The shorter versions were not cut by Lars von Trier but instead by one of the producers. Von Trier put up with it and accepted the fact that his version was simply too much for the mass audiences. This is especially the case for part two which has a runtime of roughly three hours. Temporarily it was unclear whether or not the studios would even release the Director's Cut. However, all went well in the end - at least for home theatres. Both versions were released on Blu-Ray and DVD much quicker than expected.