LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:
It would seem to be against conventional wisdom to change anything about a movie after it wins the Oscar for Best Picture. But as soon as award season ends it's all about cashing in. And PG-13 movies tend to fare better at the box office than those with an R rating. Especially in Utah.
Not coincidentally, we first heard of the Weinstein Company's intentions to sanitize "The King's Speech" immediately after the Academy Awards. Which mad Colin Firth a made man. "I don't take this stuff lightly," he said but in the context of this film, it could not be more edifying, more appropriate."
What Firth meant to say, of course, was best illustrated in the clip that will be "fuck"-less come April 1, April Fool's Day, when the R-rated version of The King's Speech will be replaced by a PG-13 version. And yes, it's still in theaters, playing on more than 1,000 screens.
Here's the clip in question: