10 Movies Actually Improved By Studio Interference

Despite its initially poor box office performance, 2001's Donnie Darko has become one of the 2000's most enduring cult-classics and is widely remembered for both its mind-bending plot and extraordinarily creepy rabbit-human-hybrid.

However, without the intervention of executives at Newmarket Films the film's fate could have been very different.

During the original editing process, director Richard Kelly was required to keep the film's run-time below 2 hours and to keep the film's time travel elements simple enough for audiences to understand. Kelly agreed to the studio's demands and released the 113-minute long theatrical cut.

Normally in these case it is impossible to know what would have happened had Kelly decided to fight for his original vision. However, due to the film's cult status, Kelly was approached to release his version as a director's cut in 2004.

Following the film's re-release, audiences and critics alike soon realised why the studio had imposed certain conditions on the original release.

The new version featured 20-minutes of deleted scenes and further explanation of the film's more supernatural elements, something many fans felt removed much of the original's ambiguity. Kelly also revised the soundtrack, changing the position of the film's most iconic song - Echo & the Bunnymen's The Killing Moon - which proved equally unpopular.