The phrase "a softened version of a" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when describing something that has been made less harsh or intense compared to the original.
Example: "The director released a softened version of a controversial film to appeal to a wider audience."
Alternatives: "a milder form of a" or "a gentler interpretation of a".
The policy is a softened version of a proposal that would have banned all beach bonfires in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
The preface was essentially a softened version of a disclaimer that intended to calm any in the audience who disagreed with the film's message.
The rule is a softened version of a proposal that would have banned beach bonfires outright within the AQMD's jurisdiction, which includes all of Orange and Los Angeles counties.
The rule the air-quality agency ultimately adopted is a softened version of a proposal that would have banned beach bonfires outright within the SCAQMD's jurisdiction, which includes all of Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Betty Garrett (of the movie "On the Town") incorporates an affectingly shy shimmy into a softened version of the usually belted "Broadway Baby".
If Mr. Christensen's rock star is too sleek by half to be a credible Dylan (there's no dirt under these fingernails), he comes with Mr. Dylan's accouterments of the time — a cap, a harmonica and a motorcycle — and affects a softened version of the singer's nasal sneer.
Working in a softened version of screwball comedy, Coogan and Dench bantered with spirit but without sentiment.
Its standard bearers, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, played a softened version of the smoothie and his long-suffering "little woman" exchanging affectionately barbed gibes.
Although Mr. Bloomberg took a much more measured tone with labor leaders and offered a softened version of productivity requirements needed to gain raises in the current contract negotiations, his rosier budget picture did not go unnoticed by those leaders.
As was true of the pomp-inflated James announcement, the talk-show story was only fully comprehensible to those who grasped the methods and imperatives of the peculiar industry in question — though by this point, when the arts pages read like a softened version of the business pages, that meant practically all of us.
