Variety has an article today noting that Hollywood, despite recent R-rated hits like SHUTTER ISLAND, likes its big tent-pole movies with a PG-13 rating. Screenwriters Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, who co-wrote the upcoming remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS, note the rules to follow when it comes to epic-scale fantasy violence on screen:
“It’s fine to kill monsters. It’s harder to kill real people,” says Hay. “(Director) Louis Leterrier knew exactly was acceptable (to the MPAA). The blood can’t be red. If it’s black, it’s OK.”
Like most tentpoles, “Clash” was always envisioned as PG-13 in order to reach the largest possible audience.
“If we tried to make it R-rated, if we made it more violent, we would be pushing the tone to something it’s not,” explains Manfredi. “Not to mention it would be a real bummer to think of an 11- or 12-year-old not able to see the film, because that’s how old I was when I first saw (the original).”
The article notes that the less-than-stellar box office returns of recent efforts like THE WOLF MAN and WATCHMEN has Hollywood worried about releasing a big-budget film tagged with an R. Fortunately, studios will occasionally take a chance on an R-rated horror projects if the budget is kept to a modest level (as with last year’s ZOMBIELAND), but even Screen Gems, which works frequently in the genre, prefers PG-13, with a few exceptions.
No doubt this will serve as further fodder for the horror purists in the blog-o-sphere, who never tire of decrying the horrendous, pernicious impact of the PG-13 rating.
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