Update: Deadline reveals that no footage from the film was edited, but instead, the Weinsteins got clearance for PG-13 by muting three of the five prominent “Fucks” in the film. So: 2 fucks good, 5 fucks bad. And who says the MPAA are ridiculous?
Well, it looks like Harvey Scissorhands is gonna get his way. Last month, it was revealed that Harvey Weinstein was entertaining the notion of snipping/editing “The King’s Speech” so it could get a much more box office friendly and school children approved PG-13 rating. As a whole, the film is pretty harmless, but the big sequence in question was a scene in which the titular king launches into a tirade of expletives during a session with his speech therapist resulting in a string of 15 f-bombs. And while director Tom Hooper swore he wasn’t going to take a knife to his film, somebody has, and the edited version of the movie has been given the thumbs up by the MPAA.
THR reports that not only has the film now been granted a PG-13 rating, The Weinstein Company won’t have to wait the standard 90 days to put the new cut into theaters — they’ve been given a waiver to allow them to put the film into theaters as soon as possible providing they make adequate strides to inform the public that it’s not the original, R-rated version.
With “The King’s Speech” poised to take home the Best Picture statue on Sunday night, the Weinsteins are no doubt thrilled that they will be able to capitalize on that with a cut of the film that won’t limit who can buy a ticket to watch it. Just a shame that it comes with a dark cloud over it, one where presumably, the director’s wishes have not been respected at all in order to make a buck. But hey, that’s Hollywood.
No word yet on an exact date for the re-release but if all goes as expected this weekend, you can bet the Weinsteins will be moving very fast.
