During a recent interview with Dark Horizons, director Ridley Scott spoke a bit about the DVD release of his upcoming epic, Kingdom of Heaven, which hits theaters on May 6th. According to the director, not only will a multi-disc DVD set be available next year, but the director plans on adding over an hour of footage back into the theatrcial cut of the film.

The assorted actors and Scott himself confirmed today that the original cut of the film clocked in at a little over three hours (around 195 mins). Actress Eva Green revealed that the longer cut focuses more on the characters, and less on the crusades themselves.

Amongst the stuff edited out is more of the love story between Green and Bloom's character, and a subplot involving her son. Green says her Lady Macbeth style tragic character is more complex in the longer version - a journey of self discovery.

Why then did they bother with a shorter theatrical cut? Scott says "The DVD world is a different experience. A theatrical audience goes out to see the movie, and I think to a degree there's a tolerance...do you think operas tend to be a bit long? do you think theatre tends to be a bit long? You think 'oh my god' there's going to be another act...The extended version, you can tell why we had certain scenes in the extended version. The one that went out was the best version, no question about it in my opinion."

CLICK HERE for the full scoop over at Dark Horizons!