Distributors of the serial killer film face sanctions after screening an unauthorised director’s cut in 100 cinemas across the US

The American distributors of Lars von Trier’s gruesome serial killer film The House That Jack Built are facing sanctions from the US ratings board after screening an unauthorised version of the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, IFC Films failed to obtain a waiver from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) before screening an unrated director’s cut of the film, which features Matt Dillon as a sadistic murderer, on Wednesday in around 100 venues.

IFC are planning to release an R-rated edit on 14 December in the US, but the director’s cut – essentially the same version that played at the Cannes film festival and prompted mass walkouts – has also been marketed for release unrated. While unrated film releases are common, the fact that two versions of the same film are showing in close succession appears to have fallen foul of the MPAA’s regulations.

In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, the MPAA said: “[We have] communicated to the distributor, IFC Films, that the screening of an unrated version of the film in such close proximity to the release of the rated version — without obtaining a waiver — is in violation of the rating system’s rules … Failure to comply with the rules can create confusion among parents and undermine the rating system — and may result in the imposition of sanctions against the film’s submitter.”

Possible sanctions include cancelling the film’s R rating – which would mean losing a large portion of its potential box office revenue – or excluding IFC entirely from the ratings process for a maximum of 90 days.