PG-13 Rated Version of The King’s Speech To Be Released

News, Projects

Variety is reporting that the MPAA has given an edited version of The King’s Speech a PG-13 rating. The film’s studio, The Weinstein Company, hopes to release this new version in order to capitalize off the predicted success the movie will have at this weekend’s Academy Awards.

Last year, The Weinstein Company found itself in duel battles with the MPAA over two of their films. Blue Valentine was originally given an NC-17 rating due to a sex scene. The rating was appealed and the movie released as an R without edits. The King’s Speech was rated R for profanity — most of it coming from one particular scene in which Colin Firth’s King George VI unleashes a stream of profanity in an effort to break through his stuttering problem. The Weinstein’s hoped to appeal the rating and release the movie as PG-13 — a rating they felt would help the film’s box office.

According to the LA Times, The Weinstein Company chose to mute out the offensive language — allowing the film to be reclassified as a PG-13 film. The MPAA has apparently also given the studio a waver to the rule that would force a 90 window between the different versions of the film being released in theaters. The Weinstein Company will need to make a concentrated effort to educate the public via an advertising campaign of the film’s new rating.

It’s not yet known when the different versions of the movies will be swapped. If you’d like to see the unedited version of The King’s Speech, I’d recommend you make the trip this weekend. There’s no word which version of the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.