A disease carried by common cockroaches is killing Manhattan children. In an effort to stop the epidemic an entomologist, Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) and her husband Dr. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) create a mutant breed of insect that secretes a fluid to kill the roaches. The mutant breed was engineered to die after one generation, but three years later Susan finds out that the species has survived and evolved into a large, gruesome monster that can mimic human form.

Director Guillermo del Toro disowned the film after constant clashes with Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein. The latter complained that early footage of the film wasn’t scary enough, and would frequently visit the set to make unreasonable demands about what should be shot, deviating away from the script. When that did not solve the matter, Weinstein threatened to fire del Toro and replace him with another director. However, del Toro was saved by the intervention of Mira Sorvino, who was a recent Oscar winner for Mighty Aphrodite (1995) (produced by Weinstein’s company Miramax). She threatened to quit the film if del Toro’s vision wasn’t respected, and she received support from her then-boyfriend Quentin Tarantino, who has made several films for Miramax. The Weinsteins finally agreed to let del Toro stay on, but they oversaw the final cut of the film. Since then, del Toro has never worked with the Weinsteins again, but he made his peace with the film after creating a Director’s Cut that was closer to his vision.

Part of Guillermo del Toro’s unhappiness with the theatrical version of the movie came from the fact that it contained a lot of shots filmed by the second unit crew, which he found inconsistent with his use of colors and camera set-up. He re-edited the film into a Director’s cut that was more closely to his original vision, stating that if viewers are still unhappy with this version, then at least he is entirely to blame.

According to Guillermo del Toro, Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam could not stand each other on set.

1997

R

9397911224580

Robert

Movie

1.85:1

112

Australia

2014-06-30

1080p

1.78:1

1

B

C-112245-8

Colored Snap Case

en_IE@rg=auzzzz 950

2024-12-14

2018-02-07 21:27:37