gistfile1.txt

# Works on Py3
def parse_version_failsafe(version_string):
    try:
        return Version(
            unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', six.text_type(version_string))
        )
    except (UnicodeError, InvalidVersion):
        return None


# Fails on Py3
def parse_version_failsafe(version_string):
    uni_version = six.text_type(version_string)
    try:
        normalized_version = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', uni_version)
        ascii_safe_version = normalized_version.encode('ascii', 'ignore')
        final_form = six.text_type(ascii_safe_version)
        return Version(final_form)
    except (UnicodeError, InvalidVersion):
        return None