‘Zack & Miri Make a Porno’ Tagged With NC-17 Rating
The Hollywood Reporter has a list of the most recent MPAA ratings and it looks like the new Kevin Smith film has been slapped with an NC-17 “for some graphic sexuality.”
Zack and Miri is a romantic comedy starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as lifelong platonic friends who decide to produce a porn movie to help them get out of debt. With sex in the air, the two realize they might have romantic feelings for each other.
I don’t know if this is a final rating or if Smith and The Weinstein Company plan to make further cuts in order to receive a more audience friendly R rating. My guess is they’ll milk whatever press they can get from the NC-17, re-edit it to an R and release the original version on DVD.
NC-17 was originally designed as a mainstream alternative to the X rating which had become associated exclusively with pornography. Nevertheless, many theater chains refuse to play NC-17 rated movies, many newspapers will not advertise them and they’re considered a box office kiss of death.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is set to open on October 31.
Filed under: News
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I don’t know where the line starts and ends, though I’m sure it has more to do with sexual acts than anything else.
Apatow is apparently committed to featuring male genitalia in each of his movies now. Step Brothers is the latest example, though it’s a prominently featured prosthetic scrotum, if that makes it any less “real”.
“I don’t know where the line starts and ends” I think that’s one problem filmmakers have with the whole ratings system. The board intentionally remains flexibile, but filmmakers never know what they’re going to get. Certain boundaries are not crossed, but there’s a whole grey area. That seems difficult to navigate.
I’m all for Apatow’s campaign, simply because Americans look like fools for being so uptight about it.
Well I am one New Jerseyite who is definitely NOT a Kevin Smith fan. But that admittedly has nothing to do with this thread.
Neither does this, but it’s still exciting news: MAN ON WIRE, as Daniel mentioned earlier is getting extraordinary reviews, and practically got a perfect review from the very-difficult-to-please TIMEOUT NY.
Apparently that is only one of THREE films that Craig reviewed at the LAFF that is opening this week, the others being BAGHEAD and AMERICAN TEEN. Add to the mix a Korean film NO REGREAT……….BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and several other seemingly well reviewed docs, CSNY/DEJA VU, BUSTIN DOWN THE DOOR and THE ORDER OF MYTHS, and we have a week that will cause some to take out second mortgages. Am I being too optimistic?
I know Craig will have a far more detailed and comprehensive report tomorrow, but it seems we will all have some decisions about where to go/what to see.
I wonder if they did in fact plan on getting an NC-17, partly for the press and the inevitable “UNRATED CUT” DVD, but also to push it as far as possible and see if they could get away with more than they might have had they just trimmed it down with an R-rating in mind in the first place? That’s what the South Park guys did with the puppet sex scene for Team America.
The ratings system is a joke, but it tends to be far more lenient with violent content than it does explicit sex. “This Film Has Not Been Rated” goes into deep detail over that and does a good job of pointing out how pointless the current system and the MPAA in general really are.
Anyway, good luck to them. Kevin Smith fans will eat this up.
I’m the guy who wants an R-rated Batman so clearly I think NC-17 is the way to go. It won’t happen though. I’d guess your theory about them pushing the envelope is accurate and that we will see all on DVD.
The fact as you say that the MPAA lets violence fly but not sex is the biggest problem I have with them.
Violence with no blood, sex with no nudity…the MPAA has a weird sense of reality.
I would like to see Smith stick to his guns and release the film with an NC-17. This is the kind of film that could break the NC-17 kiss of death, given its broader appeal than films like THE DREAMERS and LUST, CAUTION.
I doubt it will happen though. The bottom line comes first in Hollywood, and an R rating would definitely be more commercially viable.
Especially with the Weinsteins more than a little desperate for $$$ right now.
Another example: they’re greenlighting a remake of the original Hellraiser for next October.
“Violence with no blood, sex with no nudity…the MPAA has a weird sense of reality.”
They’re a comedy act with no humor.
if this film is put by the weinsteins there probably no way it can make money (don’t they blotch everything ??? so they may as well go nc-17….but uh guess they could go uh unrated….that seems to a common move…)
hell when i saw porno in the subject line i was hoping for news about a trainspotting sequel. yeah i want to be the first to make that joke. *thank you* :)
I agree with you Matthew, but also agree it’s unlikely to happen.
Hellraiser? I guess it’s no sillier than any of the other recent remakes like 10 or Papillion or (fill in the blank).
craig….what would an r rated batman have done to the sells of various toy tie ins. yep i think counts more than making a move that may have made the movie better…
and nah craig… i’m keeping pure and haven’t seen the dark knight. see your craig your forum needs an innocent one… ;)
Glim, I know WHY Batman was PG-13, I’m just saying it would’ve been a better movie had it not been. I’m tired of movies dumbed down for the Cap’N Crunch eaters.
cunning glimmer claims to be pure and innocent while planting ideas in my head about R-rated Batman toys.
;-)
Your cultural references are wasted on us damn foreigners. What’s Cap’N Crunch, and why is it eaten by children and undiscerning (when it comes to movies) adults? I wouldn’t want to inadvertently munch on the stuff in public.
Finally seeing The Dark Knight Friday morning (IMAX), and a SF Giants game that night. Yay!
It’s a particularly synthetic breakfast cereal.
It’s particularly synthetic and has a similar effect on the roof of your mouth to eating sweetened gravel.
http://www.capncrunch.com/
Also good for removing tartar from the roof of your mouth. 3 out of 10 dentists recommend it.
See? It’s an American institution.
I’m lucky to have native guides. It’s a jungle out there.
By the way, is it wrong of me that I hope some plot development in this movie involves an ‘actress’ not showing up and Elizabeth Banks having to substitute? Sorry to drag down the level of discourse, Craig, but still…
Jeff, I second your emotion. We are fans of Ms. Banks at LiC.
Also, thanks for playing the perv card so I could keep my hands clean.
Cap’n Crunch, famous for retaining it’s crunch in milk, accomplished through the low-tech means of coating each granule in milk-repellent Vaseline or some other residual petroleum product. It’s the Exxon Valdez of breakfast cereals!
Ahahaha. Yeah, it’s all fun and games until you crap cement.