VIDEO BOLDLY GOING BACK TO CUTTING ROOM NEW 'TREK'; UNDISTURBED 'REMAINS'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

For directors, putting some of their older films on DVD must be a bit like looking at pictures of their children when they were young.

But unlike with their kids, directors get to make alterations if they weren't fully satisfied the first time. That's the way it was for 87-year-old Robert Wise on the special DVD edition of his 1979 film, ``Star Trek - The Motion Picture.'' On the other hand, returning to the 1993 Oscar- nominated film ``The Remains of the Day'' for the DVD was simply a pleasant experience for the director, James Ivory.

Now you would think that two-time Oscar-winning director Wise (``West Side Story,'' ``The Sound of Music'') would not have any problems getting the final cut, but, as he explains, he was under pressure to get the film to Washington, D.C., for the premiere.

Though the screening was a success, Wise had some refinements he wanted to make. ``But the studio was afraid that if word got out that we were going back and playing with it some more, people would think we had a bad picture so they wouldn't let me do it.''

Now Wise, who was editor on the Orson Welles classic ``Citizen Kane,'' says he's ``very happy'' to have gotten to make those changes, including adding about five minutes to the film and fixing Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful soundtrack.

Wise says he wasn't a Trekkie when he was asked to do the film. In fact he hadn't even seen the series, but after the studio sent him over some episodes to watch, he agreed to do it.

Working with series creator Gene Roddenberry and its veteran actors - William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy - was a pleasant experience, Wise says, although Nimoy had to be convinced to don the Vulcan ears again.

After the success of ``Star Wars'' and with the cult status of ``Star Trek,'' there were high expectations for the film, but Wise says they didn't have a script before shooting began.

``We were rewriting the script all the way through.'' In fact, he says, they had to start shooting before a script was finished. One of the reasons was that the actors were so familiar with their characters that they would suggest changes.

``Star Trek - The Motion Picture'' ultimately met with mixed reviews, but it launched a movie franchise that is still going strong. ``Star Trek: Nemesis'' is scheduled for sometime next year.

Here's hoping that somebody will do a special-edition DVD for ``West Side Story.'' Wise says he just got back from New York City from the 40th-anniversary screening of the film's release, and ``I must say that it held up wonderfully well.''

The pride that Wise feels about ``West Side Story'' must be similar to what Ivory feels about ``The Remains of the Day,'' saying he has ``always been proud of it.''

Ivory says making the film, which starred Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox and Christopher Reeve, was a good experience, one that seems to extend to doing the commentary on the DVD.

That was, he says, in part because he, Thompson and producer Ismael Merchant had a ``nice lunch and a bit of wine. We were in a generally uncritical mood and rather positive about (the film). It was rather fun to go back to it. I saw the sorts of things I forgot about. It was thoroughly enjoyable.'' The 73-year-old Ivory says they didn't include everything they could on the DVD, though some deleted scenes were added. Unlike Wise, Ivory wasn't interested in putting anything back in the film. He had the final cut on the story about a butler (Hopkins) who lives a suppressed life serving a master (Fox) who during the 1930s has misguided sympathies for the Nazis.

Ivory says the scenes he put on the DVD were interesting in themselves but didn't go toward furthering the story.

Though ``Remains'' is filled with great actors - Hopkins and Thompson are Oscar winners, Thompson for Ivory's ``Howard's End'' - one whom Ivory talked about on the phone from his apartment in New York was Christopher Reeve, whom he also used in the ``Bostonians.''

``When he did the 'Bostonians' for us, anyone could see he was doing something so amusing and different and strong, but they were always talking about 'Superman,' '' says Ivory. ``Had he not been injured, I think he would be playing all kinds of tremendous parts.''

Ivory's latest film, ``The Golden Bowl,'' an adaption of the Henry James novel, is also out on video today. And the director is pleased to see that some of his early films, like ``Shakespeare Wallah,'' are going to be coming out out on DVD.

MORE MOBSTERS: The complete second season of ``The Sopranos'' also comes out today. The four-disc DVD includes audio commentaries, interviews with cast and creator, and a featurette, ``The Real Deal.'' The series only picked up one Emmy for the second season - it won four this year for the third season - but it was during the second year it really hit (is that the right word?) its stride.

``Star Trek - The Motion Picture'' (Paramount) is $29.95 on DVD. The two-disc set includes the director's edition of the film, commentary by Michael Okuda, co-author of the ``Star Trek'' Encyclopedia, and three retrospective documentaries with cast and crew interviews. ``The Remains of the Day'' (Columbia TriStar) is $29.95 on DVD. It includes commentary by Ivory and Thompson, the HBO ``making of'' featurette, deleted scenes and a documentary featuring interviews with Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Reeve and other cast and crew members. ``The Golden Bowl'' (Trimark) is priced for rental on VHS. It's not available yet on DVD. ``The Sopranos: The Complete Second Season'' (HBO) is $99.98 on DVD and includes 13 episodes, two featurettes and director commentary for four episodes.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) After 22 years, ``Star Trek - The Motion Picture'' finally gets the edit its director wanted, on a special-edition DVD.

(2) Director Robert Wise added five minutes to ``Star Trek.''

(3) Anthony Hopkins, left, plays a butler tormented by feelings for Emma Thompson's Miss Kenton in ``The Remains of the Day.''