toronto |

Decades in the making, the Francis Ford Coppola produced, Walter Salles directed “On The Road” finally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to a mixed response. The adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel of a generation was never the easiest thing to bring to the screen, and our review by James Rocchi from the Croisette called it “lustrous but long winded.” And indeed, running nearly 2 hours and 20 minutes, this writer was definitely checking his watch during the film. Now as it heads to TIFF, it looks like Salles has hit the editing bay one more time for a new, slimmer cut.

IndieWire recently chatted with IFC Films honcho Jonathan Sehring, and he elaborated on what audiences in Toronto will see. “The response at Cannes was that some people loved it and some people were respectful of it, like some people loved the book. And Walter took a lot of that to heart. He’s gone back, and we’re unveiling a new cut in Toronto, which is about 15 minutes shorter. It’s a little over two hours now. He’s added certain things that weren’t in the cut that was in Cannes,” he explained. “He has been in New York and Rio and L.A. working on it the past couple of months, and it’s going to be very wet when it gets to Toronto. We’re locked, but they’re finishing the mix up right now. We’re very, very excited about it.”

“On The Road” will play TIFF next month. No release date has been set yet for the film.

source