BULLY GOING OUT UNRATED

Harvey Weinstein is making good on his threat to release his documentary Bully next weekend in New York and Los Angeles without a rating, after the decision by the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board to slap it with an R-rating because of the repeated use of the f-word. Ads for the film appearing […]

A KILLER RATING FOR KILLER JOE?

The MPAA’s ratings appeals board has upheld the NC-17 rating meted out to William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, starring Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon. The board cited “graphic aberrant content” including violence and sexuality. Reviews of the film mention scenes in which Gershon appears nude below the waist. (Somewhat ironically, Gershon disclosed on Wednesday that she […]

CONGRESSMEN ENTER BULLY BATTLE

Twenty members of Congress have reportedly signed an online petition started by a high-school student asking the MPAA to set aside the R rating for Bully, the theatrical documentary about teenage bullying due to be released later this month by The Weinstein Company. The bipartisan group of congressmen, led by Democratic Rep. Mike Honda of […]

WEINSTEIN TAKES THE BULLY PULPIT

Harvey Weinstein is ratcheting up his battle with the MPAA and theater owners over the R rating his soon-to-be-released documentary Bully has received because of language. On Tuesday Weinstein responded to a letter from John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, who wrote that if Weinstein refuses to submit future films to […]

WHY SPIELBERG MADE BLOODLESS WAR MOVIE

Steven Spielberg has acknowledged that he had to engage in a certain amount of maneuvering during the production of War Horse — a movie set during World War I, which claimed more lives on the battlefield than any other war in history — in order to retain a PG-13 rating. In an interview with Daily […]

ANALYST TO DREAMWORKS ANIMATION SHAREHOLDERS: SELL

Although Kung Fu Panda took in a decent if unimpressive $60.9 million over the weekend, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield lowered his 2011 and 2012 for DreamWorks Animation’s stock performance and reiterated his “sell” recommendation. In a note to clients, Greenfield said, “Despite Kung Fu Panda 2 being in 3D this past weekend, its first five-day […]

WEINSTEIN TO MAKE PERSONAL APPEAL TO MPAA OVER BLUE VALENTINE

Harvey Weinstein will personally appear before the MPAA ratings appeal board to ask that the NC-17 rating meted out to Blue Valentine be reduced to an R rating, Deadline.com’s Pete Hammond reported on Monday. “Usually just my lawyers do the appeals,” Weinstein told Hammond, “but this time I am going to.” Weinstein observed that over […]

PAT TILLMAN FILM HIT WITH AN R RATING

It’s hard enough to attract audiences for documentary films; it’s even harder when a documentary is hit with an R rating. Well aware of that fact, Harvey Weinstein, who has battled the MPAA’s ratings board over its ratings in the past, is launching a new effort to overturn the R rating handed out by the […]

PRODUCERS WIN RATING APPEAL OVER ROBERTS STARRER

In a rare decision to remove an R rating from a movie and replace it with a PG-13 — without forcing edits in the film — the MPAA’s classification and ratings appeals board has bowed to Columbia Pictures executives’ arguments on behalf of the Julia Roberts starrer Eat Pray Love. Writer-director Ryan Murphy and producer […]