Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Weinsteins have finally crumbled...kind of. The Weinstien Company announced Monday that it would release both the Cancer and new-and-not-so-improved cancer-free versions of Fanboys on DVD, and seem to half-heartedly express interest to release them both theatrically as well. Yet the studio did not mention any kind of release date (the film was supposed to be released last Valentine's Day, then was pushed to September, then at the Star Wars Celebration IV in May director Kyle Newman announced the Weinstein's were committed to putting an additional $2 Million into the film and that meant the release would be pushed back to Jan/Feb of this year, a date which has come and gone) which has lead some fans to believe it may never see the light of day.

But the real-life "fanboys" are still not happy. Led by the fabled 501st Stormtrooper legion the fans have released their own press statement:

"This is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Co. to avert 'Star Wars' fans' impending boycott of all of their films," the group said. "It's not going to work, Darth Weinstein. There was never any doubt that you would release both versions of the movie on DVD, probably months apart, so as to leech as much money from 'Star Wars' fans as possible. Our boycott will continue until the Weinstein Co. announces that they are returning control of 'Fanboys' to the 'Star Wars' fans who made it, releasing the original version in theaters and doing away with their anti-fan version of the film altogether."

The best part is the way the Weinsteins try to cover-up the fact that their new version tested horribly by saying that "the later version tested very well with audiences, [but] the grass-roots support we have received for the first version simply cannot be ignored." From all I've heard the new version tested no better, if not worse, than the original cut of the film, and that they went so far as to use "plants" in the audience to artificially raise the scores, and convince other members of the audience to score it higher than they would have.

The Weinsteins did admit that they had received over 300,000 e-mails from fans, which helped them to reach this decision. To which I say, lets send them another 300,000 and see if they finally set a release date for the original cut of the film. More posted here as it becomes available.


Related Stories:
CineManiac Breaks the news of the Cancer Free Cut
Update on all that is Fanboys

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