【France Archives】

Well,France Archives whaddaya know – maybe angry-tweeting works sometimes after all.

Earlier this month, Sony announced a new "Clean Version" initiative that would offer sanitized versions of its movies. Basically, the broadcast TV or airplane versions of the movies – the ones with all the bad language, brief nudity, and graphic violence cut out – would be available as extras on home video.

SEE ALSO: Guy takes a photo with Seth Rogen every year for a good cause

The response was swift and not all that positive. Several filmmakers responded with outrage – including Judd Apatow, who produced two of the movies slated to get the Clean Version treatment (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobbyand Step Brothers).

This is absolute bullshit and @sony and @SonyPictures is gonna get hell for FUCKING with our movies.Shove the clean versions up your asses! https://t.co/UhRUP0ZIlz

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) June 13, 2017

Seth Rogen also voiced his displeasure with Sony's plans:

Holy shit please don't do this to our movies. Thanks. https://t.co/0lpoESaIQd

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 6, 2017

Rogen isn't officially involved with any of the Clean Version titles (unless you count a brief cameo in Step Brothers) but he's worked with the studio in the past on R-rated comedies like This Is the End, The Interview, and Sausage Party.

McKay, who directed Step Brothersand Talladega Nights, issued some strong words of his own through a rep: "The Clean Version initiative is news to Adam McKay. He would not have agreed to this."

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Initially, the studio insisted it was in the clear. "We discussed this program, and the use of these pre-existing versions, with each director or their representatives," said Sony Home Entertainment president Man Jit Singh in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

But in the face of growing opposition, the studio is singing a different tune. Here's the latest comment from Singh:

Our directors are of paramount importance to us and we want to respect those relationships to the utmost. We believed we had obtained approvals from the filmmakers involved for use of their previously supervised television versions as a value added extra on sales of the full version. But if any of them are unhappy or have reconsidered, we will discontinue it for their films.

Presumably, this means McKay's Step Brothersand Talladega Nightswill be removed from the list eventually. For some perspective, the Clean Version of Step Brothersremoves "152 instances of bad language, 91 instances of sexual content, and 22 instances of violence."

Sony has been touting its Clean Version as a more family-friendly way to enjoy popular movies:

And it's easy enough to see why the studio might see this as a good idea, particularly when third-party services like ClearPlay and VidAngel have already filtering out NSFW content from existing movies. (As Salonreports, ClearPlay has run into "technical issues" while VidAngel's been locked in a legal battle, but still – the idea's already out there.)

But it's also understandable that filmmakers are none too thrilled about the prospect of their films being butchered for younger or more conservative audiences. The concept of a "clean version" might not be novel – as we've mentioned, Sony's program is really just a new way of releasing broadcast TV and airplane versions – but filmmakers haven't always been happy about those, either.

Time will tell how this pans out. For now, the Clean Version program only involves a handful of Sony movies, and the sanitized edits are only available as bonus features with the regular, un-sanitized versions on iTunes, VUDU, and FandangoNOW. If it proves popular, though, it's not hard to imagine the studio expanding their program.

But for now, at least, Sony's directors can breathe a little easier.

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