- In a 2016 Hollywood Reporter article that interviewed director Hugh Hudson about his work on "Greystoke" ("The Secrets Behind That Other Tarzan Movie - The One That Earned a Dog a Screenwriting Oscar Nomination," by Stephen Galloway, July 01, 2016), Hudson is quoted saying, "What was complicated was to bring the film down to two hours and 20 minutes. We had an original cut of three hours, and it was at its best at two hours and 40 minutes, where you had a little bit longer [with Tarzan] growing up in the jungle and it was a bit more violent. The world of an ape is a violent world. And the studio was very nervous about that." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/greystoke-inside-story-1984-tarzan-908081 Unfortunately, there are no known intact copies of the director's favored two hour, 40 minute cut anywhere to be found.
- The extended version's digital and MOD Blu-Ray prints plaster the Warner Bros. Pictures logo with the 2003 variant.
- In 1992, an "Extended Version" was released to home video by Warner, and this version runs six minutes longer than the original release. The Extended Version videos feature the following:
- An overture of John Scott's main orchestral themes, which runs for about 01:40.
- Immediately following the Warner Brothers logo is a reinserted prologue with the great apes. The scene opens with a master shot of the African jungle from a bird's-eye view, complete with smoking volcano in the distance, rolling storm clouds, and the caption "EQUATORIAL WEST AFRICA 1885". During this sequence, there is a storm and the volcano gushes lava, causing the apes to go into turmoil. The tribe's oldest ape, Silverbeard, calls the warning to the others and they all rush to shelter from the rain, etc. Kala, nursing her infant baby, seems reluctant to go. Silverbeard roughly tries to get her to move, accidentally(?) causing the death of the little ape, as it falls from Kala's grip and plummets to the rocks below. Kala sees her child die and howls with anguish, ending the scene with a fade-out to black. The next shot is the original opening, with one change: a new caption: "SCOTLAND. TEN MONTHS EARLIER." This whole jungle prologue clocks in at about 01:45, and serves as a bookend for the film, as the film now ends on practically the same shot as it opens, but at the end of the film the scene shows a peaceful view of the jungle.
- After Lord Clayton leaves Greystoke for his tropical journey, and the scene shifts to the African coast, a reprinted (which means this shot now exists TWICE in the sequence) shot of the shipwreck (post-accident) now replaces the original shot, which was a beautiful, wide master of the whole coast where the ship has crashed, looking in from the ocean.
- Once Capitaine D'Arnot and Tarzan reach civilization (the "edge of the world") and rest at Buller's inn, another whole sequence has been reinserted. After D'Arnot shows Tarzan fire, the sequence cuts to about an hour later, when D'Arnot attempts to arrange a charter for passage to England. We meet the rest of the gang in the bar, which includes a pointed acknowledgment that Captain Billings ("It's not my fault, don't blame me") from Lord Clayton's shipwreck IS among them, and has been for some time. D'Arnot explains he has no money for the arrangement but can promise an I.O.U., which sets the whole gang at the bar off. They accuse D'Arnot and Tarzan of possibly being escaped convicts and threaten the D'Arnot with violence. Tarzan pounces on the attackers, roaring like a panther, and starts a fire with an oil lamp (showing that he does understand fire's danger). Everyone flees the inn, which is soon completely ablaze. Amid the chaos, D'Arnot and Tarzan escape in a canoe. The scene then cuts to the original versions long shot, in daytime, of D'Arnot rowing down the river with Tarzan. The entire sequence features some repeated music scoring cues, and extra music not heard in the original. As the sequence ends, we hear D'Arnot add, in voice-over: "I sense that we have a long and difficult journey ahead of us; perhaps weeks of waiting for a ship that will give us passage to England. I will try to teach John some rudimentary manners and a greater understanding of the language. Like a father, I am resolved to impart to him all that I can, but never, not even for a moment, do I doubt that to take him back is a perilous undertaking...for John, but also for his family." The voice-over narration concludes after the fade-out on Africa and over the shot of the Greystoke estate, in Scotland. Note: in the original theatrical release, the inn sequence ends before any major hint that D'Arnot and Tarzan could be in danger, and cuts directly to them rowing down the river. The original voice-over narration from D'Arnot: "And so began John's education of the world he had just entered. I was determined to teach him as much as I possibly could, but never for a moment did I doubt that to bring him back would be a perilous undertaking...for John, and also for his family." This original narration ended just as the African landscape fades to black. The newly inserted sequence runs about 03:15.
- For laserdisc, the Extended Version was transferred in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, but the pan-and-scan videocassette was open-matted and cropped on the edges. It is unknown if this Extended Version is Hugh Hudson's director's cut or another edition, possibly released internationally in 1984.
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By what name was Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) officially released in India in Hindi?
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