'Apocalypse Now Final Cut' Trailer Teases Francis Ford Coppola's 4K Re-Release In All Its High-Def Glory

Apocalypse Now may be universally hailed as a cinematic masterpiece, but that hasn't stopped director Francis Ford Coppola from tinkering with it multiple times since its 1979 release. It only took 40 years, but the Oscar-winning director is finally satisfied. The upcoming Apocalypse Now Final Cut is being touted as Coppola's favorite version of the film, and viewers can finally experience it at its special 40th anniversary theatrical re-release in IMAX theaters this month. A new Apocalypse Now Final Cut trailer teases this IMAX release as well as the 4K Blu-ray release later this month. Watch the Apocalypse Now Final Cut trailer below.

Apocalypse Now had an infamously embattled production that resulted in the film going over-budget and over-schedule, and in director Francis Ford Coppola shooting and editing over a million feet of film. The final theatrical version would be soon hailed as a masterpiece, but several versions of the movie are still floating around: there's a five-hour workprint; there's Apocalypse Now: Redux, which has a full hour of new footage; and a director's cut. But Coppola declares in the new Apocalypse Now Final Cut trailer, that this latest version is his definitive favorite.

"I'm enthusiastic about this version because I realized I want to make a version that I like," Coppola said in the trailer. "It's longer than the 1979 version but shorter than Apocalypse Redux and it's the one I recommend to you as my favorite. It looks better than it ever looked and sounds better than it ever sounded.

Coppola's epic adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness takes place in the middle of the Vietnam War and follows Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) as he's tasked with finding and killing a vanished American colonel (Marlon Brando) who has been driven insane by the war. The original film's runtime was an already impressive 2 hours and 33 minutes, while Apocalypse Now: Redux was a whopping 3 hours and 40 minutes. The Final Cut sits prettily in between the two, at 3 hours and 3 minutes. The cut was also restored from its original negative and will use Dolby Vision HDR, which can "deliver spectacular colors never before seen on a screen, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker."

Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut will hit theaters on August 15, 2019, followed by the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (4K disc, plus three Blu-ray discs and Digital copy) and first-time Digital 4K Ultra HD releases on August 27, 2019.