28 Days Later Gets Alternative Ending Added To Theatrical Run

[Khephra]

28 Gets Alternative End

In an unusual marketing move to pump up the buzz surrounding its horror hit 28 Days Later, Fox Searchlight will attach the film's original, downbeat ending to all 1,400 prints now playing in theaters, the Los Angeles Times reported. Although outtakes, filmmaker narration and alternative endings have become an expected part of DVD movie packages, Fox Searchlight says it is aware of no other instance in which alternative scenes were added to a film still in theatrical release, the newspaper reported.

The ending now in theaters was actually the film's original scripted ending, but was ditched by screenwriter Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle during production in favor of a darker coda, the Times reported. That grim ending was included in the first cut of the film and tested with preview audiences in theaters. But Boyle and his filmmaking team ultimately rejected the scene, set in a hospital, as simply too bleak, the newspaper reported.

more......................

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-07/17/10.00.film

[Elidor]

1. Too bleak? There's no such thing in my book.

I love it when filmmakers avoid the happy ending.