Rumors are afloat that Tarantino intends to re-edit and fuse together both volumes of his Kill Bill opus for a year-end release for video and quite possibly for a limited release in theaters. Speculation on the DVD Times Forum is that a total re-edit of the structure is in the works and that one shouldn't expect a simple and expedient tacking on of the second volume to the end of the first.
I see troubles for film scholars ahead, not to mention for the well-being of film fans and collectors. I suppose this sort of reordering and refashioning of an ostensibly completed work began in earnest back in 1977 when Francis Ford Coppola re-edited parts I and II of The Godfather into a sprawling miniseries for NBC. What was notable for that endeavor, entitled The Godfather Saga, or The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic was not just the inclusion of outtakes of both movies but the chronological reordering of the events of Part II. While this may make some sort of narrative sense and assuage some of the confusion and insecurity some viewers may have felt trying to piece things together, it also undermined the complex thematic poignancy of the juxtaposition of the scenes of Little Italy and those in mid-century Tahoe. It was this juxtaposition that made The Godfather Part II a greater film, I feel, than its predecessor. Aesthetic considerations won out in the end, though, and both films (along with its sickly Fredo-like Part III) are available in a handsome boxed set, along with the outtakes that were included in the TV Saga. Of course, the remanufacturing of our filmic past didn't stop there. Again, Coppola put out Apocalypse Now Redux, which added about an hour's worth of material to his original (I still prefer the original). Thanks to the introduction of the DVD format, there are more director's cuts than you can shake a stick at, which begs the question: which will be the proper and accepted text for future scholarship and archiving, and who will decide this. Will Peter Jackson's take on The Return of the King be studied as it theatrical version or some mega five hour version available on some 3 disc special edition? Did Han Solo shoot first, or did Greedo?
Then again, it's Hollywood isn't it? It's a matter of merchandising, not artistic credibility. If Tarantino edits both volumes of Kill Bill into one big sloppy and lovable mess, will both original volumes still be available? Probably, because it will be something for the fanboys to buy in order to keep their collections complete. Which will be the versions dissected and analyzed in the future, say a hundred years from now? If one assumes there will be an academic pursuit such as Tarantino Studies in the year 2104 (which may sound absurd to some, but people study 19th century Penny Dreadfuls), then one can imagine future scholars sifting through the variety of versions available, editing compendia, comparing exegeses not unlike dusty monks studying the apocrypha in the middle ages.