>Kevin Smith‘s upcoming latest, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, in which two friends attempt to overcome debt(!) by entering the adult film world, just had its rating reduced from an NC-17 to an R, after an appeal made by the director to the MPAA.
Acknowledging in an AP report that the more restrictive rating would have been “commercial suicide,”
Smith said the MPAA ratings board objected to two sex scenes involving co-stars Jason Mewes and Katie Morgan. 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. All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy,” Smith said. “It wasn’t designed to titillate.”
The MPAA appeals board apparently agreed with Smith’s arguments, which he presented on Tuesday. No word yet when/if he’ll get an official thumbs-up on an early teaser for the film – see below – which the MPAA ordered yanked from its internet-only release back in June.