He shot the film across four continents. It was almost five hours long. His distributors demanded he cut it in half. So he made a duplicate first, did all their butchering on the copy, and hid the original negatives away.

For nearly three decades, the only version most people could see was the one he called the "Reader's Digest version." Then the hidden negatives resurfaced, and the full 287-minute cut he had always intended was restored in 4K.

UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (1991) is Wim Wenders' science-fiction road movie set in the far-off year of 1999.

Before shooting, Wenders approached some of the world's top musicians with a strange instruction: Do not just write me a song, he said. Write me the song you think you will be making in 1999.

Talking Heads sent back their final single. U2 was so pleased with their contribution they reclaimed it for Achtung Baby. R.E.M., Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode all answered the same impossible brief. For years, more people owned the album than had seen the movie.

Near the end of the film its characters stand alone in the Australian desert, unable to look away from small handheld screens playing their own recorded dreams, addicted to images of themselves. Wenders shot that in 1990.