A controversial move will see Sony edit selected movies to produce family friendly versions stripped of violence, sex, and profanity.
Sony will bundle these clean versions with selected digital purchases from iTunes, Vudu and FandangoNow.
The move is controversial because several major Hollywood studios are actually engaged in an active lawsuit against third party companies that do exactly this - edit movies to produce family friendly versions. Studios say this violates their copyright, and filmmakers believes this is an assault on their artistic intent.
But with Sony producing their own clean versions, it sidesteps the copyright issue, and as for artistic intent, filmmakers often have no choice in the matter. In most cases, the clean versions already exists and have been produced for television broadcasts or for showings on flights.
Still, some in Hollywood are already speaking out against the initiative. Actor, comedian and director Seth Rogen posted this on Twitter "Holy shit please don't do this to our movies. Thanks". The actor later went on to explain the main reasons for this disgust.
"I don't dig any watered down version being out there, but those are done so ramshackle they would never pass for the actual product. I'd be worried these would be put together so well that in several years you wouldn't know these weren't the original films," Rogen tweeted.
Sony's Clean Versions will launch with 24 titles, including the likes of 'White House Down', 'Grown Ups' and 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2', and including Seth Rogen's own 'Grown Ups 2', 'Step Brothers'.
[via Home Media Magazine, MovieWeb]
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