'Hounddog' finds a home

"I had lines of women who came up in tears thanking me for making the film," she says. "I had women stand up in the Q&As; mothers who had literally seen it the day before brought their 13-year-old daughters to see it. I had a man come up to me after a screening and say he hadn't cried his entire life but this made him cry. Those responses really gave me the courage to continue to trust my voice and my vision when I went back to continue working on the film."

The Sundance version of "Hounddog," says the filmmaker, was more about action; the release cut is more about reaction. "I had time to go in and dig into the performances and let these incredible actors tell the story. Fifty percent of the footage is different . . . because we went in and chose the performances. I think the film is much more nuanced."

Structurally, the biggest change occurs after Fanning's character, Lewellen, is raped. "What I wanted to focus on was what was important to me -- her voice was silenced and her spirit was silenced. So I decided to move all the scenes after the rape so she doesn't say a word after the rape until she screams at her father," played by David Morse.

Empire Films believes in the new version too. "We knew there was a lot of negative publicity," says Eric Parkinson, chief executive of distribution for Empire. "But we predicated our deal not on the Sundance cut; we made it on the new cut, which is substantially different. We thought the film's reputation was not deserved."

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susan.king@latimes.com