With an additional 15 minutes of footage edited back into the film, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing The Natural: Director’s Cut in April on DVD.

Directed by Barry Levinson, “The Natural” spins the magical tale of an unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) who appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat hewn from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs experiences the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he was inexplicably shot by a young woman.

The DVD will offer up the movie in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 channel audio tracks in English, French, Japanese and Portuguese – what a selection – and optional subtitles.
Coming as a 2-disc DVD set the release will also contain a large number of bonus materials, such as an Introduction by Barry Levinson and 11 Featurettes covering subjects such as “A Natural Gunned Down: The Stalking of Eddie Waitkus,” “Clubhouse Conversations,” “Slow Motion,” “Uniform Colors,” “The Sandberg Game,” “The President’s Question,” “Knights in Shining Armor: The Mythology of The Natural,” “The Heart Of The Natural,” “When Lightning Strikes” and others.

The DVD set will be available in stores on April 3 for $24.94.