Kevin Smith‘s bank account can now breathe a sigh of relief.
The director just won a ratings appeal for his Seth Rogan-starring flick Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
The ratings board initially gave the pic an NC-17 rating. It’s now been dropped to an R rating.
Smith says, “We didn’t set out to make an NC-17 film. That’s just commercial suicide.”
Theater owners are reluctant to pick up NC-17 flicks.
The R rating means that the movie will be on a lot more screens (and the opportunity to earn a lot more dough!).
The ratings board reportedly objected to two sex scenes.
After the movie’s initial NC-17 rating, Smith said he trimmed those scenes as far as he was willing to go but was unable to convince the board to lower the rating. “They felt it was rather sexually graphic. My point is, it was comically graphic,” he explains. “All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy. It wasn’t designed to titillate.”
The appeals board, a separate panel from the ratings board, viewed the movie Tuesday, and Smith presented his arguments.
Smith is a smooth talker!
It was the third time he successfully talked his way down to a lower rating. In 1994, his flick Clerks initially received an NC-17 rating that was reduced to an R on appeal. The 2003 film Jersey Girl was reduced to PG-13 after first being rated R.
Comically graphic sex scene, not meant to titillate. Hmmm…sounds very American Pie to us!
Will y’all see the movie?
[Image via WENN.]