- The film was shot in 2013 and was set to premiere in 2015, but remained unreleased due to a dispute over final cut between the director and the producer. Due to financial issues, the film was not released until 2018, when it was picked by a new distributor and two versions were assembled: a producer's cut, which was released theatrically in 600 theaters in October 2018, and a director's cut, which was later screened at selected cinemas.
- The director's cut is runs for one hour and fifty two minutes before the start of the end credits, 12 minutes longer than the theatrical version
- The producer's cut lists Mathew Cullen as Director, whereas the director's cut lists Mathew Miguel Cullen.
- The producer's cut lists Toydrum & Benson Taylor for the Original Music By credit, and Adam Barber for the Score By credit; the director's cut lists Toydrum for the Original Songs and Score Composed By credit. Separately, there's an Original Music By credit for Benson Taylor and Additional Score By credit given to Andrew Pearce. Connie Farr is credited as Music Supervisor.
- The producer's cut lists Douglas Crise, Jamie Trevill, Joe Plenys, and ST John O'Rorke as Editors during the credit scroll; the director's cut lists Douglas Crise, Fred Fouquet, Mathew Cullen, and Jovan Ajder.
- During the end credits of the director's cut, producer Geyer Kosinski is given the following credit: A Geyer Kosinski Production - this does not appear during the end credits of the producer's cut.
- The director's cut has songs by Sia, Nick Cave, Brian Eno, Johnny Nash, Lykke Li, Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark, Dire Straits, Apparatjik, The London Philharmonic; the producer's cut shares only songs from Dire Straits and Apparatjik.
- The director's cut utilizes stock-footage as a narrative and stylistic device, whereas the producer's cut doesn't include any stock-footage moments. By using stock-footage, especially during the opening, world-building sequences, the director's cut takes on a way more epic quality, and the overall vibe that can be felt is more anxious and alive than what can be felt in the producer's cut. In general, the producer's cut favors the use of voice-over more than Cullen's director's cut, which while still utilizing voice-over, offers more of an ambiguous viewing experience. As an overall viewing experience, the producer's cut is a more traditional film, even with a narrative that folds over on itself. The plotting is more straight-forward, there is more voice-over in order to guide the audience along, the musical selections are more classic, and the ways in which characters are introduced are more level. In comparison, the director's cut is a far more eclectic viewing experience, as it relies more on ambiguity and favors are more artistic sense of creation by the filmmaker. There's also a noticeable difference in the saturation of color between the two versions. The producer's cut feels more washed out and drained of color, while the director's cut offers a richer primary color palette scheme, and even features bolder black and shadows during nighttime sequences.
- As a general note - both films present the same footage, though there are certainly instances were alternative angles/takes were selected between the two edits. Because the director's cut runs longer than the producer's cut as a result of extra footage being added in to the run time, both films still follow a similar trajectory, but the director's cut becomes the more artistic vision by conclusion.
- In the director's cut, towards the opening of the film, Samson Young is stricken with writer's block. He's at his computer and the imagery shown is a blank typing area with a blinking cursor. In the producer's cut, during the same sequence, the imagery shown is a blank typing area that's filled with the word "Fuck" in various forms of its spelling. In the producer's cut, at the very beginning of the film, a female singer is heard singing a song over the opening logo for GVN Releasing, and Samson Young's kick-off VO can be heard ("This is a true story...") over impressionistic imagery of fireworks and Nicola showing up in a car. In the director's cut, the GVN logo with traditional sound-effects cues appears, and then the film opens with startling, impressionistic, nearly cosmic imagery that cannot quite be explained, giving way to fireworks. Samson Young's voice-over kicks in and Nicola appears.
- A noticeable and key difference in regards to the film's tone is that at the 5 minute mark of the director's cut, archival footage kicks-in, and after the film's title appears on-screen, the song "I Can See Clearly Now" plays on the soundtrack accompanied by images of nuclear war, technological advancement, war, air-horns, and societal revolt. At the 6 minute, 42 second mark, a wide shot is shown of the UK, under-fire, and under siege. None of these sequences of societal dystopia are present in the producer's cut, which makes for a completely different tonal approach to the first 10 minutes of the film.
- In the producer's cut, Johnny Depp's character is introduced at the 7 minute mark, whereas in the director's cut, he's introduced at the 35 minute mark. He appears more overall on-screen in the producer's cut than he does in the director's cut.
- In the 14th minute of the director's cut, the main characters exit the local bar, and as a scene transition, black and white stock footage is used, along with a shot of a painted mural of a man wearing a gas mask. This scene does not appear at all in the producer's cut, thus further eliminating social context.
- At the very end of the producer's cut, after Jason Isaacs' character has been shown on the television talking about his work, the TV turns off, and the scene cuts to Jim Sturgess in bed watching with contempt. He makes a dismissive joke and changes the channel before the film cuts to credits. The director's cut goes to credits immediately after Isaacs finishes talking, omitting the abrupt scene transition to Sturgess. The result is a less gimmicky/jokey finish with the director's cut.
- Throughout the producer's cut, there are close-up insert shots of Samson's computer screen, as he comes up with chapter numbers/names. This recurring motif does not play as significant role in the director's cut (more of these inserts are present in the producer's cut).
- At the One Hour and 46th minute of the director's cut, there's a nighttime wide-shot of fireworks exploding over the city mixed in with ground-level fires from unrest within London. This shot does not appear in the producer's cut.
- There's a noticeable difference in the way that Samson Young prints and presents his manuscript at the end, to the dead body of Nicola. The producer's cut establishes a clearer sense with more up-front photography of Samson finishing and printing his work, and then carefully placing it on Nicola's body with the note. The director's cut conveys all of this, but in a more ambiguous way due to the choices in shot selection and pacing.
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