Early Cut of Cohen's 'Bruno' Gets an NC-17 Rating

In baseball, pitchers commonly throw a little high heat to back off a guy who's crowding the plate. It's not malicious (though there are still guys who cut it a little close); rather, it's just part of the game. I think the same rule applies with Sacha Baron Cohen and the MPAA. Although Borat eventually got an R rating, the first cut the ratings board saw warranted an NC-17. The same thing has just happened to Cohen's Brüno, or so a source tells The Wrap. In essence, the MPAA is just backing Cohen off of more gratuitous footage. Cohen is said to be taking his pseudo-documentary featuring everyone's favorite gay Austrian fashion reporter to even more extreme places than he did the uproarious Borat, which made over $250 million worldwide. A Universal executive tells The Wrap, "He offends everybody, but you laugh from the minute it starts." "A guy like Sacha shoots what he wants, and then he negotiates.” And that's what this is: A negotiation. Some might look at this news and think it's censorship, another example of the MPAA ruling with a mysterious iron fist. It's true that the MPAA gets a lot of stuff wrong, but this is basically Cohen's first draft. He knows Universal won't release an NC-17 movie (although its boutique brand, Focus, released Lust, Caution in 2007), so he's just seeing how much he can get away with to keep an R rating. I'm certain Sacha expected an NC-17 on this attempt. Adds the Universal source, "It's not even April and the film comes out July 10 so it's nonsense to say there's a struggle of any kind."

Comments

[Eating Butter]

Hell, half of the movies coming out between now and then have "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated" slapped on the bottom of their trailers.

I think you are right on the money with this one Mr. Boyd. Why else would Mr. Cohen, this early, be champing at the proverbial bit to get this thing rated?

Of course, with all of the Blue Pork Swords we've seen this year, methinks "The Association" is getting a little more relaxed these days.