After Citizen Kane, Orson Welles directed The Magnificent Ambersons and the studio destroyed it.
They cut out many minutes, and worse, tacked on a “happy” ending that matched the book and was suited to the 1940s. They didn’t shoot the thematically appropriate and dark ending more suited to the 2020s.
Happily, I read this week in this very long article buried behind a partial paywall in The New Yorker that people are going to use AI and add back the cut scenes and concoct the missing, gutting ending.
This is actually old news, but I just heard about it this week. Maybe they consulted with the Welles estate and everyone’s happier now?
I do hope to live to see that movie restored, and men on Mars, annnnnd a 51st state … annnnnnnnnd aliens.