MPAA embraces NC-17!

In what I think is one of the more important announcements that the movie industry has unleased in the past few years, the MPAA has announced that they are going to embrace NC-17 films. This opens up so many new doors to potentially great films that would have otherwise been butchered to make an R rating.

Quote:

Variety writes:

MPAA chairman-CEO Dan Glickman met with indie filmmakers and studio specialty execs Monday at Sundance, declaring he wants the movie biz to embrace the NC-17 rating and thereby provide a place for edgier fare.
He also delivered a gift during the closed-door sesh: The Classification & Ratings Administration has appointed a liaison to help filmmakers with questions about the ratings process.

Indie filmmakers have long felt frustrated by the ratings process, which has been shrouded in mystery. Glickman is trying to relieve some of that angst, saying the credibility of the ratings system is vital to the entire movie biz.

The morning meeting in Park City at the Lodges at Deer Valley officially kicked off Glickman's campaign to make the ratings system more transparent and user-friendly (Daily Variety, Jan. 17).

Ratings had already come up at Sundance, even before Glickman's roundtable with the indie community.

On Sunday, the Weinstein Co. and Lionsgate pacted to pick up "Teeth," a dark comedy about a girl who has teeth in her vagina. Harvey Weinstein said he doesn't want to cut the movie to ensure an R rating. Lionsgate can release an unrated movie since it's not a member studio of the MPAA.

Accompanying Glickman to Park City was Joan Graves, chair of the Classification & Ratings Administration. The National Assn. of Theater Owners (which administers the ratings board with the MPAA) also is a partner in the campaign.

In Park City, some attending the roundtable offered the idea of taking the stigma out of the NC-17 rating, which itself was created to take the stigma out of the X rating. But the NC-17 rating never caught on.

Studio marketing departments quickly encountered trouble when trying to place media buys, since various outlets think an NC-17 film is the same as an X-rated film. Also, exhibs have been reluctant to devote screens to NC-17 films.

Briefing reporters after the session, Glickman and Graves said they readily agreed something must be done.

"We are going to talk about this with the Directors Guild of America and NATO," Glickman said. "It's one of our ratings, and I'd like to see it used more."

Graves said parents are particularly concerned about the new generation of horror pics playing on the bigscreen, such as the "Saw" and "Hostel" franchises.

Glickman stressed the rating system itself is not being changed. The reforms being made are designed to make the process more public.

In the coming weeks, Glickman, Graves and NATO prexy John Fithian will meet with various stakeholders in the ratings process to talk about the proposed changes and to get input about other possible reforms.

For the first time, CARA plans to post the ratings rules, which describe the ratings and appeals process, and the standards for each.

In another first, CARA will allow a filmmaker to reference a scene from another movie during the appeals process, although the board still will put heavy emphasis on context.

There also will be a new ratings descriptor saying certain R-rated movies aren't appropriate for younger children.

Fithian will brief theater owners on these and other changes at ShoWest in March.

The important question is, of course, will they hold up their end of this bargain? I certainly hope so, because it is certainly awesome on their part, and gives me hope that we'll see some incredible films in the future that otherwise would not have seen the light of day.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I guess this is a good thing? I think it will take a long while before people in the movie industry start to make films differently now that steps are being taken to push the NC-17 rating. The majority of people won't want to leave their comfort zone just yet.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This isn't necessarily the first time this has happened, you know. Back in 1969 a little film directed by John Schlesinger received a rating of "X", which eventually became the rating we now know as "NC-17". That film was called Midnight Cowboy and it won an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Whether the MPAA embraces this rating seems kind of pointless since any director worth his salt like Schlesinger was will make a great movie without compromise to his/her vision and still have it widely recognized; even in silver-spoon-up-the-ass circles like the AMPAAS.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I think we're all missing the important point of this article.

Quote:

On Sunday, the Weinstein Co. and Lionsgate pacted to pick up "Teeth," a dark comedy about a girl who has teeth in her vagina.

I mean, teeth...in a vagina! Now that's some highbrow comedy right there.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It's issues like this that make me happy I'm Canadian. All the provinces enforce their own rating systems, and all of them are far more lenient than the States' (with the exception of Ontario, which bans films left and right). In any case, this seems to be a step in the right direction for you guys.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't imagine this is going to change anything.

Just because they're saying it's a-ok to make an NC-17 film, doesn't mean that people will.

People want to make a film that sells. I'd imagine a good chunk of the crowd that views movies like this are going to be under 17.

Most kids that are 17 don't have their IDs anyways.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?