The rating of The King’s Speech has bothered Harvey Weinstein, he believes that the R-rating of the film, which it has received for multiple uses of ‘fuck’ in one particularly hilarious scene, is limiting the film’s box office success. In the UK, Hooper campaigned for the film to receive a more family friendly 12A rating where everyone under 12 can go when accompanied by an adult, as opposed to the 15 certificate where only ages 15 and older are allowed in.
So Harvey’s solution to this is to take out the editing scissors and cut it:
The British numbers are huge because the rating lets families see the movie together. Tom and I are trying to find a unique way to do this that keeps his vision of the movie.
But a lot of that vision is made by the fact that The King’s Speech is funny, and if the particular scene in question were to go it would lose the humour of it. It remains to be seen as to whether this will happen and it apparently won’t premiere until after the Academy Awards to serve as a post win box office boost. By that time it will be interesting to see if the film will still be generating interest, by that point of course it depends on how many big prizes it wins.