Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Green Hornet Moves To July, Jennifer’s Body Gets Rated Bloody R
Posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Columbia Pictures has moved Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet back two weeks from June 25th 2010 to July 9th 2010. According to ERC, the move was made to make room for the studio’s Dennis Dugan-directed comedy Grown Ups, which was moved from March 12th to June 25th. But with The Twilight Saga’s Eclipse scheduled to hit theaters on June 30th, I’m surprised that Columbia would want either of their films near the tween vampire romance sequel.
And since it was revealed that Megan Fox wouldn’t appear naked in the filmed topless scene in the Diablo Cody-scripted horror film Jennifer’s Body, fans have been speculating that 20th Century Fox was aiming for a PG-13 rating. I read the initial draft of the screenplay, and I’m not sure that story could be told in PG-13. But fear not, the MPAA has finally spoken. The film is officially rated R for “sexuality, bloody violence, language and brief drug use.” Nope, you’re still not going to see Megan Fox topless, but at least we’ll be getting a bloody r-rated horror film. [Bloody-disgusting]
Question: How Has the PG-13 Rating Changed Over The Years (if at all)?
Posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 by David Chen
It seems almost quaint today but the PG-13 rating was actually conceived in 1984 at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg: His Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was deemed just a tad too graphic/violent for kids, but not so bad as to warrant an R rating. Since then, the PG-13 branding, which indicates that “Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13,” has had a bit of a bumpy road.
Read More »
Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist To Get Uncut UK release
Posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
We don’t yet know when IFC will release Antichrist, the firebrand Cannes entry from Lars Von Trier, in the US. But now thanks to Twitch we do know that UK audiences will see the film on July 24. And they’ll see it uncut, which most American moviegoers might not get to do. More details after the jump. Read More »
Terminator Salvation in 4 Minutes, McG Explains PG-13 Rating
Posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Director McG tells SciFi that he only cut one shot in Terminator Salvation to earn the PG-13 rating. The quick cut involved featuring Sam Worthington’s character Marcus “stabbing a screwdriver through the shoulder” of a thug. You might be wondering, what about that much talked about topless scene featuring Moon Bloodgood? McG claims that in the end “it felt more like a gratuitous moment of a girl taking her top off in an action picture, and I didn’t want that to convolute the story or the characters.” Sure… sure…
Also, Warner Bros has released a final movie trailer for Terminator Salvation on Apple. The extended trailer is pretty cool, but basically squeezes the entire film into 4 minutes. Those of you who want to go in fresh might want to skip this one. I’ve embedded the clip after the jump.
Read More »
Universal has just announced that Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat follow-up Bruno has been given an R-Rating by the MPAA for “pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language.” . This comes weeks after the initial cut of the movie was branded with the dreaded and unmarketable NC-17 rating.
At the time we were told that the filmmakers were “preparing a new edit to try out for an R and winding up an appeal against this initial MPAA decision”, so we’re really not sure which route was taken. If I were to guess, I would say that Universal presented the MPAA with a new cut of the movie, which fixed some of the “objectionable” sequences.
Fox To Air Terminator Salvation “Extended Look”, Promo Confirms PG-13 Rating
Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Fox will be airing an “extended look” at Terminator Salvation on Wednesday during Bones. /Film reader Samir J points out that the promo that aired during 24 advertising the extended preview also features the PG-13 MPAA logo. I have included a screencapture above from my DVR.
Yesterday we reported that the producer Judd Apatow and director/co-writer Harold Ramis had lost their appeal hearing for the biblical comedy Year One, which had been slapped with an R-Rating by the MPAA. I doubted at the time that Columbia Pictures would release the $75+ million comedy with an R-Rating, especially considering the fairly weak online buzz the film has garnered since the debut of the movie’s superbowl commercial.
The filmmakers re-cut the film, resubmitted to the MPAA, and the new cut was given a PG-13 rating “for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.” I’m sure the R-Rated cut, or an expanded unrated cut, will eventually end up on DVD/Blu-ray.
I have no inside information about the screenings, but many times with the MPAA, it all comes down to a specific shot/line, or even a few frames of film (as it did with Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri). So I doubt the R-Rated cut and the PG-13 cut are THAT much different. It’s likely the difference of a few seconds of film.
source: THR
The Judd Apatow-produced biblical comedy Year One has been slapped with an R-Rating by the MPAA Classification and Rating Appeals Board for “some sexual content and language.”According to THR , Apatow and director/co-writer Harold Ramis appeared before the appeals board to argue for a PG-13 rating, but were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts. At this point, Sony is forced to accept the rating, but still has the option of re-editing the film for resubmission.
The movie has an estimated budget of $75 million (those big sets and location shoots don’t come cheap) The online buzz for the film has been fairly weak (the superbowl television spot ranked one of the lowest in polls), and an R-Rating could be detrimental to the film’s box office prospects.
It seems like all of the big tentpole films now-a-days have a tie in with a pizza delivery company. McG’s Terminator Salvation has a tie-in with Pizza Hut, but that’s not the big news. The news comes from the fine print at the bottom of Pizza Hut’s Termiantor Salvation website. If you look next to the Halcyon logo is what appears to be the film’s final MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Last we heard, McG was fighting with the studio to keep a topless scene featuring Moon Bloodgood in the final cut. But of course, the topless sequence would require a less marketable R-Rating. I hate to read too much into one little MPAA logo on a cross promotional website (someone could have easily messed up…), but it appears as if McG has lost that battle. But this isn’t entirely bad news because a PG-13 rating isn’t what it use to be. Remember, The Dark Knight was rated PG-13 and featured a man with half a face.
via: AICN
Star Trek Gets PG-13 Rating, New Photos Released
Posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I’m trying to catch up on some of the news I missed while I was running around the Las Vegas casinos at ShoWest. While I was in Vegas, Paramount Pictures has announced that JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek has been rated PG-13 for “sci-fi action and violence and brief sexual content”. The rating isn’t much of a shock. I don’t think anyone was expecting an R-Rated movie. The studio has also released three new production photos, two of which can be seen after the jump.
Director’s Cut of Bruno an NC-17, Corporate Censorship Now Inevitable
Posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Let’s get one thing clear to begin with: there’s nothing wrong with the MPAA giving Bruno an NC-17 rating, but everything wrong with Universal then deciding to cut the film instead of release it intact and also, crucially, with cinema chains (and even adult audiences) turning a cold shoulder to NC-17 rated films.
Sharon Waxman has reported on the MPAA’s decision, and detailed a few bits and pieces from the film that may have convinced them. She also tells us what Sacha Baron Cohen and Co are currently doing, and what the likely outcome will be - in case we couldn’t guess.
Terminator Salvation: Warner Bros Wants PG-13 Edits, McG is Fighting For His R-Rated Vision
Posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
When production first began on Terminator Salvation, rumors began to circulate that Warner Bros wanted the film to be PG-13. At Comic-Con last year, McG assured fans in attendance that he is under no pressure to deliver a PG-13 rating. Referring to the studio executives for this film, McG explained “I’ve been given their blessing to make the picture…and if it’s a rated R picture, then that’s that.” He elaborated that he’s not against the idea of a PG-13 rating, but that the ultimate rating will depend completely upon what the final vision for the film is. When I was on the film set, McG showed us a reel of early footage from the film. One of the clips included Moon Bloodgood topless in the rain, which to me, confirmed that McG wasn’t lying.
Today at WonderCon, McG made a point to mention that Warner Bros wants him to cut out the topless footage from the film. He insisted that he thinks that it should remain in the released feature film, citing that Bloodgood’s character is partly a homage to James Cameron’s Sarah Connor — a strong yet beautiful woman. McG polled the audience, asking if they wanted to see the scene in the final film, which got the response that you might expect from an overwhelmingly male comic convention crowd. Having seen the footage myself, not in the context of the film or even scene, I will say this - it was beautifully and tastefully shot. I’m not sure if it furthers the story along (as I said, I did not see the shot in the context of the full scene), but it didn’t seem gratuitous at all.
It seems to me that the only reason that Warner Bros would want the scene cut from the film is if they want a PG-13 cut of the film. There is no other possible reason. McG publicly called out the name of the Warner Bros executive that is pushing for the removal of the shot in question, and made it clear that he would like to keep the shot in. And while McG didn’t flat out say that he wants to fight for a R-Rating, that’s how it came across to me and most everyone in the convention hall. And making a public statement is a strong message to the movie studio producing the film. McG’s vision is evidently R-Rated after all, but will the film be edited down for a more marketable (potentially more profitable) PG-13 rating?
