What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

[Capt-Cupcake]

My wife and I were thrilled that Sony added clean versions of their films that we could show our kids without worry. I noticed they're gone now. What happened??

[Cranston37]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

My wife and I were thrilled that Sony added clean versions of their films that we could show our kids without worry. I noticed they're gone now. What happened??

Directors were upset that their movies with altered without their permission (which in some cases went against their contracts) so Sony pulled them.

[Pepper]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

Directors were upset that their movies with altered without their permission (which in some cases went against their contracts) so Sony pulled them.

Some of their opinions on the matter were, shall we say, "colorful."

Seems hypocritical that these same dudes have absolutely no objection at all when their precious work of art is shown on a cable network such as PoP, TBS, WE, et cetera. Some of those cut entire scenes and drop frames trying desperately to fit a 90 minute movie into three hours (in no case does the movie clip ever exceed 10 minutes between commercial slots of at least 10 minutes), the bottom third unwatchable with popup ads, and the credits squished.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

I don't approve of editing at all, but having these versions in ADDITION to the uncut versions was a nice bonus- I checked a few of them to laugh at how they substituted profanity with cleaner dialogue. (The DVD of "Basic Instinct" has a few clips of the TV version included in the extras just for this purpose.) It was nice that they were added automatically, but that they were also then taken away automatically shows who really has the power when you "own" movies this way.

[Cranston37]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

Some of their opinions on the matter were, shall we say, "colorful."

Seems hypocritical that these same dudes have absolutely no objection at all when their precious work of art is shown on a cable network such as PoP, TBS, WE, et cetera. Some of those cut entire scenes and drop frames trying desperately to fit a 90 minute movie into three hours (in no case does the movie clip ever exceed 10 minutes between commercial slots of at least 10 minutes), the bottom third unwatchable with popup ads, and the credits squished.

The issue was more contractual. It would have been in their contracts that a version would be made for basic cable, etc (most likely with their approval as to what cuts were made) but these clean versions weren’t...

[Pepper]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

I'm no contract lawyer, but everything I have read so far points to these versions being made *with* the directors' approvals, and intended for broadcast TV or airline showings. Now as to whether another explicit approval is required to include the same exact already approved version as an extra for a normal user's purchase, that is in my mind ridiculous but not unexpected or surprising.

[Cranston37]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

I'm no contract lawyer, but everything I have read so far points to these versions being made *with* the directors' approvals, and intended for broadcast TV or airline showings. Now as to whether another explicit approval is required to include the same exact already approved version as an extra for a normal user's purchase, that is in my mind ridiculous but not unexpected or surprising.

This is the statement Sony released when they ended the program:

“Our directors are of paramount importance to us and we want to respect those relationships to the utmost. We believed we had obtained approvals from the filmmakers and Director’s Guild for use of their previously supervised television versions as a value added extra on sales of the full version. But since they have objected to the language of those approvals transferring to this program, we will discontinue it for their films.”

[Wasteland]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

I thought the clean versions were just pointless. If your kid is too young to watch a movie that had a clean version, they are probably smart enough to realize the clean version was edited then go find a way to watch the original... I say the extra or alternate scenes should be in the extras as bonus features.

[Cranston37]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

I thought the clean versions were just pointless. If your kid is too young to watch a movie that had a clean version, they are probably smart enough to realize the clean version was edited then go find a way to watch the original... I say the extra or alternate scenes should be in the extras as bonus features.

Don’t assume it was just for kids. I know a few people (my elderly parents included) who just don’t like watching movies with foul language, sex, etc, and they subscribe to services like ClearPlay to watch their movies. I suppose they would have gotten something out of it.

[SidNightwalker]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

Ahh, the precious Director's Guild had something to do with it. That is who is responsible, don't be blaming Vudu for every little thing now.

[echopulse]

Re: What happened to the Sony 'clean versions' ??

Thanks for the info about Clearplay. I'm going to use it to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2 this weekend.

[Wasteland]

So, when did ClearPlay get added into Vudu??