After having been given an NC-17 rating for a third time for his upcoming movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith couldn’t go any further and decided to defend his case and try and change the very unforgiving MPAA’s mind. He succeeded. After bring the film up for appeal, watching it with the MPAA ratings board and pleading his case, they decided that he was right and they finally gave him the R-rating he so desperately needed.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an amazing feat!
While an NC-17 rating is typically the kiss of death for comedies, there’s no way Zack and Miri would have kept that rating. Smith was contractually obligated to deliver an R-Rated film to the studios or face having the studio make the necessary cuts to the film themselves. All the more reason why this victory was so important for Smith.
The MPAA is renowned for being stern, strict, and ruthless toward movies with a little too much adult content for their ultra-prudish tastes and when people appeal this, they usually lose.
Kevin Smith has a past with these people and after already being hit with the feared NC-17 for a third time, it seemed like a futile attempt that was likely to end with him having to cut footage that he really wanted to avoid cutting. Apparently this wasn’t the case as he cut where cuts were asked to be made and made his point.
Congratulations to you, Kevin Smith.
Let’s have a hand for the stiffs at the MPAA as well, for showing a flash of acceptance.
[Source: /Film]
After having been given an NC-17 rating for a third time for his upcoming movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith couldn’t go any further and decided to defend his case and try and change the very unforgiving MPAA’s mind. He succeeded. After bring the film up for appeal, watching it with the MPAA ratings board and pleading his case, they decided that he was right and they finally gave him the R-rating he so desperately needed.
All my cynical mind can think is that somewhere along the line a few palms were greased with greenbacks and a few dinners were bought. But perhaps (and that is a big perhaps) Smith actually pulled of a genuine win.
Comment by Ryan Midnight — August 6, 2008 @ 9:20 am
This is good and hopefully a wide release as well.
Seth Rogen in a Smith film– most excellent!!
Comment by Jerry — August 6, 2008 @ 9:36 am
This doesn’t change the fact that while claiming not to be a board of censors the MPAA continues to tell movie-makers their content isn’t acceptable. They aren’t usually forthcoming with the details of exactly what content in the film offends them, so I don’t know how accurate it is to say, “he cut where cuts were asked to be made” because if that was true they would in fact be censoring his film at their whimsy.
Comment by Sean Grimm — August 6, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
is it just me or does anyone else find Seth Rogen to be quite a cornball.. lets face it, we’re all going to see this flic because of Katie Morgan, she’s the real star.. all in favor say “wanker”..
Comment by Siah — August 6, 2008 @ 4:05 pm