I didn’t hate the big screen adaptation of Toby Young’s How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, but it was definitely a disappointment and a missed opportunity (read my full review here). It didn’t feel like the movie that ended up on screen was what Simon Pegg and director Robert Weide thought they were signing on for. This has now been pretty much confirmed by both Pegg and Weide, who are making a public plea for fans to avoid buying the DVD of the movie when it comes out on February 17th.

The reason why they don’t support the DVD release is that throughout the production of the film, they made a number of concessions and cut out some scenes that they felt were very important, with the understanding that they would later be made available as the deleted scenes on the DVD. Unfortunately, the American distributors (MGM/Fox) have decided to exclude these extras from the Region 1 release.

“There were a few scenes that I fought hard to keep, but eventually acquiesced with the knowledge that at least they’d be available on the DVD. Well, not so in the U.S… Simon and I worked very hard to make sure the DVD would be packed with bonus material. The British distributors (Paramount) solicited our input and included all of the extras. Sadly, the American distributors (MGM/Fox) locked us out of the process and managed to leave off most of the bonus material.”

The U.S. release does include two audio commentary tracks by Pegg and Weide, however. It will be interesting to see if MGM and Fox change their mind about the DVD release as a result of this statement, although I do also think it’s weird that Robert Weide and Simon Pegg are making such a big deal out of the whole thing. A Director’s Cut of the film would be worth fighting for, but I feel like deleted scenes tend to go ignored on most DVDs nowadays anyway. For more info, check out the full press release over on Simon Pegg’s MySpace blog.