So apparently I set off a firestorm when I wrote about the recent butchering of Fanboys. As first reported here the movie was taken over and the cancer plot (the very heart and soul of the movie) was to be excised. The story was quickly picked up by Aint It Cool News, which brought it to the attention of a larger audience, many of whom are Fanboys themselves.

Since that time the story has been picked up in numerous places including The Force.net, the biggest Star Wars site on the web, Cinematical, and most recently The New York Post (Who gave me credit ahead of Aint It Cool!)

Cinematical claims that the new cancer-free cut of the film only scored 2 points higher than the original. Afterwards, the Weinsteins tested another new version, this one with more nudity and crude language (because we all know the way to make something funnier is to add sex and dirty words!) and still only recieved a score 2 points higher than the original. But because the pumped $2.5 Million into the movie for (unnecessary) reshoots they are wanting to stay with the new (heartless) version.

But the most troubling story coming from Cinematical is that the studio placed 'plants' inside the original screening, the one with the cancer plot. These plants were studio hired goons that sit in the theater and then talk up the other members of the audience in order to bring down the score. If this is true it means the Wienstiens purposefully tried to alter the scores in order to justify using the new cancer-free cut. Besides being dishonest, it's just plan disgusting.

Also it appears that many of the fans of the original idea have begun a boycott against the Weinstien Company. These fans have started an online campaign which can be found at Stop Darth Weinstein which depicts Harvey as the Dark Lord of The Sith, and call for a boycott of all the studio's releases. One faction of this group are members of the 501st, a group of uber-fanboys who go so far as to make their own droids, stormship trooper armor, and other props from the movie. The 501st members loaned out some of their props and uniforms for the movie based on the original script and cancer plot line, and now that it has been removed they feel they were betrayed. And many of these fanboys feel that the new direction of the movie is more of a mockery of them, than the love letter it was originally intended to be.


As things heat up, I'm sure the Weinstiens are happy for any publicity that gets the movie into the public eye. Hopefully it will also show them that fans want to see the original cut, and keep in the cancer storyline.

I'll continue to update as more news becomes available.

Labels: Fanboys