The Merc With a Mouth is cleaning up his act -- for the most part, anyway.

Fox has confirmed its rumored plan to re-release "Deadpool 2" as a PG-13 film, re-edited with a bonus framing device that cleans up the R-rated language and violence of the original and repackages the film for a more family-friendly audience. According to Deadline, the idea is to target teen moviegoers who are on holiday break in December.

“Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006,” star Ryan Reynolds explained in an interview with Deadline. “I’ve said no since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘Yes’ on two conditions. First, a portion of the proceeds had to go to charity. Second, I wanted to kidnap Fred Savage. The second condition took some explaining…”

As fans speculated from Reynolds's hint back in September, Savage will indeed be playing a role similar to his part in "The Princess Bride," in which he listened to his grandfather read him the titular book. This time, Reynolds/Deadpool is telling the decidedly dirtier tale.

Part of the inspiration for "Once Upon a Deadpool" is the looming merger between Disney and Fox, and how Disney/Marvel can potentially weave Deadpool into the MCU. Deadline reports that executives will be watching the performance of "Once" very closely -- though filmmakers admit that their baby doesn't necessarily play well with others, and that's by design.

“'Deadpool' has been a unique property and, by definition, what’s in a Deadpool movie is all the stuff that can’t be in any other superhero movie,” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick told the trade.

"Once Upon a Deadpool" opens on December 12; it will remain in theaters for a limited run through Christmas Eve.

[via: Deadline]