Populate the project long_description by reading the README.rst file using "utf-8" encoding and excluding potential Sphinx directives.

{{cookiecutter.package_name}}/setup.py

@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
-import setuptools
+import io
+import os
+import re
 
-setuptools.setup(
+from setuptools import find_packages
+from setuptools import setup
+
+
+def read(filename):
+    filename = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), filename)
+    text_type = type(u"")
+    with io.open(filename, mode="r", encoding='utf-8') as fd:
+        return re.sub(text_type(r':[a-z]+:`~?(.*?)`'), text_type(r'``\1``'), fd.read())
+
+
+setup(
     name="{{ cookiecutter.package_name }}",
     version="{{ cookiecutter.package_version }}",
     url="{{ cookiecutter.package_url }}",
@@ -9,9 +22,9 @@ setuptools.setup(
     author_email="{{ cookiecutter.author_email }}",
 
     description="{{ cookiecutter.package_description }}",
-    long_description=open('README.rst').read(),
+    long_description=read("README.rst"),
 
-    packages=setuptools.find_packages(exclude=('tests',)),
+    packages=find_packages(exclude=('tests',)),
 
     install_requires=[],