Fritz Lang’s (opens in a new tab) 1927 sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis (opens in a new tab) was given a cinema re-release in 2010 after missing scenes, long thought lost, were discovered (opens in a new tab) in an Argentinian museum and reintegrated back into the film. 26 years earlier, music producer Giorgio Moroder (opens in a new tab) produced and released an alternative version of the film which was restored and had various scenes that were missing from the first US release reinserted back in.

Controversially, Moroder also replaced the original orchestral score by Gottfried Huppertz (opens in a new tab) with contemporary rock and pop music from the likes of Pat Benatar (opens in a new tab), Bonnie Tyler (opens in a new tab), Adam Ant (opens in a new tab) and Freddie Mercury (opens in a new tab). Despite the heated debate that this re-release provoked it did have the benefit of bringing the film back into the public consciousness and led to further restorations over the following years. The discovery of the lost footage in 2008 was a complete revelation and brought the film very close to its original release version, which many feared was lost forever.

Queen’s music video for their song ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (opens in a new tab) was released at the same time and featured footage for the film.

As well as the original restored film, the Moroder version was released on blu-ray (opens in a new tab) in 2011.

The original trailer for this version is on YouTube (opens in a new tab).