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EXCLUSIVE: Another movie has gotten an NC-17. Killer Joe, the Billy Friedkin-directed adaptation of the Tracy Letts play just got an NC-17 rating. That is one of the first releases by LD Entertainment, the new distribution company started by Mickey Liddell and run by David Dinerstein. They will appeal the rating and it’s unusual; Letts is the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning playwright of August: Osage County.This one is a garish, sexy black comedy that stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gerson and Thomas Haden Church and it’s slated for a summer release.
The pic premiered at Venice and it has been called Tennessee Williams meets Quentin Tarantino. It played Toronto, where it was acquired by LD, and will makes its US premiere at SXSW. It’s racy and violent, but LD thinks it’s an R film. “We will use our best efforts to overturn this decision,” Dinerstein said. “We stand by our filmmakers and remain faithful to their visions.” Stay tuned.
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Matthew McConaughey + (playing) bad ass + actress + chicken leg = Saaaahhhhhhhhhhh-weet!
Is the actress in question Juno Temple? I’ll see this move for her, alone.
If it’s anything like the play, it wouldn’t be a woman in question but full frontal on the guy play Joe.
When NATO wakes-up in four years or so and sees theatre attendance cut in half or more, the MPAA will finally be rendered largely irrelevant. After all, when multiple VOD alternatives start to quantifiably chop NATO’s fortunes, it’ll mean NATO will no longer be of much use to the major studios, weakening NATO considerably.
And without NATO, the MPAA has little bite.
Ratings should be mere “suggestions” for responsible parents and such, and not a form of economic fascism. Bad enough that films are abused by theatres with their pandering ads, lousy projection, and non-enforcement of noise/distraction rules…and then this, too?
Maybe that whole “United States vs. Paramount Pictures” thing wasn’t such a great idea, after all.
It would be foolish to believe having no rating system would make things better. It would eventually lead to greater government intrusion, which is partly why the rating system was created in the first place. I certainly agree it’s a broken system, but dumping it would not make things better.
One of the worst movies i have ever seen. In my entire life. WTF happend to Emile Hirsch’s career??
Screened the film in Toronto, it’s very NC -17. Just ask anyone what they did with a chicken bone and having sex with an under age child.. If they give you anything less then NC-17, I would laugh at the ratings people. Stick with your guns, this film is not for anyone under 17.
Joel – easy up.
stealth, I saw it too. It’s a HARD R.
The under age child sex stuff is never shown, just implied……. Jesus christ…
The drumstick scene is what probably got it, but an appeal should get it the R.
I don’t care what the content is. It should be an advisory rating and nothing more. As a filmmaker and a parent, I will decide what is appropriate for my child to view and if I want my child to be able to walk into a theater and see KILLER JOE, then that’s my damn decision and not the MPAA’s. It’s not as if someone under 17 won’t be able to rent/download or watch it on cable/satellite within a few weeks of its theatrical run. The NC-17 rating has always been hypocrisy of the highest level and the MPAA needs to own up to it. Dump the NC-17. The strongest rating should be the R- which stipulates: adult content. The NC-17 rating takes the parental choice out of my hands and refuses admittance to my under 17 year-old child. Give me all the info I need to make an informed choice, but let the final decision be mine. I’ve never believed you can have an adult rating (R) and then a more adult rating (NC-17). It’s either adult or not. And the horse trading amongst studios to avoid the R or NC-17 ratings makes me sick to my stomach. Half the PG-13 films out there are inappropriate for 13 year-olds – they’re essentially trimmed down R ratings. And it doesn’t seem rational to trim a few seconds here and there to gain an R rating. The system does not work, Joan. We know you want to keep your job, but you sure ain’t doing it very well.
Thanks “stealth” for your very helpful comment. Even if this gets downgraded to an “R” we’ll stay away. Sounds like more perversion from Hollywood. It’s good that people like you try to get the truth out there.
Robert, the chicken bone is an NC-17, not R. The film even if implied (BJ, sex) is still a very sexual movie in every sense of the word. The chicken bone sent everyone over the edge. My daughter at the age of 16 should not see this film. Just because you felt it’s a hard R, does not make it an R. It’s as bad as seeing the penis of Michael Fassbender in Shame… I would not want my daughter seeing either film.
Marc5, you can call it “perversion from Hollywood” if you like, but the material originated on stage in Chicago and has been performed in legit theaters around the world. Tracy Letts, who wrote the play and screenplay, is a Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright, but I doubt that holds much water to someone who would make the post that you did.
And stealth, Dottie is not underage. She’s 20, and Chris is 23. It’s that way in the text of the play, and though the film doesn’t mention it specifically, neither does it ever say that she’s under eighteen. Her age is never mentioned at all in the film.
This movie is a VERY Hard R, but the subject matter is what makes it brilliant. Best caters to the Tarantino crowd.
Thank god someone made you the morality police! Phew!
And just because you think it’s an NC-17 doesn’t mean it is. Just because you don’t like chicken bone sex doesn’t mean other people don’t!
the play has been playing on stage in more than 20 countries for more than 10 years. the playwright won the pulitzer. the chicken bone scene was on stage every night and people could take their children. Dottie is over 18, the actress who plays Dottie is over 18. it’s not because Stealth you dont understand a movie that you need to tell people about it, go take instead your daughter to see Hunger Games and the ten teenagers who get killed by each other in a PG-13 movie, and when kids are going to do the same thing in their high schools to imitate movies, then maybe instead you’ll take your kid to watch movies about eating chicken or having sex, rather than PG13 movies about killing other kids…The MPAA are complete morons and are hypocritical. Bully and killer joe get R and NC-17 but killing teenagers on screen is PG13.