Not just Event Horizon is a hell ride, the situation regarding the versions is a freaking nightmare for any fan as well. Not very successful at first, the sci-fi horror flick has become a (modern) classic. Even after 20 years, the faithful fans still have not given hope for an Extended Cut to see the light of day at some point.

And it would make perfect sense because a lot of scenes were cut. Not only for pace or time reasons but also in order to ensure the R-rating. Produced in a time where one could not predict the DVD would become number one for home theater releases. This also means one simply was not aware how valuable deleted scenes could become years later. For that reason, the footage that did not make it in the Theatrical Version was not archived so that easy and complete access would not be an issue.

In fact, the footage had been considered lost for a long time. More than 10 years ago, when the allegedly lost footage was found in some salt mine in Transilvania (!), the fans were vey happy. Ironically, the deleted scenes were releases as bonus a DVD Special Edition and they show images fans had been waiting for for a long time. It would be incredibly amazing if the original, uncensored Extended Version of Event Horizon could be restored and released, wouldn't it?

In 2012, it appeared to become a fact when director Paul W. S. Anderson himself announced that the producer has found a VHS copy of the original version. This was the breakthrough, one might think. But after said announcement, time went by and nothing happened.

Five more years later, in 2017, Paul W. S. Anderson was question about the Extended Version during an Q&A. His response was not what people wanted to hear. All of a sudden, the mentioned VHS copy was not an issue anymore. Instead, Paramount asked if it was possible but there was no footage available:

There was a lot more that was shot that isn’t in the movie. But you’ll never see the messed up version because we made Event before the kind of DVD revolution. You know, DVD ushered in this era when you had to have additional footage, deleted scenes, things like that. There was no call for that back when we were just doing VHS cassettes and LaserDiscs. So the material just wasn’t archived very well, and since the movie became a big cult classic, Paramount have asked us to come back in and do different versions and we looked for the material, and it just doesn’t exist.

If this is it, it would be a real bummer. At least, Paramount seemed willing to produce and release an Extended Version. And who knows? Maybe, someone will find will find some decent footage in another salt mine or whereever the lost footage might be. Even Paul W. S. Anderson did not want to rule it out completely because it would not be the first time that footage is being founds after decades. But for now, this is just bad news.