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For a big action sci-fi epic with an internationally known cast, the upcoming Babylon A.D. has been staying relatively low-key. This is the movie that Vin Diesel dropped out of Hitman to do, which now in retrospect turned out to be an excellent decision. Ironically enough, his character in this film is also a mercenary who has to protect an unexpectedly important woman.

The project is perhaps most interesting for its director, Mathieu Kassovitz. He made an excellent movie (La Haine) and an interesting one (The Crimson River), but his last film was an abomination of ginormous proportions (Gothika). Gothika was the only movie of his that he didn't write, and here he returns to his own writing.

Another thing of interest is the two cuts Kassovitz is turning in. The European release of the film would be his director's cut, but the rest of the world would have to settle for a shorter 90-minute version that 20th Century Fox mandated. This isn't unusual, of course, except that a few months back Michelle Yeoh let slip that the European cut is going to be 160 minutes long, which means Fox cut out nearly half of the film. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore, though, as the final European release is looking to be 105 minutes long, which means only 15 minutes have been cut.

Either the 160 minutes version was a misunderstanding, or Kassovitz shortened his own cut significantly. The only way we'd know is to find out if Kassovitz had scripted and shot 160 minutes worth of material. Longer is not always better, but almost an extra hour of lost material? There's bound to be one or two cool sequences in there, right? It's a gritty Sci-Fi action movie, after all.

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