In an interview with Sci Fi Wire, Watchmen helmer Zack Snyder provided some details on the contents of the Watchmen Director’s Cut DVD and Blu-ray releases which are due out on July 21st.  The Director’s Cut will be 28 minutes longer than the theatrical film’s 2 hour and 42 minutes running time and will contain scenes deleted from the original release including the death of Hollis Mason and shots of the kid reading Tales of the Black Freighter at the newsstand—though it won’t have the actual animated Black Freighter footage integrated into the film—that will have to wait for “The Black Freighter Cut,” which, according to Snyder, “is planned for a future release.”

In addition to a digital copy of the film, the Watchmen Director’s Cut does contain a number of very cool special features, most notably “Maximum Movie Mode,” a mega -behind-the-scenes feature that is presented in a picture-in-picture format concurrent with the film itself and features interviews with cast and crew and commentaries by Snyder himself, who momentarily stops the action to explain certain salient points.  Since many of these explanations involve spoilers, first-time viewers should not employ the “Maximum Movie Mode,” which, Snyder told Sci Fi Wire, adds about 10 minutes to the film’s running time.  Casual viewers who haven’t read the graphic novel and are confused by the movie will find the feature useful as will hardcore fans, who should enjoy the extensive and well-integrated behind-the-scenes perspective.