‘Draft Day’ wins MPAA appeal to overturn R rating
“Saturday Night Live†alumnus Will Forte stops off at the Cinefamily Theatre in Los Angeles as he promotes his new movie, “Nebraska,†with with Bruce Dern.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)Hugh Hefner, who founded Playboy in 1953 and turned it into a multimedia empire, remains the magazine’s editor in chief.
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(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)Director Guillermo del Toro, in the mixing studio at Warner Bros. in Burbank, has a new movie coming out called “Pacific Rim,†a shot of which is on in the background, about an alien attack threatening the Earth’s existence. Giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)There’s plenty of R-rated language among the locker rooms, sidelines and offices of the testosterone-fueled NFL, but a new film immersed in that world, “Draft Day,†has pulled off a PG-13 rating.
The upcoming football flick directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Kevin Coster, was initially slapped with an R rating for “brief strong language†by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, but rather than trimming the film or accepting the R, Reitman and Lionsgate successfully appealed the rating.
The film, about a general manager (Costner) who trades for the No. 1 pick and has the onerous task of saving football in his city, now bears a PG-13 rating for “brief strong language and sexual references.â€
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It seems unlikely that football fans would really blanch at a bit of coarse language, seeing as how high-definition TV cameras frequently catch coaches and players barking obscenities on the sidelines. Even if such moments are usually inaudible, it’s obvious even to casual fans that profanity is part of NFL culture.
Lionsgate and the MPAA declined to provide details on the appeal.
Although successful rating appeals are historically somewhat rare, “Draft Day†marks the second such victory in the last few months. In October, the Weinstein Co. got “Philomena†downgraded from an R to PG-13.
“Draft Day†will open April 11.
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Oliver Gettell is a former film blogger for the Los Angeles Times.