Sony’s ‘Clean Version’ Initiative to Make Films Like ‘Step Brothers’ and ‘Captain Phillips’ Safe for Your Kids
Has this ever happened to you? Your kid is browsing the ol’ digital video library for something fun to watch when they settle on Captain Phillips, that contemporary Tom Hanks feel good classic. Unfortunately, it has some “mature content,” like a handful of swears and intense moments, and you don’t even want to think about what Paul Greengrass’ camerawork is going to do to that kid. Lucky for you, Sony’s “Clean Version” initiative is here to sanitize all that questionable content, making several movies in their library fun for the whole family.
Update: Seth Rogen took to Twitter to respond to the studio’s initiative. The actor and producer has made a few films for Sony and his Point Grey production office is located on the same lot. As of now, none of his films — like the recent R-rated animated Sausage Party — are on the inaugural list of “Clean Version” titles, and he’d like to keep it that way, tweeting “Holy s--- please don’t do this to our movies. Thanks.”
Original story below…
Via Yahoo! Movies, Sony launched the new initiative today with two dozen titles, including movies like Moneyball and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and a few Adam Sandler comedies — you know, all the good stuff kids just can’t resist. Okay, fine, the list also features several movies that appeal to kids but might not sit well with their parents due to some of that pesky “mature” content. The “Clean Version” initiative takes safer edits that were previously only available on broadcast TV and airplanes, and packages them — at no additional charge — with the theatrical versions of films purchased on iTunes, VUDU and FandangoNOW.
Some of these titles kind of make sense, like the Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man movies — though I’m not entirely sure what needs to be edited out to make these movies more family-friendly. Perhaps the most hilarious title on the list is Adam McKay’s cult classic comedy Step Brothers, which wouldn’t be nearly as funny without all that “mature content.” I mean, “it’s the Catalina wine mixer” doesn’t have the same comedic power without that F-bomb, and that’s just the tip of the inappropriate iceberg.
Here’s the list of the 24 titles included in the launch of Sony’s “Clean Version” initiative because I know some of you cannot WAIT to finally be able to show your kids Captain Phillips and Elysium as soon as cinematically possible:
- 50 First Dates
- Battle Of The Year
- Big Daddy
- Captain Phillips
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- Easy A
- Elysium
- Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters II
- Goosebumps
- Grown Ups
- Grown Ups 2
- Hancock
- Inferno
- Moneyball
- Pixels
- Spider-Man
- Spider-Man 2
- Spider-Man 3
- The Amazing Spider-Man
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
- Step Brothers
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
- White House Down