Message Boards

In the fall of 2005, the film THE PLAGUE was taken away from its
writers and director during post. After an 8 year struggle to get the
film made, the footage was re-cut from scratch by the producers
without the involvement of the film's creators. Stock footage was
added, new dialogue recorded, and the film completely restructured.
It was released to dvd in September of 2006 at a running time of 88
minutes under the title CLIVE BARKER'S THE PLAGUE, though it was not
based on any of Barker's work (it was an original screenplay by
director Hal Masonberg and co-writer Teal Minton) and Barker,
personally, had very little to do with the making of the film. That
version of the film in no way reflects the years of hard work,
creativity, or artistic intent of the writers and director of the
film. It is solely and completely a "producers' cut".

However, after having been removed from the film, director Hal
Masonberg took it upon himself to finish the film with the materials
available to him (the film's dailies on dvd and a Macintosh computer-
turned post-production facility) The film was originally shot in
Super 35 by veteran cinematographer, Bill Butler (JAWS, THE
CONVERSATION, FRAILTY), who was also not invited to partake in the
film's post-production process.

The response to the Writers & Director's Cut by those who have seen
it has been through the roof. However, without further support, this
film may never see the light of day as the film's current
distributor, Screen Gems, has no plans to release this cut.

I ask that you take a look at this site. On it you will find an hour-
long documentary containing interviews with not only director, Hal
Masonberg, but many others including Dee Wallace and other cast
members, film authors/ journalists.

There is also a link to a petition and much more info on what
happened to this film.

The link is:

http://www.spreadingtheplague.com/