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Ridley Scott stated that he did not really think that Alien required this tweaking(a director's cut), and drew attention to the use of the term "Director's Cut" for marketing reasons only (and inconsistently as well). In the Alien Quadrilogy materials, he goes out of his way to state his preference for the original: "rest easy, the original 1979 theatrical version isn't going anywhere". He recut the film himself, but only after viewing the studio's attempt to do so; he characterized the studio's version as "too long" and felt that it ruined the film's pacing.
