Vin Diesel’s Babylon A.D. destroyed by studio?

From filmstalker, Vin Diesel’s latest film Bablyon A.D. has reportedly hit trouble once again. We’ve heard that there’s been tension on set during filming, but the big problem now appears to be from the studio re-editing the film and cutting out some seventy minutes and giving it a 12A (PG-13 U.S. equivalent) rating.

Seventy minutes is an entire film’s worth, and I understand that the European release is a full one hundred and sixty minutes long, but come on now, surely there’s not seventy minutes redundancy in the film, and if there is then it must be incredibly boring.

That’s not what I’d expect though, and neither do Twitch through Jo Blo who I agree with when they say they can’t understand the 12A rating considering the previous work of the director, Mathieu Kassovitz. He’s responsible for films such as Crimson Rivers and La Haine, two rather dark and violent films, but also two very great films too.

With work like that behind you it’s hard to believe that Babylon A.D. - a story of a woman carrying a genetically altered embryo who is believed to be the next Messiah being chased by a cult and set in a violent future – would be anything near a 12A/PG-13.

That aside, why the hell is half the film being cut out? Then you wonder why people take to downloading illegal copies of films? I can tell you I am definitely not going to see the UK version of the film if this is really going to be the version released.

You know it must be so hard for the stars of a film like this when they see the final result coming out, realising that half the film is getting cut away and that the audience are going to be cheated out of the experience. What’s worse is that there’s a list of great stars in it including Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Gérard Depardieu, Mark Strong and Charlotte Rampling, how must they feel?

Of course then there’s us, the audience.