As children of the movies-on-basic-cable era, we’ve all been subject to watching movies with the words “f@ck” and “holy shit” awfully dubbed as "fudge" and “gosh darn it.” Not to mention all the nudity is gone, violence taken out and virtually every good scene replaced by an ad for Lunchables. Some of the folks at Sony seem to think we don’t see these versions enough, and are now making them available all over the gosh darn internet.
Yahoo! is reporting that Sony Pictures is kicking off a new "Clean Version" initiative, buyers will automatically get these "clean" versions when they purchase movies on platforms such as ITunes, Vudu and FandangoNOW. The project will offer buyers to choose the option to buy television and airline versions of select films, so that they may be watched with the whole mother flippin’ family.
The first slate of films will include 24 of Sony’s films, including PG-13 fare like 50 FIRST DATES, BIG DADDY, all of the SPIDER-MAN movies, TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY, as well as adult flicks like STEP BROTHERS, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. You know, because the issue of kids seeing naughty words in foreign action movie subtitles has been a national crisis in recent years.
However, not everyone is over the moon about the project, with actor Seth Rogen voicing his concern on Twitter about his movies being tinkered with, even though (thankfully) none of his movies are on the initial list:
This is not a new development, as some third-party services, like ClearPlay and VidAngel, have been working for years to clean movies of content they find inappropriate, such as sex and violence. The controversial move has sparked issues over unauthorized edits of artists’ work, sometimes involving lawsuits from Disney, Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm.
Though movies have undergone editing for TV and planes for as long as they’ve been available this somehow feels like an overreaction. The reason why they’re edited for certain formats is because kids have easier access to them when they’re on TV, meaning the movies have to meet certain regulations if they’re to be played. But for Sony to cut and edit them just to try and expand their reach is simply a bastardization of (some) great work. Why taking bad words out of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS will somehow make it more accessible to children is beyond me, and what kid hasn’t already seen the SPIDER-MAN movies in theaters? This seems like a blatant marketing move from a studio that’s seen its share of troubles in the last few years and doesn’t seem to know how to get out of the funk. All I have to say is the, “Hey, let’s let people buy the TV versions of movies!” idea is not exactly the move that will make them more popular in the cafeteria.