Elton John, Paramount Respond to Russian Distributors Censoring Rocketman Sex Scenes

Paramount Pictures and Elton John, who acts as executive producer on biopic Rocketman, strongly condemn a Russian distributor's decision to cut roughly five minutes of footage depicting drug use and gay sex.

"We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor Rocketman for the Russian market, a move we were unaware of until today," John and the Rocketman team said in a statement (via Deadline).

The Russian distributor of the R-rated musical drama, Central Partnership, opted to remove the scenes to conform to the Russian Federation's legislation against "homosexual propaganda."

"Paramount Pictures have been brave and bold partners in allowing us to create a film which is a true representation of Elton's extraordinary life, warts and all. That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes, denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was intended is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people," the statement continues.

"We believe in building bridges and open dialogue, and will continue to push for the breaking down of barriers until all people are heard equally across the world."

In a separate statement, Paramount said it's "incredibly proud of the movie that we made, which is told in the way that Elton John wanted his story to be depicted. We are releasing the film in its entirety around the world regardless of rating, but like all studios, we must adhere to local laws and requirements in certain territories in which the film is being shown."

Deadline reports the Ministry of Culture of Russia had no "direct meddling" with the print.

The no holds barred look at John's prolific music career — which includes a sex scene between Taron Egerton's John and Richard Madden's John Reid — happened only after director Dexter Fletcher fought for the film's R rating, given for "language throughout, some drug use and sexual content."

"Some studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating. But I just haven't led a PG-13 rated life," John told The Guardian.

"I didn't want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the '70s and '80s, so there didn't seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I'd quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon's Bible for company."

Rocketman is now playing.