It seems Snowpiercer star Chris Evans may not be the only one who is not terribly happy about Harvey Weinstein’s planned cuts to director Bong Joon-Ho’s newest film. Bong himself is reportedly not as cool with the prospect of having his cinematic vision slaughtered as he initially let on. Variety is reporting that sources close to Bong are describing him as “furious” about Weinstein’s planned edits.
Among the changes allegedly planned by Weinstein are removing 20 minutes from the movie and adding a voiceover, two moves that seem to suggest that Weinstein thinks English-speaking audiences have short attention spans and are bumbling morons who need everything spelled out for them. Weinstein has a history of imposing edits on films, having earned himself the nickname “Harvey Scissorhands” by people who pay attention to that sort of thing.
Snowpiercer is a post-apocalyptic film about an Earth plunged into a new ice age by a failed attempt to curb global warming. Its cast includes Captain America‘s Chris Evans as well as Ed Harris and Tilda Swinton, among others. The film is about a giant train (the titular Snowpiercer) on which all Earth’s survivors travel. Oh, and it’s powered by a perpetual motion engine, which seems to violate a few laws of physics but whatever.
Director Bong Joon-Ho is one of South Korea’s most talented filmmakers, having previously been responsible for the amazing monster movie The Host and the equally awesome Mother. In other words, the man is a true auteur who knows what he’s doing and doesn’t deserve to have his films hacked to pieces by Hollywood producers.
Still, business is business and Weinstein is undoubtedly trying to make Snowpiercer as profitable as possible. You know, just how like you’d crop the boring parts out of a Picasso painting or fast forward through the slower bits of one of Mozart’s sonatas in order to make it more palatable, because America and all that. Let’s just hope that somewhere down the line, we native English speakers are treated to a proper director’s cut, as unprofitable as Weinsten may deem that to be.