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Concussion - Football Drama Toned Down by Studio

Sony Takes the Bite out of Will Smith-Led Biopic

With The Interview, Sony wanted to avoid trouble with North Korea, with Pixels they wanted to please China and now with Concussion they feared the lawyers of the NFL. Sony really seems to bend over for everyone and everything, be it with satire, a film for children or a drama that deals with heavy injuries in American Football and the way the NFL wanted to sweep it under the rug.

Once more, the Sony Leaks of 2014 help to figure out what happens behind the scenes. The studio wanted to avoid that the film seems like it was against the sport and especially its big star Will Smith had to appear sympathetic to it. For this, the focus was put on the story of the whistleblower and it was tried not to paint the NFL in a negative light all the time.

"Will is not anti football (nor is the movie) and isn’t planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn’t ... We’ll develop messaging with the help of N.F.L. consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest."

In an e-mail from August 2014, it becomes clear that some scenes were removed that showed the NFL in a negative way:

NY Times: Another email on Aug. 1, 2014, said some “unflattering moments for the N.F.L.” were deleted or changed, while in another note on July 30, 2014, a top Sony lawyer is said to have taken “most of the bite” out of the film “for legal reasons with the N.F.L. and that it was not a balance issue.”

Concussion starts in US cinemas on December 25th, 2015.

Release: Sep 09, 2015 - Author: sausagemoo81 - Translator: Mike Lowrey - Source: NY Times

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