Offered as an adult alternative to family fare like “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and “Encanto,” Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” opened on Wednesday and delivered the best opening for a drama in the last two years at the U.S. box-office.
The 157-minute movie is headed for a $14.2 million haul over three days and $21.8 million over five days, the last straight drama to do such good numbers was Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” in Christmas 2019.
Scott himself is as busy as ever with both directorial efforts “The Last Duel” and “House of Gucci” opening this year, readying both “Kitbag” and “Gladiator 2” to shoot next year, and multiple TV productions including today’s mini-series premiere of “The Hot Zone: Anthrax” along with “The Good Fight,” “Raised by Wolves” and “Jigsaw”.
Talking with the ReelBlend podcast to promote ‘Gucci,’ Scott revealed that he’s planning on releasing an extended cut of the film at some point – but it’s not clear if that will be with the film’s initial home video release launch:
“I’m pretty responsible; I’m not going to say it needs to be four hours or more. It’s already two and [a half hours] plus…Things do play better at home because you can pause it, get a beer, and come back…I will probably…It won’t be a director’s cut; it will be a long cut.”
Scott is famous for multiple cuts of some of his most iconic films with mixed results. The changes made in extended cuts of “Alien,” “American Gangster,” “Robin Hood,” “The Martian” and “Black Hawk Down” are all fairly negligible.
However the director’s cuts/extended editions of “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Legend,” “The Counselor” and of course “Blade Runner” are essential and easily superior to their theatrical counterparts. Where a ‘Gucci’ extended cut might fall is not clear.
One person who likely won’t be watching is famed Gucci designer Tom Ford who is played by Reeve Carney in the film. Ford, a filmmaker in his own right with acclaimed movies “A Single Man” and “Nocturnal Animals,” wrote a review for Airmail News.
Ford praises Lady Gaga’s performance, but otherwise wasn’t a fan and singles out Al Pacino and Jared Leto’s work as something akin to a “Saturday Night Live version of the tale… both performers are given license to be absolute hams – and not of the prosciutto variety.”
“House of Gucci” is now in cinemas.