Devastating news incoming: a three-hour version of Red, White & Royal Blue doesn’t actually exist.
Matthew Lopez, director of the Prime Video rom-com, is “setting the record straight” after previously telling US Magazine that the first version he watched of the film was three-hours long.
“I watched the movie for the first time at the three-hour version of the movie that I first was given by my editor — and everything that wasn’t Alex and Henry had to go,” he told the publication.
Lopez’s comments caused pandemonium online, with fans demanding the release of the extended version – a change.org petition currently has over 21,000 signatures.
In a recent interview with Teen Vogue, however, Lopez said the situation “has gotten a little out of hand” and that he ‘regrets’ his previous comments because “there was never a three-hour cut of the film”.
“The assembly of this film was about 2 hours and 45 minutes. But an assembly of a film, anyone who’s ever worked on a movie will tell you, an assembly is not a cut,” he explained.
“An assembly is quite literally everything that’s in the script that was shot, strung together in order. And that first assembly came to about 2 hours and 45 minutes. So the movie was never 3 hours long and there was never a cut of the film that was 3 hours long.”
Lopez said it was important for him to “correct everybody”: “There is no way on God’s green earth that anybody ever wants to see or ever should see the assembly of a film — to the point that not even my producers or the studio are allowed to see an assembly.
“It’s where the DGA goes, like only myself, my editor, and my editing team ever saw the assembly. So we’re not talking about a version of the film that was three hours long.
“We’re talking about when everything was put together without any consideration for timing, for pacing. All the film’s materials when strung together equaled 2:45. No one will ever see that.”
Although he doesn’t want to “break everyone’s heart,” Lopez revealed that the first cut of the film was actually “2 hours and 7 minutes long”, adding: “I’m very happy that everybody got very excited to hear that, but we all got a little ahead of ourselves there.”
Red, White & Royal Blue is currently the number one movie on Prime Video worldwide.
Based on Casey McQuiston’s acclaimed novel of the same name, Red, White & Royal Blue follows the romance between Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of America’s first female president (Uma Thurman), and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), a British prince.
Upon release, the film received acclaim for its faithfulness to the source material and the chemistry between Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine.
The cast also includes Uma Thurman, Clifton Collins Jr., Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, Stephen Fry, Ellie Bamber, Thomas Flynn, Malcolm Atobrah, Akshay Khanna, Sharon D Clarke, Aneesh Sheth and Juan Castano.
Lopez, who made his directorial debut with the film, told GAY TIMES that he’s open to returning for a sequel.
“Here’s what I’ll say: if people like the movie, if it’s successful and people want more, who am I to deny them?” he said, before clarifying: “Not confirmed! That’s not confirmation. Look, any movie that ever simply gets made is a miracle.
“It’s greedy for a filmmaker two weeks before his movie comes out to start talking about a sequel. People loved the book so much they wanted the movie, right? I should be so lucky that people love the movie so much that they want another one.”
Red, White & Royal Blue is now streaming on Prime Video.
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