“Clean Flicks, Illegal Flicks?”

Hollywood directors file suit against CleanFlicks

When we last saw CleanFlicks, the video company that cuts nudity, sex, violence, and bad language from films, it was expanding (CT, March 11). Now the Directors Guild of America wants to shut it down. With Hollywood threatening to sue, CleanFlicks of Colorado took preemptive action, asking a U.S. District Court to rule whether its work is legal. The directors (with support from the Writers Guild of America) countersued, saying that edited films infringe on copyright and mislead customers. "It destroys the credibility of our films and our names," Martin Scorsese told the Los Angeles Times. CleanFlicks president John Dixon told The Salt Lake Tribune that the suit "has really hurt" efforts to work with Hollywood instead of against it.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Christianity Today previous coverage of CleanFlicks includes:

Everybody's a DirectorCleanFlicks and Movie Mask give film fans an alternative.

Film Forum: Adventures in Poetry and SurfingHollywood directors sue CleanFlicks. (August 22, 2002)

Film Forum: Is a Clean Movie Unrealistic?Readers debate movie-editing software. (August 29, 2002)

- More from Ted Olsen

Also in this series

Movie-Filtering Service Files for Bankruptcy to Pause Copyright Fight

Families Can Filter HBO and Netflix—for Now

Bleep Off: The Fight to Save Family-Friendly Movie Filtering

Scrubbing CleanFlicks

A Christianity Today Editorial

Is a Clean Movie Unrealistic?

Is a Clean Movie Unrealistic?

Jeffrey Overstreet

Everybody’s a Director

Our Latest

Screenshots from several Cuban influencers' accounts.

News

Facing Arrest, Cuban Christian Influencers Continue Call for Freedom

Hannah Herrera

Young people are using social media to spread the gospel and denounce the Communist regime.

A roulette wheel

Public Theology Project

Against the Casinofication of the Church

The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins told me about problems that feel eerily similar to what I see in the church.

Gen Z women are becoming less religious.

Wire Story

The Religion Gender Gap Among the Young Is Disappearing

Bob Smietana - Religion News Service

Women still dominate church pews, but studies find that devotion among Gen Z women has cooled to levels on par with Gen Z men.

A CT magazine cover and an film still from Blade Runner.

Attempts at Cultural Crossover

Daniel Silliman

From Pat Robertson’s soap opera to creation science, CT reported evangelical efforts to go mainstream in 1982.

Smoke billows from a fire next to Azadi Tower following strikes near Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026.

Just War Theory Is Supposed to Be Frustrating

The venerable theological tradition makes war slower, riskier, costlier, and less efficient—and that’s the point.

karen-swallow-prior-birds-bees-babies

The Russell Moore Show

Karen Swallow Prior on Birds, Bees, and Babies

How should the church address infertility and childlessness?

Blue message bubbles and one gold glowing one.

Will the Church Enter the Guys’ Group Chat?

Luke Simon

Young men are looking for online presence. The church needs to offer more than weekly breakfasts.

Churchgoers attend a worship service created entirely by ChatGPT in Bavaria.

Wire Story

Young, Educated, and Urban Pastors Are Most Likely to Use AI

Aaron Earls - Lifeway Research

A survey found denominational differences in pastors’ use of the technology, as well as widespread skepticism about its reliability.