[mousepod]

Alex is correct about the theatrical versions being trailers for the DVD versions, but I wouldn't blame the director. It's almost always the studio, who will demand a film of a certain length in order to have a set number of screenings per day per theater. The director will invariably turn in their own preferred cut as well as the shorter version, so the producers don't do the cutting for them.

If I know that there's a much longer version coming out, I'll skip the theater and watch it on my big tv.

If this had been the case in the '80s, perhaps David Lynch's cut of Dune might have survived...