Stephen King's Needful Things was adapted into a 1993 movie starring Ed Harris and Max von Sydow, but a rare three-hour extended cut also exists. While actual season-long TV series based on King's work are starting to become common, for several decades, King adaptations tended to come in two flavors: feature films and miniseries that aired in multiple movie-length parts. Prime examples of the former form include The Shining, Pet Sematary, and Carrie, while the latter category includes IT, The Stand, and Salem's Lot.
Over the years, some King books have been adapted into both movies and miniseries, such as IT, Carrie, and The Shining. Some other books will soon join that list, including Salem's Lot and The Tommyknockers. However, never before has a project made as a movie then itself morphed into a miniseries, except for one occurrence. That odd distinction belongs to Needful Things, which began life in theaters, but due to being released near the height of King's miniseries dominance, subsequently got converted.
While many people understandably refer to Needful Things' longer cut as an extended version, and to be fair, it is that, the intent behind making it was actually to try and produce a new hit King miniseries. That might not make sense in hindsight, but one network seemed to think the idea was sound.
Needful Things Extended Cut Explained (& Why It's So Rare)
Needful Things was directed by Fraser C. Heston, son of legendary actor Charlton Heston. While the film has a cult following now, at the time of release, critics slammed Needful Things, and it failed to make a splash at the box office. However, cable network TBS, then not focused on comedy programming, saw an opportunity to reinvent Needful Things as a King miniseries special event. As often happens in Hollywood, especially when adapting a book, there was a ton of material filmed that ended up on the cutting room floor.
TBS commissioned distributor Columbia Pictures and Heston to put together a miniseries edit that could air in a four-hour TV timeslot, adding back an hour of deleted scenes. Heston did so, but stresses that the extended cut is not a director's cut, as he prefers the theatrical edit. Over the years, the Needful Things extended cut has become a desired item for many King fans, if only due to its rarity. Outside of sporadic cable airings on TBS since the 1990s, the extended cut isn't commercially available in the US, not to stream, rent, buy, or anything else.
In fact, the only home video release of the Needful Things three-hour cut came in early 2020, as a standard definition extra on a German Blu-Ray release of the film. It's even in 4:3 TV aspect ratio. However, that release appears to already be out of print. The most obvious explanation for the rarity seems to be TBS' apparent ownership of the extended cut, as no other stateside platform has ever shown it. One would think it would make a great addition to HBO Max, which incorporates TBS programming, but it's such a cult item that interest from the masses probably wouldn't be there.