Clive Barker's Nightbreed is a great, but deeply flawed, movie. It's a strange attempt at a horror version of Star Wars, a dark fantasy story set deep inside the fevered imagination of the British author Stephen King once called the future of horror (he called him that before some of you were even born. I don't know who the future of horror is anymore). And it features David Cronenberg as a serial killing psychiatrist.

For years - decades! - there has been talk of a director's cut, rumors that the version of Nightbreed that hit theaters wasn't Barker's preferred vision. Rumors of 25 minutes of deleted scenes. Those rumors were always undercut with sad news: we kept hearing the elements simply didn't exist; the deleted scenes had been deleted from reality.

The truth, it turns out, may not be so sad. A fan named Mark Miller (assuredly not the Scottish comic writer?) made some phone calls to some people and got some interesting new info. Via CliveBarker.info:

"One fan set out in search of the truth, armed only with a few phone numbers and the power of a name...

"On one call I was transferred to a production executive. You already know what I told him, so let me tell you what he told me: He Can Access The Lost Nightbreed Footage At Any Time.

"My jaw dropped. Struggling to remember my already limited vocabulary, I asked what had to happen in order for the footage to see the light of day. He explained to me that someone, namely one of the higher ups, had to have a good reason to pull it out of storage. I, having that good reason, nodded and thanked him. He couldn't have been a nicer guy.

"Excited, I pictured myself walking through large dusty warehouses filled from floor to ceiling with ancient reels of arcane footage. I’m sorry to report, that's not what happened.

"Shortly after, one of said higher ups was gracious enough to give me a moment of his time. I was shocked when he told me there wasn't a big enough audience for the film and that the answer to my request must be no.

'Not even worth the cost to upgrade to Blu-ray,' he said.

"Ouch."

So not only does the studio (FOX!!!! *shakes fist at Rothman*) not feel like doing a director's cut, they don't even feel like doing a Blu-Ray.

But we can change their minds. Sure, Fox (assuming that's who still has the rights) may be made up of a bunch of dicks, but like everyone else in Hollywood, they love money. And if enough of us tell them that we want to spend our money on their product, they should be quite happy to oblige us.

The folks at CliveBarker.info are rallying people together. Go to this page on their site to find out how you can let Fox know you want to spend some dough on a Nightbreed director's cut (in hi-def!). Tell 'em Midian's favorite website, CHUD.com, sent you.