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I'm sure it's possible, I was speaking in a more general request tone, in that these are two companies that were founded on a love of movies, and good movies, and could potentially bring some new titles to the K store. Sure there's the added benefit that sometimes Criterion has access to higher quality masters, but just for the selection alone, I love Criterion and their taste in film. Would love to see them curate a special collection on K.
I definitely think K-store needs a wider selection of foreign films: Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Kieslowski, etc. etc. etc. This would likely require a deal with the studios that own the copyright though (Too, Mosfilm, Canal+), as Criterion licenses most of their releases.
I would argue with this one point. The theatrical releases are not always director's preferred versions. Most directors do not have final cut on their films, they are bound by contracts to fulfill certain obligations to the studio, and often the ratings board demands that content be removed to get a desired rating. So most directors do not have complete control over what version of the film is released in theaters. In some cases studios have allowed directors to go back and create a new version of the film that, presumably, they would have preferred in the first place. That may include restoring content that was removed to accommodate the ratings board or to accommodate an annoying studio executive, or just having second thoughts about something. Peter Jackson shots hours of additional footage to create his Extended Editions of LOTR - even though he says he prefers the Theatrical Cuts (I think he's wrong about that!) As you point out, Ridley Scott prefers the Theatrical cut of "Alien," but not "Blade Runner." (Incidentally, the two cuts of "Alien" are nearly identical in length, so he not only inserted that missing scene of Ridley discovering the hive into the extended version, but removed content as well.) So which is the "definitive" version really depends on each individual case. Worth paying attention, I suppose, to whether it's called a Director's Cut or an Extended Cut. That may give us a clue as to the director's preferences. But sometimes directors are wrong!
My point was if the theatrical cut is the last version the director worked on therefore that is the director’s cut. All later versions the director is not involved in can not qualify as the director’s cut. We just made it very clear it is very complicated and worth paying attention to as in some case’s like in Alien and Lotr, the director may prefer the theatrical cut. Lucas cuts and edits all his films on every few years. SW has a 1977 theatrical cut, a 1981 cut, 1997 special editions, 2004 DVD cut, 2011 Blu-ray cut and 2017 cuts. A lot of fans including me likes the theatrical cut as most of the new CGI elements don’t add much to the story but stand in the way of the beautiful practical and optical effects. Lucas says the final version is closer to what he envisioned in his mind back in 1977 but couldn’t make it with the technology at the time. I respect this. I watch all versions, my favorites are the 1977 theatrical, 1997 special editions and the final 4K cuts.
I don't disagree with that. I'm just saying the version released in theaters is not necessarily the director's version of the movie. It's not even always the last version the director worked on. For example, at the end of the most recent "Thor: Love and Thunder" movie, director Taika Waititi was surprised to find out that "Thor will return" when he saw the movie at the premiere.
