Avatar – 'Special Edition' withdrawn from local release

Local sci-fi enthusiasts will be disappointed to discover that an extended edition of James Cameron’s 3D extravaganza Avatar will not be released on Maltese screens after the Board of Film Classifiers decided to give it a ‘12’ rating, where the original version was screened with a ‘PG’.

Avatar – Special Edition 3D has been running in the UK for 20 weeks with a ‘12A’ rating, which is equivalent to a local PG, according to KRS Film Distributors’ Managing Director Charles Pace.  

KRS aimed to release the new edition – which boasts a full eight minutes of new footage, scattered throughout the film – to local screens this Friday (October 22), but since it deems the new rating to be unjustified, it has now decided to withdraw the screening, claiming that they, alongside American distributor 20th Century Fox, were given “no option” but to withdraw the film.  

“We believe that nothing in this new edition merits a 12 rating, so why should we screen it with a higher rating here when it has been running for a full 20 weeks in the UK without such impositions?” Pace said.

Fans can perhaps take some consolation in the news that in the absence of the long-awaited Special Edition, Eden Cinemas will be screening the original Avatar – with its original PG rating – to inaugurate the installation of its brand new Digital 3D setup in Cinema 16 as of October 22.

Meanwhile, Pace foresees no problems with the Special Edition’s DVD release. “Lucky are those who distribute and rent DVDs!” he said, claiming that DVDs are allowed to bypass the Board of Film Classification, which issues no local ratings but allows the films to carry on being sold and rented with the rating given in their country of origin.