MPAA Tells Kevin Smith Not To Make Unapproved Internet Porno

I hate to say this, but I was actually expecting this to happen. The vulgar and unrated internet teaser trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Prono has been removed from the interwebs by the MPAA (cue Darth Vader's theme "The Imperial March").

"The MPAA called and said we had to take it down. Weinstein Co., like most studios, is a signatory of the MPAA," explains Smith. "As such, there are protocols involving trailers that we failed to follow. As with features, all trailers get rated get rated by the MPAA. The majority of them are for general audiences (Green Band trailers), but trailers packed with adult content (like our teaser) earns you what's called a Red Band trailer. ... Well, we didn't go through this process – simply because, we felt, that since the teaser didn't contain any footage from the actual flick, it wasn't technically a trailer. Boy, was I wrong."

ALL promotional material for any film financed and/or distributed by a signatory of the MPAA has to be MPAA approved, including internet-only materials.

"I never realized this, as it'd never been a problem in the past: we've been doing 'net-only teasers since "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and nobody ever raised a red flag before, not even on the last flick, for which we also put up two 'net-only teasers in advance of the rated trailer. But I guess since the teaser was so, shall we say, racy… a rating was in order."

Smith has now officially submitted the teaser to the MPAA for rating, and will putt he trailer back online if they approve it. It's an unfortunate situation and its only bound to get worse in the coming years as the MPAA attempts to police all movie related content on the internet.

source: NewsAskew