Seventeen years ago, Mark Christopher got his big break in Hollywood when he wrote and directed “54” — the film, starring Ryan Phillippe, Neve Campbell, Salma Hayek and Mike Myers, about the rise and fall of the late-’70s notoriously decadent nightclub Studio 54. Christopher delivered his vision for the film, which was dark and full of gay themes and characters, to Miramax and the studio was initially pleased with the film. But after they test-screened the film, they drastically edited and retooled it, cutting most of the overtly gay characters and themes and reshooting more scenes to appeal to a wider audience.
The resulting sanitized version of the film wasn’t the success the studio wanted when it was released in 1998. But in the years since it debuted, a bootleg director’s cut that Christopher made has been making the rounds on film-festival circuits, winning a lot of fans in the LGBT community.
Now, an official director’s cut of “54,” with all the gay and bisexual characters and situations restored, is hitting film festivals this summer and was recently released on iTunes.
Christopher, currently a professor at Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, said the buzz generated by the bootleg director’s cut helped convince Miramax to let him assemble an official version of his original vision of the film.
“Immediately after the film’s release, I cobbled together a director’s cut on video because a real director’s cut didn’t exist,” he said. “People would often contact me because they heard it got screened at Outfest. I would pester my producer and my producer would speak to Miramax every year. So, after 17 years, they finally said yes. Last June, they gave us the green light to make the director’s cut and finish it on negatives. We started after the Fourth of July and worked nonstop until February, when we delivered it. That process was crazy. It was a 24/7 job for all of us — not just to find that version that was a bootleg, but also the restoration. It was very complex because the negatives spread out all over the world. It was a very complicated process, but we made it.”
The director’s cut of “54” is garnering praise from fans in LGBT and mainstream film circles.
“It’s a total crossover,” Christopher said. “It’s half-international film festival and half-LGBT. It’s for everyone.”
The release has also has been welcomed by the film’s stars, like Phillippe and Campbell.
Christopher said he appreciates their support.
“Personally, it was very important because I made the director’s cut for us originally because I wanted them to have a VHS copy of the movie we signed up to make,” he said. “So I was thrilled when they were supportive when it was finally done 17 years later.”
Christopher was hesitant to theorize if his version of “54” would have been more successful than the edited cut Miramax released in 1998.
“I wish I had a crystal ball,” he said. “Who knows? It’s very hard to say. But there is a sense that the film was ahead of its time because it had dark and complex characters. So, releasing the film on 1,800 screens like that, I have no idea.”
Christopher has gone on to write for television and is currently writing a new drama series, “Berlin.” His TV career has generated interest in the new cut of “54,” which he hopes will lead to more film projects.
“I hope it would help,” he said. “That would be nice. TV is a very exciting place right now because of the one-hour drama, which is full of complex characters, which is exactly what I love. Since that paved the way for this movie, it would be great if this movie paved the way back there. So I have a few writing deals and I am writing a feature of my own. We’ll see what happens.”
Christopher added that he tries to include LGBT characters and stories in his projects whenever possible.
“One is mixed and the other is less so,” he said about the LGBT characters and stories in his current TV projects. “But I always find room for one of my people. So there will always be something.”
The director’s cut of “54” is available on iTunes now. For more information on Mark Christopher, visit www.markchristopherfilms.com.