Altered ‘Speech’ due out
Studio omits profanity in film
Colin Firth said he didn’t like it, but a new version of “The King’s Speech” is heading to theaters just the same.
The Weinstein Co. said Thursday it was releasing a tweaked version of the Academy Awards best-picture winner starting next Friday in which a scene featuring Oscar winner Firth’s swearing as the stuttering Duke of York has been amended to omit the F-word.
The studio also said that the original R-rated version will no longer be shown as of next weekend.
“The King’s Speech” has been doing quite well even with the R rating, grossing about $2 million last weekend.
The new release is clearly aimed at the glut of spring-breakers available for moviegoing – though it remains to be seen whether adolescents who haven’t already seen the period drama will now be flooding theaters.
The Weinstein Co. is promoting the new cut as a “family film” – which means that, in the company’s eyes, the story of a 1930s monarch rising up against Nazism will be competing squarely against the Easter Bunny saga “Hop.”