'The King's Speech' May be Re-Released without Profanities

By Josephine Vivaldo, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 27, 2011

With a dozen Oscar nominations in hand, "The King's Speech" may be re-edited to reach a wider PG audience.

Currently, the acclaimed film is rated R and executive producer and distributor Harvey Weinstein announced plans to re-submit the movie with a PG-13 or PG rating. The goal is to make it more accessible and family-friendly.

It has apparently been working in Britain, where the film has a 12-and-over rating. It has topped the UK box office for three weeks.

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Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times, "The British numbers are huge because the rating lets families see the movie together. Tom and I are trying to find a unique way to do this that keeps his vision of the movie."

Weinstein Co. is also planning a new marketing strategy to focus more on the theme of friendship between King George VI and his speech therapist. Kevin Goets, the president of the movie research company Screen Engine stated, "The most important thing is that the movie has morphed into an event that everyone is talking about. The ads need to remind people of that."

New ads will state: "Some things never go out of style: Friendship; Courage; Loyalty."

The British film stars Colin Firth as King George VI, Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, and Geoffrey Rush as the king's therapist. It portrays the king, father of Queen Elizabeth II, finding himself unable to talk to the nation, having struggled with a speech stammer since the age of five. The story largely focuses on the time Britain declared a war on Nazi Germany.

Although the historical drama doesn't contain sex, nudity or violence, it includes a ten-second scene where the king is asked to run through a list of swear words as part of his therapy.

The lower-rated version would likely hit theaters after the Oscars, which is scheduled for February 27. Weinstein Co. is currently working on releasing the film to more than 3,000 theaters around Valentine's Day.

"The King's Speech" is up for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won a best actor Golden Globe for Colin Firth.