“Right now I don’t know where we are. The question is, do you go for the PG-13, or do you go for what it should be, which is R? Financially it makes quite a difference, or the risk makes quite a difference, and yet you also have to apply the question — if you soften it, will you financially suffer?” director Ridley Scott recently told Empire. “As opposed to just going for the throat and gambling. Essentially, it’s kinda R. The little bastards will still get in anyway, so what’s the difference? It’s not just about blood, it’s about ideas that are very stressful. I’m not an idiot, but I’ll do everything I can to get the most aggressive film I can.” And it seems since that interview, Scott has been in the loop with the MPAA trying to get a rating for his film, and like a handful of directors in recent memory, he's come away with a sour taste in his mouth.
Today, lucky folks in London were treated to footage from "Prometheus" followed by a Q&A, and Thompson On Hollywood were there. Scott made no bones about the frustrations he's having in securing a rating for the film. Apparently annoyed by the MPAA's seemingly random pick-and-choose method for rating a movie he says “films this year that have got PG-13 ratings – it’s absolutely fucking ludicrous. So MPAA, get your house in order.” Does this mean he has to soften a cut he delivered that earned an R from the MPAA, when he believed it should have been PG-13? It sure seems that way, and it sounds as if he's not too pleased about it.
But as he said before, he's aware that going R probably won't work financially — he's up for a rating that "allows it to make as much money as possible. I know the importance of that. When a big film fails, it’s disastrous for all of us.” — but it seems working within those parameters is proving to be difficult. Fox has not yet released a rating for the movie, but it seems as if they are expectedly working toward a PG-13. So we'll see how this plays out.
Meanwhile, in case you needed it confirmed, "Prometheus" was shot natively in 3D (no post-conversion job here) and speaking quite frankly, Scott found it be a breeze. It's “dead simple to use – it wasn’t a problem. Anyone who says it is just doesn’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
Finally, one last tease before he left. Scott told the London crowd that "Prometheus" contains “the equivalent to [“Alien”’s chest-burster] scene” in a sequence that will feature Noomi Rapace. We can't wait.
"Prometheus" opens June 8th.