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Fox is Tinkering With Babylon A.D. Editing, Too!

by Alex Billington
November 6, 2007
Source: Twitch

From the same people that brought the news that Hitman was being edited down by Fox's execs, comes news that the sci-fi film Babylon A.D. is being edited by Fox for the US specifically, too. The release date for the film was just changed a few days ago from February 29th to August 29th, however over in Europe it's still set for early 2008. Twitch claims that "Europeans are getting a longer cut of the film" that will run at 2 hours and 40 minutes and that in America the version will be "significantly shorter." What the hell is wrong with Fox?!

Obviously this is not fully confirmed, as with Hitman it was later revealed that Fox did take over the reigns but is still releasing it as R not PG-13 like it was speculated. The issue is that if this turns out to be true, then I'm very curious to see what Fox is doing with it for 6 months and why they're editing it to be shorter. Could it be that it was going to end up with an R rating and they want to make it PG-13? Or do they just want to water down what is likely a better movie in its longer cut to appeal the short-attention-span American audiences?

If that is the case, then it brings up the age-old argument of editing to make some PG-13 and whether that's inherently bad or good. Even editing for time is part of that argument. Personally, I think editing for any reason and taking the film out of the filmmaker's hands is bad. A movie always turns out best when it stays completely true to the filmmaker's vision. Any studio pressure usually forces them to start straying away from what was perfect. Just look at Spider-Man 3, the blame on that can't be entirely put on Sam Raimi!

In the film, Veteran-turned-mercenary Thoorop (Vin Diesel) takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to China. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah and destroy the human race.

Babylon A.D. is reported to have a budget of $60 million. The film is directed by French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz, who directed Gothika and a French film from 2000 titled The Crimson Rivers as well as a few other French flicks. The French are putting out some fantastic sci-fi films recently and I'm hoping this one is just as good, as long as Fox doesn't butcher it.

Babylon A.D.

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DjoolZ

Interesting... Babylon AD is actually the first ever Vin Diesel movie that I'm looking forward to - because of Kassovitz. Gothika might not have been all that but have you ever heard of this French film called La Haine?? I think it's released as 'Hate' internationally, it's in and out of the imdb top 250 all the time which is quite something for a movie that most of the US have hardly ever heard of. It's an absolutely complelling movie that follows three young guys from the suburb slums of Paris and since the director chooses a fly on the wall-approach it's one massive in your face heck of a movie. This shows that Kassovitz can be quite a visionary when directting a movie which is why I'm excvited about Babylon AD. La Haine is one of my all time favourites. Do yourself a favor and check it out!
Ryan

Alex, from the same source that Hitman was going to be edited? Wasn't that also a lie? I mena come on!
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

No, no, Hitman wasn't a lie. What they had heard from about Fox and Hitman was completely true. What got messed up was that everyone "guessed" that it would be PG-13 with the edits, when really it was going to stay R. You can read interviews with Timothy Olyphant as of Monday where he confirms that Xavier Gens was removed from his role during re-shoots and so on... Fox did mess with both of these movies.