Afan edit is a version of a filmmodified by a viewer, that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material. This includes the removal of scenes or dialogue, replacement of audio and/or visual elements, and adding material from sources such as deleted scenes or even other films.
In their most common form, fan edits resemble the work done by professional editors when creating adirector's or extended cut of a film, although fan edits are usually limited by the footage already made available to the public with the officialhome video release of a film, while professional editors working for a film studio have access to more and higher quality footage and elements. In addition to re-editing films, some fan edits feature basic corrections, such as colors or framing, that maintain or restore consistency within the film, such as theStar Wars fan-restorationHarmy's Despecialized Edition, which aims at restoring theStar Wars Original Trilogy to its original, pre-Special Edition form. Other types of fan edits, such asCosmogony,Bateman Begins: An American Psycho andMemories Alone, merge footage from various films into an entirely different production.[1] While many fan edits are viewed as reactionary to perceived weaknesses in the original films, one film scholar at theUniversity of Kansas has argued that such edits allow fans to creatively reimagine films instead of merely attempting to fix such works.[2]
Before the term "fan edit" was coined, many alternate versions of films edited by other fans or professional editors were simply known as a "cut". In the late 1970s, many alternate "cuts" of films were released in the United States, and foreign films (such as those fromEurope orJapan) deemed unsuitable for American audiences underwent further alterations, score changes and re-titlings.
The first fan edit to popularize the field wasThe Phantom Edit, created in 2000 by professional editorMike J. Nichols under the pseudonym of the "Phantom Editor".[3] Nichols removed elements fromGeorge Lucas'Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace that he felt detracted from the film, and made minor changes in dialogue, languages and subtitles to give the film's villains a more menacing tone.[4] The result was distributed onVHS and later online, and received attention by the media for its attempt to improve upon the original film.The Phantom Edit was the first of manyStar Wars fan edits to come, and has since inspired dozens of edits to surface on the internet.
The second major edit was done withA.I. Artificial Intelligence, originally a film thatStanley Kubrick was involved with, thatSteven Spielberg ended up directing after Kubrick's death. In 2002, an independent filmmaker named DJ Hupp introduced his take on the film named "The Kubrick Edit", omitting certain scenes to alter the tone, to be closer to Kubrick's style.[5][6]
The following year, thePurist Edit changedThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to more closely followJ. R. R. Tolkien's books.[7][8]
After that the trend started to gain popularity and spread to other films in the same fashion, such asThe Matrix series,Pearl Harbor,Dune,Superman II, and others. Editor Adywan (Adrian Sayce) made a complete overhaul ofStar Wars andThe Empire Strikes Back in 2009 and 2017 respectively, under the titleStar Wars – Revisited, featuring continuity fixes, image and cropping corrections, score restoration, new matter, rotoscoping work and new CGI elements to remove several additions from the various Special Editions of the films from 1997 onward. In 2008, a similar overhaul was made by editor Uncanny Antman (Sean O'Sullivan) toTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which changed the film's tone to be more in line with the first two films and fixed various continuity contradictions to the previous films and image & cropping errors; the film was rereleased under the title ofTerminator: The Coming Storm.
Professional filmmakerSteven Soderbergh has created fan edits ofPsycho and itsremake,Raiders of the Lost Ark,Heaven's Gate and2001: A Space Odyssey that he has posted on his website.[9][10]
Independent filmmaker Peet Gelderblom made a fan edit of Brian De Palma'sRaising Cain, which attempted to reorder the film the way it was originally scripted.[11] De Palma came across the fan edit and was so impressed with it, he had Gelderblom supervise ahigh definition version of it forBlu-ray, which was released under theDirector's Cut label, as De Palma felt that the edit has "restored the true story ofRaising Cain".[12]
Members of Fanedit.org have condensed seasons ofGame of Thrones into feature-length films.[13]
CleanFlicks was a Utah-based video store that offered more than 700 movies that had been remixed to appeal to Utah's religious family audience.[14][15] The chain of stores spread across 18 states in 70 different locations before a federal court judge ruled their remixes illegal in 2006.[6]
In 2006, a filmmaker, artist, and fan of animator Oscar-winningRichard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) named Garrett Gilchrist created a non-profit fan restoration of the animated filmThe Thief and the Cobbler calledThe Recobbled Cut. It was done in as high quality as possible by combining available sources at the time, such as a heavily compressed file of Williams's workprint and better-quality footage from the Japanese DVD ofArabian Knight. This edit was much supported by numerous people who had worked on the film (with the exception of Richard Williams himself), including Roy Naisbitt, Alex Williams, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, Tony White, Holger Leihe, Simon Maddocks, Neil Boyle, and Steve Evangelatos, many of whom lent rare material for the project. Some minor changes were made to "make it feel more like a finished film", like adding more music and replacing some bits of audio and storyboards with those from the Princess and the Cobbler version of the film.[16] Certain scenes, like the wedding ending, had to be redrawn frame by frame by Gilchrist due to flaws in the footage. Gilchrist described this as the most complex independent restoration of a film ever undertaken. This edit gained positive reviews on the Internet.Twitch Film called it "the best and most important 'fan edit' ever made".[17] It has been revised three times in 2006, 2008, and 2013. Each version incorporated further higher-quality materials donated by animators from the film, including two rare workprints from the Fred Calvert production that contained footage not available in the released versions. The "Mark 3" version released in 2008 incorporated 21 minutes from a 49-minute reel of rare 35 mm film. Gilchrist's latest version, "Mark 4", was released in September 2013 and edited in HD. "Mark 4" features about 30 minutes of the film in full HD quality, restored from raw 35 mm footage which Gilchrist edited frame by frame. Artists were also commissioned to contribute new artwork and material. Gilchrist's YouTube account, "TheThiefArchive", now serves as an unofficial video archive of Richard Williams's films, titles, commercials, and interviews, including footage from theNasrudin production. Williams said that while he never saw Gilchrist's Recobbled Cut, he acknowledged the role that the fan edits had played in rehabilitating the film's reputation.[18]
In 2017, French editors Lucas Stoll and Gaylor Morestin created a fan edit ofBreaking Bad, condensing the entire series into a two-hour feature film and uploaded it ontoVimeo. They had worked on the film for around two years prior to its release.[19][20] However the film was soon taken down for copyright violation.[21][22]
In 2022, filmmaker Kai Patterson releasedObi-Wan Kenobi: The Patterson Cut, in which the six episodes of theDisney+Star Wars series,Obi-Wan Kenobi, was cut into a two and a half hour film.[23]
In 2025, a fan edit ofBatman Forever designed to more directly suit the intended vision of Joel Schumacher's plans for the film before it was edited and released to theaters was created by fan editor JordanJabroni, and released to Fanedit.org by way of direct request message. The fan edit reinserts well-edited and polished deleted material back into the film in what is believed to be their appropriate moments, attempting to simulate what's known as "The Schumacher Cut," which is the name fans have given to the unedited and unreleased director's cut of Batman Forever, only seen by a select few in the world, most notably Kevin Smith. Fans of the film speak highly in its reviews of the fan project, and it, as well as its original theatrically-released counterpart, grew in popularity after the April 2025 passing of actor Val Kilmer, who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Warner Bros. production, leading the fan edit to be opened with a memorial to Kilmer and director Joel Schumacher, who passed away in June 2020.[24][25]
While fan edits skirt the lines offair use, the fan editing community largely emphasizes the use of the final product should only be for those who own the source material (commercial home video releases such asDVD), and are not to be distributed for profit or other personal gain.[26]Lucasfilm is aware of the existence ofStar Wars fan edits, and has stated they will take action when they believecopyright infringement has taken place.[27]
In July 2007, Lucasfilm took action against fan editor "daveytod" after taking issue with his fan edit documentary ofStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, namedThe Clones Revealed. Their email to him cited the possibility of "consumer confusion," thatThe Clones Revealed might be mistaken for an official Lucasfilm product.[28] The email was sent to several active members of the fan editing community and resulted in the short downtime of Fanedit.org. The reasoning given by Lucasfilm's anti-piracy team during communications with Fanedit.org moderators seemed to display the mistaken impression thatThe Clones Revealed was abootleg of the film.[29]
In November 2008, Fanedit.org was closed in its official capacity after receiving a complaint from theMotion Picture Association of America regarding the use of links to pirated content on the site in violation of copyright law.[30]