OTHER TECH

The changes in the third cut of Alexander are substantial. When you see the Final Cut version, you'll see there's a lot of structural change there - big structural change. And the intermission also makes a big difference, because in the old days they did have intermissions, roughly at the two-hour mark. The second half would be shorter - about an hour and a half, which is the way I structured this cut. An intermission gave you a chance to savor what you'd seen in the first half - to think about it, to talk about it, like in a theater. Then you'd go back in for the second half because you'd want to see the resolution. So it really plays to me like an old-fashioned intermission film, which I really miss.

It must have been hard to cut the film for a third time. It was a big effort, all those months of work with an editor. And it was done in the late summer [of 2006], in the editing period right during the end of World Trade Center. But it was a great, great experience just to go in quietly with an editor afterward and sit there for days on end and re-structure and finesse it. We got all the footage back - it was a million feet, you know. We added almost 40 minutes.

Beyond the restructuring, what else would you like viewers to appreciate in Alexander Revisited? Vangelis's music. One fan who's seen the film, I don't know, 20 times or something said on the Internet, "The music makes me dream." I think that was the most beautiful statement. She said it makes you dream about another world, another time.

Obviously, the film must be very important to you if you feel a need to keep reworking it. I love Alexander. It's unfortunate it had to be assassinated in this country. There was so much anger about it, like I was overstepping the bounds.