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A cut version of Crocodile Dundee has premiered in Sydney without the transgender jokes
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|  | 30th January 2025
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| See article from qnews.com.au |
Crocodile Dundee is a 1986 Australia comedy adventure by Peter Faiman. Starring Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski and John Meillon.
 A 4K remastered and cut version titled Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut ,
premiered in Sydney in early 2025. It will be re-released in cinemas in May. In the new cut of the film, two and a half minutes of footage has been edited out.
- Among the moments removed is the scene in which Paul Hogan's Mick Dundee grabs a bar patron in the groin and declares that was a guy, dressed up like a sheila, while someone else yells 'faggot'.
- A callback to the scene later when Mick does
the same thing to a woman at a party, telling her, I was just making sure, has also been removed.
Paul Hogan agreed with those scenes and others being edited out of the film. He said: I heard about it years ago, it started, it wasn't about being woke. They pointed out to me and said, 'This guy is a folk hero around the world. He
shouldn't be groping people.' And I thought, 'Yeah that's right, he shouldn't be', so take it out. I mean, he did it in all innocence, in naivety, but it's better without it.
Production company Rimfire Films said:
Some years ago, Paramount Pictures and other distributors requested the reference to the crossdresser be edited from the original film, as they found it offensive. We agreed to that request.
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French screening of Last Tango in Paris cancelled after threats of violence
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 | 18th December 2024
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| See article from
theguardian.com |
A screening of Last Tango in Paris in the French capital has been cancelled after threats of violence from women's rights protests French Cinémathèque was due to show 1972 film that features a controversial scene filmed without actor Maria
Schneider's prior consent. The cinema said it had dropped the film after receiving threats. Frédéric Bonnaud, the director of the Cinémathèque said: We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety
of our staff and audience, Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate poised an entirely disproportionate risk. So, we had to let it go.
The controversial scene was simulated but
Schneider, who was 19 at the time, said afterwards it had felt like a violation as it was sprung on her without notice or preparation. Her allegations were first made in the 1970s. I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and Bertolucci, Schneider said four years before her death in 2011. She said the film had destroyed her life and had driven her to years of drug abuse. Bertolucci later responded to the allegations by insisting the scene had not been improvised on the day of shooting but acknowledging that Schneider had not been informed.
Judith Godrèche, an actor and leading figure in France's #MeToo movement, had been critical of the Cinémathèque's decision to screen the film without providing context to viewers. Had it gone ahead, the screening would also have come
towards the end of the Mazan mass rape trial, in which verdicts and sentencing are expected later this week. |
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Australian film censor overrules a distributor rating for a pre-cut release of Gladiator II
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 | 26th November
2024
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| See article from refused-classification.com :
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Gladiator II is a 2024 US/UK/Morocco/Canada action adventure drama by Ridley Scott Starring Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal
 There are no censorship issues with this release in the US and UK. The film was pre-cut in Australia for a distributor applied M rated cinema release. The Classification Board later overruled this, and the cut version was uprated to MA15+.
Summary Notes After his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the
glory of Rome to its people.
Versions
 uncut
run: | 147:43s | pal: | 141:48s |
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 | UK: Uncut and BBFC 15 rated for strong bloody violence, injury detail:
- 2024 Paramount Pictures UK cinema release (rated 09/10/2024)
Ireland: Uncut and IFCO 15A rated for strong action violence throughout with gory scenes and graphic injury detail, scenes of severed bodies and body parts:
- 2024 Paramount cinema release (2024 rated 27/09/2024) titled Gladiator 2
US: Uncut and MPA R rated for for strong bloody violence.:
- 2024 release (rated 28/08/2024) titled Gladiator Ii
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| Australia: Pre-cut and ACB
MA15+ (15A) rated for strong themes and violence:
- 2024 Paramount Pictures cinema release (rated 22/11/2024) titled Gladiator II
Australia: Pre-cut and distributor M (PG-15) rated for animal cruelty, blood and gore, injury detail and violence:
- 2024 Paramount Pictures Australia cinema release (rated 16/10/2024) titled Gladiator II
See article from refused-classification.com : On 16 October 2024, a 148-minute version
of GLADIATOR II received an M (Animal cruelty, blood and gore, injury detail and violence). Paramount Pictures Australia rated the film themselves as an Accredited Classifier Decision. It was identified as precut, to avoid an MA15+, after opening on 14
November. What was censored in the M-rated version? Tom S. reports the cuts he spotted. There may be other, less obvious trims:
Cut No. 1 203 Lucius (Paul Mescal) beheads his opponent at the first Roman games. The beginning is trimmed to remove the swords connecting with the head. It cuts into the shot midway to show the stump and a bit of blood spray.
Cut No. 2 203 Macrinus (Denzel Washington) slashing at the neck of Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn). The initial long shot of the neck cutting and blood spray is missing. The following close-up is zoomed to the left to remove the
continued neck slashing and blood spray on the right. Cut No. 3 203 Macrinus puts a spike into the ear of Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). The red blood flowing from his ear is now green/yellow. M to MA15+ after one week
On 22 November, cinemas were informed that the Classification Board had increased it to MA15+ (Strong themes and violence). Advertising was updated to reflect the new rating. An Accredited Classifier Decision can be reviewed by the
Board to ensure the guidelines are followed. It is unclear if this was a random check or triggered by complaints.
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BBFC publishes its Annual Report covering 2023
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 | 15th November 2024
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| See press release from bbfc.co.uk See
report [pdf] from darkroom.bbfc.co.uk |
The British Board of Classification (BBFC) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2023, revealing unique insights into the UK's film and cinema industry. The latest report reveals an uplift in overall content submitted for cinema
classification, marking a ten-year record number of submissions in the two most popular age rating categories. 2023 saw 1,114 cinema submissions to the BBFC, representing a 14% increase from submissions recorded in 2013. The 15
category remained the BBFC's most frequently issued age rating in 2023, totalling nearly 500 submissions 203 another record for the decade. Films classified 15 in 2023 include Oppenheimer, Saltburn, How To Have Sex, Cocaine Bear and Talk To Me
. The 12A category also saw a ten-year record, with over 380 cinema films classified at the category in 2023, including Barbie, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Polite Society and The Boy and the Heron
. Last summer, the BBFC announced new advancements in exploring the power of AI to enhance content classification to further its core mission of helping audiences to make informed viewing decisions. Building on its extensive
expertise, the BBFC is developing two new tools that utilise AI technology to help the industry adapt to evolving audience viewing habits while improving the efficiency of the human aspect of compliance, which will always remain imperative to the
process. The first of these tools will enable access to locally sensitive age ratings for use in over 100 territories globally, removing the cost and resource barriers currently limiting VoD services' adoption of BBFC ratings in
the UK and other established rating systems worldwide. The second tool, currently in development, will use generative AI to identify and tag online content issues, offering large-scale efficiencies to content providers' compliance requirements.
In 2023, as part of its increasing collaboration with streaming platforms operating in the UK, the BBFC announced plans to strengthen its partnership with Prime Video. With a view to establishing a self-rating system similar to the
BBFC's existing successful agreement with Netflix, the BBFC worked closely with Prime Video to refine the platform's internal rating processes ahead of the wider adoption of BBFC age ratings and content advice across the service, ultimately making it
even easier for Prime Video customers to choose the right content for themselves and their families.
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