Thursday, 8 August 2013

SNOWPIERCER TO BE CUT BY 20 MINUTES FOR WESTERN RELEASE?


Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer has been given a lot of attention on this site, as I'm rather excited to see it. It opened last weekend in South Korea, where it earned more money than the rest of the Korean box office during that time and posted the highest opening weekend there since Iron Man 3. Despite all the hype, a US release date has not yet been announced, and now we know why: The Weinstein Company, which is handling US distribution, plans to cut around twenty minutes out of Bong's film, over 15% of its 126-minute runtime. And the reason for this? It has nothing to do with quality - Harvey Weinstein has reportedly told bong that he wants to make sure that the film will be 'understood by audiences in Iowa... and Oklahoma'. Because, obviously, people in Iowa and Oklahoma are exclusively dunces. And so, many character details are set to be sacrificed in order to fashion the film into a more conventional action picture, and voiceovers will be added to both beginning and end. Not sure yet whether or not this will apply to any other countries outside of the US, as if this is only TWC's plans and they're not distributing in nations beyond North America, those of us neither in Iowa nor Oklahoma will have to suffer at Harvey's hands. But there are 48 other states in the US, some of which are fairly certain to welcome this dystopian sci-fi with an international cast better than either of those two.

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