Paramount shopping around two cuts of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with two different ratings

I honestly keep forgetting that HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS exists, until perdiodically one small snippet of news comes along to remind me that I have every reason to be looking forward to it. Except for the small, lingering, distracting question of why the Paramount hasn’t seen fit to show anything from the movie beyond a single promotional image (see above).

As it turns out, part (or most [or all]) of that may be due to Paramount simply not having a clue of how to market whatever it is that they have exactly.  The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide has shared a thread it found on IMDb for folks who had been to screenings of the movie, and it seems that Paramount has been bouncing back and forth between an R-rated cut and a PG13-rated cut.  Here are a few choice comments from the people privy to the screenings:

“I can’t say a lot because of agreements with the company, Overall I will say that I really enjoyed this one. It was different, violent, pretty funny- Sort of like Drive Angry 3D or Scott Pilgrim humor, and I thought everyone did well. It kind of felt like they nailed the ancient humor the way ‘Your Highness’ was supposed too but didn’t.” – User RickCastle

“The first one was definitely the Rated R version. Good humor, good action, great fight scenes, awesome dynamic between Renner and Arterton. I loved it so much the first time, I made a group of friends go to the second screening the next week. But the next week, they had heavily edited it and turned it into a PG-13 film. If they keep it R, it’s gonna be great. Silly, but actiony and fun. If it’s PG13, it won’t be worth it. Let’s hope it’s an R rating.” – user pyromaniac975

There’s also the statement being made that part of the reason the movie was delayed from this past March into January of 2013 is due to how Paramount “quietly post-converted the movie to 3D.”  Damnit Jim! It’s a movie, not a money magnet!

HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is directed by Tommy Wirkola (DEAD SNOW), stars Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, and Famke Janssen, and bears a release date of January 11th, 2013.