Neon Blasts Chinese Distributor’s “Unauthorized Edit” Of Gay Couple Scene In ‘Together’; Pic Pulled From Country’s Theaters

Artificial intelligence was reportedly used to turn a man’s face into a woman’s to show a gay couple in Together as heterosexual before the horror film was shown in China.

via: Deadline

In the wake of Chinese distributor Hishow caving to local censorship authorities and AI-converting a homosexual couple in the movie Together to heterosexual, the movie’s global distributor Neon has shot back.

“Neon does not approve of Hishow’s unauthorized edit of the film and have demanded they cease distributing this altered version,” the company said Wednesday.

After screenings of the Dave Franco–Alison Brie horror movie in China, word began to leak on social media about the change. The sequence augmented took place at a wedding between two men, with AI editing swapping one man’s face for a woman’s.

The pic written and directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks opened in China on September 12 then was ultimately pulled completely. TBD on the status of Together in the key market.

Neon acquired worldwide rights on Together out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival for $15 million, and sold foreign.

China is known for its fierce editing of U.S. pics to meet the political and cultural sensibility of the nation’s moviegoers. That said, a UCLA study found that respondents in mainland China agreed with viewpoints that are favorable toward LGBTQ people there.

Same-sex relationships are hardly portrayed in mainstream movies and TV shows in that market. The 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which grossed $14 million at the China box office as part of a global take north of $962M, reportedly had three minutes censored for references to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality and AIDS.

Together follows Franco and Brie as a couple who move to the country and encounter a mysterious force that takes a physical toll on their lives. It opened to $6.7 million in the U.S. and Canada on July 30 and ended its domestic run at $21.2M.