Yes, Fox Really Should Make A PG-13 Version Of 'Deadpool'
For those who don’t know or don’t care, “Beyond the Trailer” host Grace Randolph dropped a video on January 13th basically complaining that releasingDeadpool into theaters as a hard R-rated film deprives young children (like a certain named and featured eight-year old Beyond the Trailer fan) who really want to see the film a chance to see it in theaters. It was followed up by a Change.Org petition beggingFox to make a separate PG-13 cut of the film. Considering that the petition has only earned 1,700 signatures, it’s the kind of thing that exists mostly to be written about and mocked.
As a rule, I usually ignore such news items as they tend to exist mostly as a form of self-promotion for the participants. But I’m making an exception this time because it’s a great idea. 20th Century Fox should absolutely cut a PG-13 version of the Ryan Reynolds comic book movie/X-Men spin-off to go along with their intended R-rated cut.
Of course, if you’ve seen parents bringing their young children to films like The HungerGames: Mockingjay part 2 or Saw II at any given multiplex, or you remember the theater lobby warnings basically begging parents not to take their kids to South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut back in July of 1999, you’ll know that parents who want to take their kids to Deadpool (either out of indifference or out of an inability to find babysitting) will take their kids to Deadpool when it opens in 2D and IMAX 2D on February 12th. But for the moment, let’s assume that there are kids out there who will be prevented from seeing the film because of its ”strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.”
Well, jokes that I made last month about taking my four-year old son to the press screening aside, that’s life kids. Maybe you can watch it when your parents are home or you can buy a ticket to Brooklyn and… hey! Yes, attention all children of the world! If your parents won’t let you see Deadpool on account of its rating, you should absolutely buy tickets to Brooklyn and sneak into Deadpool next month! But it has to be Brooklyn, because it’s Brooklyn and it’s awesome.And they both come from Fox, so nobody really gets hurt, right? Right?
In all seriousness, if Fox does this right, cutting a PG-13 version of the film would be just another feather in what has been a cap full of clever marketing gimmicks thus far. From the “12 Days of Deadpool” Christmas blitz to those goofy (and frighteningly accurate in terms of how studio marketers condescend to female audiences) “ romantic drama” posters positioning the film as a Valentine’s Day date movie, Fox is clearly having fun with marketing tropes as it attempts to sell its allegedly unconventional comic book movie. So why not use this clickbait-y petition to have a little fun and highlight just how R-rated your movie is?
I don’t just mean merely cutting a version of Deadpool with the nudity cut out and the CGI blood removed, as if it were a feature-length version of the film’s Green Band trailer. I mean Fox should make an extremely kid-friendly cut of the film.
Dub over every swear word with the silliest “Yippee Ki Yay, Uncle Falcon!” substitution you can imagine and with the least accurate vocal matches you can find. Go all Eyes Wide Shut with the film’s sexual content and nudity and have angelic cartoon figures obscuring the breasts and the butts. Either remove all of the CGI blood (assuming it’s not practical blood, but that’s an unrealistic wish) or go meta and substitute all of the blood with sweat (yes, I too owned Mortal Kombat on the Super Nes) or go Evil Dead II and make Deadpool into a comic book movie by way of Wii U’s Splatoon.
Fox is going to have to eventually cut a TV-14 version of this film in a couple years anyway, if not sooner for airplane screenings and the like. So why not have a little fun with it? As for what to do with this kid-friendly cut, that’s an open question.
You can wait until DVD/VOD and make it an extra. You can actually open it in theaters for a weekend or so after the actual R-rated film has finished its run (perhaps on March 25th if you’re so inclined), or you could make the “PG-13″ version something of a digital download extra that comes with a would-be “Super Ticket” type preview for the movie similar to what Paramount/Viacom VIAB -5.13% Inc. did with Anchorman 2 or World War Z. Of course how soon to make said download available is an open question, since I’m sure Fox doesn’t want DVD-quality uploads of this PG-rated cut of the film on Bit Torrent over the film’s opening weekend.
What they do with this cut, should they decide to do this as a marketing in-joke, is of course up to them. But it would absolutely be in line with the film’s joyfully goofy marketing campaign thus far, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole petition itself is something of a paid piece of viral marketing. But nonetheless, announcing a super kid-friendly PG-13 (or PG-rated) version of Deadpool would be another way to garner copious free publicity in the run-up to release. It would be entirely in-character with the tone of the campaign and its lead character thus-far, while garnering free publicity, highlighting the R-rated nature of the film, and creating a secondary product to be sold or used as Fox desires.
The petition may be laughable, but it presents an opportunity to create something that fans can laugh with, rather than laugh at. It would be a fudging wonderful gimmick and entirely in line with what Fox has been doing to sell the film thus far.
For those who don’t know or don’t care, “Beyond the Trailer” host Grace Randolph dropped a video on January 13th basically complaining that releasingDeadpool into theaters as a hard R-rated film deprives young children (like a certain named and featured eight-year old Beyond the Trailer fan) who really want to see the film a chance to see it in theaters. It was followed up by a Change.Org petition beggingFox to make a separate PG-13 cut of the film. Considering that the petition has only earned 1,700 signatures, it’s the kind of thing that exists mostly to be written about and mocked.
As a rule, I usually ignore such news items as they tend to exist mostly as a form of self-promotion for the participants. But I’m making an exception this time because it’s a great idea. 20th Century Fox should absolutely cut a PG-13 version of the Ryan Reynolds comic book movie/X-Men spin-off to go along with their intended R-rated cut.
Of course, if you’ve seen parents bringing their young children to films like The HungerGames: Mockingjay part 2 or Saw II at any given multiplex, or you remember the theater lobby warnings basically begging parents not to take their kids to South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut back in July of 1999, you’ll know that parents who want to take their kids to Deadpool (either out of indifference or out of an inability to find babysitting) will take their kids to Deadpool when it opens in 2D and IMAX 2D on February 12th. But for the moment, let’s assume that there are kids out there who will be prevented from seeing the film because of its ”strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.”
Well, jokes that I made last month about taking my four-year old son to the press screening aside, that’s life kids. Maybe you can watch it when your parents are home or you can buy a ticket to Brooklyn and… hey! Yes, attention all children of the world! If your parents won’t let you see Deadpool on account of its rating, you should absolutely buy tickets to Brooklyn and sneak into Deadpool next month! But it has to be Brooklyn, because it’s Brooklyn and it’s awesome.And they both come from Fox, so nobody really gets hurt, right? Right?
In all seriousness, if Fox does this right, cutting a PG-13 version of the film would be just another feather in what has been a cap full of clever marketing gimmicks thus far. From the “12 Days of Deadpool” Christmas blitz to those goofy (and frighteningly accurate in terms of how studio marketers condescend to female audiences) “ romantic drama” posters positioning the film as a Valentine’s Day date movie, Fox is clearly having fun with marketing tropes as it attempts to sell its allegedly unconventional comic book movie. So why not use this clickbait-y petition to have a little fun and highlight just how R-rated your movie is?
I don’t just mean merely cutting a version of Deadpool with the nudity cut out and the CGI blood removed, as if it were a feature-length version of the film’s Green Band trailer. I mean Fox should make an extremely kid-friendly cut of the film.
Dub over every swear word with the silliest “Yippee Ki Yay, Uncle Falcon!” substitution you can imagine and with the least accurate vocal matches you can find. Go all Eyes Wide Shut with the film’s sexual content and nudity and have angelic cartoon figures obscuring the breasts and the butts. Either remove all of the CGI blood (assuming it’s not practical blood, but that’s an unrealistic wish) or go meta and substitute all of the blood with sweat (yes, I too owned Mortal Kombat on the Super Nes) or go Evil Dead II and make Deadpool into a comic book movie by way of Wii U’s Splatoon.
Fox is going to have to eventually cut a TV-14 version of this film in a couple years anyway, if not sooner for airplane screenings and the like. So why not have a little fun with it? As for what to do with this kid-friendly cut, that’s an open question.
You can wait until DVD/VOD and make it an extra. You can actually open it in theaters for a weekend or so after the actual R-rated film has finished its run (perhaps on March 25th if you’re so inclined), or you could make the “PG-13″ version something of a digital download extra that comes with a would-be “Super Ticket” type preview for the movie similar to what Paramount/Viacom VIAB -5.13% Inc. did with Anchorman 2 or World War Z. Of course how soon to make said download available is an open question, since I’m sure Fox doesn’t want DVD-quality uploads of this PG-rated cut of the film on Bit Torrent over the film’s opening weekend.
What they do with this cut, should they decide to do this as a marketing in-joke, is of course up to them. But it would absolutely be in line with the film’s joyfully goofy marketing campaign thus far, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole petition itself is something of a paid piece of viral marketing. But nonetheless, announcing a super kid-friendly PG-13 (or PG-rated) version of Deadpool would be another way to garner copious free publicity in the run-up to release. It would be entirely in-character with the tone of the campaign and its lead character thus-far, while garnering free publicity, highlighting the R-rated nature of the film, and creating a secondary product to be sold or used as Fox desires.
The petition may be laughable, but it presents an opportunity to create something that fans can laugh with, rather than laugh at. It would be a fudging wonderful gimmick and entirely in line with what Fox has been doing to sell the film thus far.
BTW, I've had the initial convo with my girl. Used your back and forth as a word for word template and she's agreed to see this but she's gonna check out the trailer later. I'll post the whole convo when I get that response
