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Serenity Deleted Scenes Commentary Transcript
You want the Commentary Transcript to the Serenity Deleted Scenes? Well we have it here! |
Extended Lilac Entrance:
Joss: "Okay, the first of our delicious DVD extras, i.e. cut scenes... is very, simply, a little River moment... that I liked. I liked framing Mal under her there. And her talking all wacky. And his reaction is priceless. We cut it of course, because after Jayne says: 'Let's be bad guys,' the scene is over it's simply over."
Extended Kaylee & Jayne Scene in the Cargo Bay:
Joss: "Okay, let's take a moment to look at this master, where he [Jayne] kicks this thing. We were shooting Summer [River] at the same time as we were shooting this because originally that master was supposed to be just looking down at the doors for the beginning of the scene where they open. And the A.D. Rich Sickler said: 'Tilt the camera up and you'll get a really pretty master.' And, in fact, he was right. He gets props for that, among many other things.
Why was the scene chopped in half? It was actually not only chopped in half but moved. I was convinced that this was the scene that was gonna get cut... and I loved Jayne's little manifesto and I loved his interaction with Kaylee... and I really wanted to keep it. But momentum-wise, I thought this is gonna be the on thing that they can cut... and get away with it. So, I chopped it in half and I moved it to a place where it leads us to Mal... instead of coming after... and that way, when it used to lead us to Inara. And that way it would feel more like flow. The more they talk about the captain before we see him the better it is."
Kaylee: "They're leavin' us."
Joss: "This was clearly the part that could come out."
Kaylee: "Just like Inara."
 Inara & Sheydra Scene at the Companion Training House:
Joss: "Here is the flashback that shows Inara... that leads, in this original version to the introduction of actual Inara instead of just flashback Inara. Oh, the lessons learnt here!
The colour, by the way, is gonna seem a little weird because it hasn't really been colour-timed... and so the girls who are in the sunset don't really match the background, which isn't.
But why is this scene cut? And why is she kissing a girl? Well, obviously, I was trying to have a sort of off-kitler introudction to her that was a little flashback-y and, sort of, not of the norm... to show that she's kind of living in the past, same as Mal, and showing regret and the whole scene is designed to show that life of a companion.
There were more scenes of her teaching including her teaching girls with bows and arrows. Nobody liked that. They said it looks too much like Wonder Woman. Pause for irony Pause over.
So, we basically had this scene... and I realised that I was explaining the companion lifestyle... to an audience that didn't actually care about it. And since the companion lifestyle didn't actually affect the course of the film... it wasn't really necessary. It was clear already in the postcard... that Inara regretted leaving... and that she had a problem with the captain which is basically what we're saying here.
So, apart from her fabolous outfit and what I thought was a really nice performance from Kim Meyers [Sheydra]... there was nothing in this scene that I actually needed. And this is one of the problems you're gonna have in this situation. I had written a different version of this scene... I had done a number of things for my introduction of Inara and then realised, finally that it was not necessary, after all was said and done."
Scene where the Operative tracks down Mal in the Operative's ship (Including scene in the Maidenhead Bar):
Joss: "As I mentioned in the commentary on the actual film... the sequence of Mal actually taking River was originally in the film. I cost us a bunch of time to do three shots. I ended up losing the Simon one and running the River one backwards... so I went from Mal to River. The original intent of that was basically just to say: 'Oh, my God,' in three shots because everything had been done so simply and matter-of-factly I wanted to take a moment to say, 'This is a movie!' and then he says: 'I think we better go.' People didn't really understand that he meant he was gonna take River.
Now, we show him taking River in this scene, but it was unclear to some people so we took the footage that we had shot just for this... and we put it in the movie.
This scene was designed to give us a sense of the Operative ship which, again, I think is quite a lovely design. It was a prow. You gotta have a prow. And, as I also mentioned before, it was Carolyn Lassek, the editor's sister who watched this and said, 'You know, your guys explaining a lot. He's expositioning, and how menacing does that make him?' What this gave us, of course, was a better analysis of Mal. But at the same time, it didn't actually help matters, it kind of confused things because he says, 'This man hates us'... and that muddies the issue of why Mal saves River. Did he do it to spite the Alliance as Inara seems to suggest, and even Jayne? Well, we don't want to believe that. It's not about the fact that he hates them. In fact, when he says, 'I know how you must feel about the Alliance... and he says, 'You really don't' what Mal actually means is: 'I don't care about the Alliance. I've moved on to the next thing'... not, 'I hate them more than you can imagine.'"
Alliance Member: "Zoë Washburn, formely Corporal Zoë Alain. Also in the 57th. Career army, looks like."
Operative: "She has followed him far. (He puts on his glasses) Give me the crew, registered passengers. Our captain is a passionate man... no room there for subtety."
Joss: "Now, these glasses, that's something we cut out of the first scene right before the doctor showed up, that he had glasses with information running over them."
Extended River & Simon in holding Bar Area Scene/Haven opening:
(Scene with River & Simon in holding Bar Area) Joss: Okay, we're looking at a sequence that I looked executives in the face... months after editing had begun, and said, 'I will never cut this bet. Get over it, it's never gonna happen.' And then I cut it. Does this mean I'm a man of no convictions? Yes, but let's not spread this around. It also means that sometimes you need to shut everybody out and just look at your film with a cold eye.
This is where they said, 'Well, the movie kind of stops and then starts again with the same information' But it was also of my very favourite things.
So, we, in the movie, as you know, cut after her tear. But here was River's little breakdown. First of all, I do love that angle. And second of all, because I wanted to hit, again, the notion that River was not just a helpless person but that she was a little crazy and that there was trouble coming and that she might be the cause of it."
River: (Cries) "Everybody's!"
Joss: "Summer was very uncomfortable screaming like that. I also love the idea of screaming 'Everybody's,' and then cutting to black.
(Scene in Haven) And here you see an early pre-vis of what the shot (of Serenity) would eventually become. But I also liked the idea that she says everybody's gonna die... we got to blackness, and then we hear a prayer. And this was, you know, something that was very important to me hearing Book's prayer for the dead because it really talks about the journey that my people are on and you get to see everybody in Haven so that when they die, you feel worse.
But at the end of the day, this is where the momentum of the movie... the middle of the movie, was really getting killed. So I realised that I had to tighten things up that once she said things were gonna get much, much worse I could go to the Inara scene, which, as you can see, is not in this version. And so, you know, I had to cut things I loved just to keep people in the game with us."
Book: "It's for the men River might have killed in that bar."
Mal: "Weren't River that did it. You know. Somebody decided her brain was just another piece of property to take. Messed her right up."
Joss: "And I loved the light on his [Book] cornrows."
Escape from Companion Training House:
Joss: "This here, again, as mentioned in the commentary is, you know had to be cut down because of several reasons. One is, here I'm making a joke at Mal's expense. It was one of my favourite things when I wrote it and I thought they delivered it beautifully.
You'll notice that, by the way, she hits a button that is off-screen. There are about 17 off-screen buttons in this movie 'cause we didn't actually have any buttons. Nice mountain, don't you think?
We had to travel all the way to, I think, Stage 23. That is actually the side of the companion training house. This is all indoors which is why, when we shoot the shuttle we only see that much of it.
It really is my Star Trek moment. In fact, I think I had pictures a friend and I took where I'm hanging off the cliff and they're kicking me, going: 'I have had enough of you!' or 'Sick and tired of you!' because it was so Wrath of Khan.
But it was Drew Goddard, as I mentioned, who pointed out that okay, it's nice that he's got a grenade that doesn't work that he tricks people with... but it does make the Alliance seem bumbling and we can't really afford that. So, for the sake of time... and the sake of the coolness of the Alliance...
Check out the forest. It's not there! But that is the final on the shuttle shot."
Inara: "Told you to hang on."
Joss: "This is one of my favourite jokes."
Mal: (Cries) "I'm fine."
Joss: "Also had to go."
Mal & Inara Shuttle Chase:
Joss: "This is, again, another piece originally in the script. We're going to have an entire scene where the shuttle is chased by the Alliance to make it further difficult for our guys to escape from them. Didn't have the money. It was one of the things we cut."
 Mal & Inara quiet moment:
Joss: "Now, you may be noticing a bit of a theme running through all of these cut sequences and it goes a little something like this: there's a lot of Inara scenes. This is a function of the screenwriter to me at one point and said, 'Do I just suck?' and I was like, 'Sweetie, I've let you down.' The fact was their love story... just kept getting knocked out of the way by the momentum of the movie and less was more.
This, by the way, this moment coming up from Nathan [Mal]... where he gathers himself before he speaks, may be my favourite piece of acting that he did in the film and it isn't in the film.
I hated to cut this. Anybody who went to any of the test screenings would know it came, it went, it came, it went, it came, it went. Ultimately, it wasn't something that people needed to know they needed to stay in the moment of: Let's pretend we're Reavers. Now we're pretending we're Reavers. And putting a romantic moment in between them just didn't work.
I love to jump from genre to genre, but, every now and then I zig when I should zag, you know, in a TV show that's okay. In a movie, you gotta serve the evil god momentum and this scene didn't. So Morena [Inara] really got the brunt of a lot of this and it was just simply because, structually, it couldn't sustain. They did so much with so little that I just didn't have time for more. I do plan to make it up to her at some point but I do love this scene between the two of them. It's one that was cut... solely because of time. I thought it worked really well. I really like what's going on between them and this is one that was hard to cut. I miss it. (Makes sobbing sound) No, I'm fine. Something in my eye."
Extended Mal & The Operative CODA Scene:
Joss: "This is yet another example. I think, along with Morena... Chiwetel [Operative] got chopped the most. In his case, it was because his character popped more the less he let us into his thought process. Said in the commentary before that we kept him in this. We did actually, put him in actual rain in front of the actual ship cause we had the engine there. But, the fact is, he'd said his piece... and, although I really like this exchange and I love Mal's little comment at the end of it... and like what he says here, which is simply, 'You just keep walking. I'm not gonna tell you how to live. And that's how you live, you just keep walking.' He's answering the question without answering.' He's answering the question on without answering it and then he says something nobody ever says after the bad guy talks to him."
Mal: "What a whiner!"
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