event Horizon. Scream Factory (the home horror arm of Shout Factory) is planning a 4K remaster of the movie for savvy collectors, but needs our help in tracking down certain deleted scenes.

"New extras are in progress and will be announced on a later date (August timing, and also depending on current events)," reads a Scream Factory Facebook post. "As for any much-inquired-about additional footage (in addition to what's [been] presented on prior releases), we are looking into it as best we can. We welcome any leads you may have alongside our efforts."

Check out the box art (drawn by Joel Robinson) below:

Released in 1997, Event Horizon famously mixed science fiction and horror by pitting a group of astronauts against a demonic force that emerges from a black hole. It was a critical and box office failure but has garnered a large cult following over the years, thanks in part to its indelibly gruesome imagery.

As the fan base has grown, so has the legend of Anderson's 130-minute cut that was only ever seen at an early test screening. Appalled by all the carnage on display, Paramount supposedly demanded that the director re-edit the film for time and gore. Anderson complied, whittling the runtime down to 96 minutes, but the excised footage was lost to the annals of cinematic history.

One such scene had Laurence Fishburne's character, Captain Miller, collecting a tooth (one ripped out at the root as though by a pair of pliers) in zero gravity.

"It was one of the scenes that kind of bit the dust and I was always very sorry about that," Anderson said in a 2006 making-of documentary (see below). "Did it progress the plot at all? No. And that's the reason why it came out as well because the pressure was, 'Make the film shorter, get on with it.' And it didn't progress the plot, which was the studio's reasoning for taking it out. For me, though, it was truly disturbing and it kind of informed their exploration of the Event and would have unsettled the audience even more. Although in retrospect, the audience was so unsettled anyway."

Scream Factory is hoping to release the definitive Blu-ray edition of Event Horizon on Sept. 29. That said, they're aware that due to the pandemic, anything can change between now and then. The first 500 people to place their orders will receive 18" x 24" posters with exclusive artwork.

Amazon is developing a TV series based on the movie, with Adam Wingard (Death Note, Godzilla vs. Kong) attached as director and executive producer. The original also starred Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, and Sean Pertwee.