Reader Question: How do you decide what rating to target your screenplay: PG-13 or R?
A question from Matt,
I’ve got a question that might be interesting for GITS readers:
How do you decide what censorship rating to target your screenplay: PG13 or R?
There’s a project I’m working on at the moment that could go either way, and a couple of people have told me that I should make a clear choice in one direction or the other. From what I can tell, this is quite an important distinction in Hollywood.
I guess the obvious answer is to write the script you want to write, and take it from there… but is it fair to say that an R-rated film should be clearly R-rated from the first act onwards? At the moment my script is PG13 in the first act, but has R-rated moments later on.
Great question. The Hollywood conventional wisdom is an R-rating hurts box office revenues. Why? Because in theory no one under the age of 17 can buy a ticket without an adult.
We are seeing this issue play out right now with the movie Prometheus which just received an R-rating. Steven Zeitchik [24 Frames / LAT] discusses the ratings issue here:
Most big summer movies studiously avoid an R rating; in fact, it’s rare these days for a summer release that isn’t a comedy to end up with one. The more prominent examples, such as Harrison Ford’s “Air Force One” or the Wachowskis’ sequel “The Matrix Reloaded,” came out nearly a decade ago or longer, before summer action movies were the gargantuan business they are today.
Most other tent poles take an “Avengers” tack — tossing in enough violence to satisfy the action-hungry but stopping short of scenes that would land an R rating and keep teens out.
Clearly screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof had the go-ahead from Ridley Scott to write an R-rated movie. As Lindelof himself tweeted the other day:
I’m not gonna say the R rating was inevitable, but the PG-13 cut of PROMETHEUS was eleven minutes long.
So at some points, the studio and the filmmakers made a determination rather than go ‘soft’ with the violence, which would run the risk of disappointing hardcore fans of the Alien series, they were better off going ‘hard’, figuring that would drive more of the target audience into movie theaters. And there is precedence for successful R-rated action movies, a notable recent one being 300 which grossed over $200M in domestic box office.
With that as background, let me say. You have to balance two key criteria when determining what rating to be mindful of when you write a script: (1) Be smart. (2) Tell the story you want to tell.
Per the former: In general, if you are interested in writing the most viable script for the spec marketplace, you should think PG-13 first. This simply because they are easier to sell than an R-rated script. [I say that with a caveat which I will discuss below]. This means you can’t have a lot of drug usage, you can’t have a lot of sex, you can’t have a lot of graphic violence, you can’t use more than a couple of F-words and then only in specific ways (adjective — yes / verb — no). How much you can get away with is a mystery because the MPAA has never made public much in the way of their ratings methodology [you can find out more about that system here].
The simplest way to be smart is to watch your use of language in a script. If you write an otherwise PG-13 movie, then drop three or more F-bombs into the dialogue, that is an R-rating. And that’s not being smart. In truth, the presence of three F-bombs probably wouldn’t determine the fate whether the script would sell or not because a buyer would just assume they would cut those ‘offensive’ words. However it doesn’t make you look very knowledgeable because, as a screenwriter, you should know about the use of F-bombs in a script.
Which brings me to the second criteria and my caveat: If the story you want to tell has characters who drop a lot of F-bombs, or for that matter engage in graphic sex, violence, and drug use, just accept the fact you are writing an R-rated movie. The other option is to end up with a watered-down movie.
For example, look at this dialogue taken from the Academy Award winning R-rated gritty cop movie Training Day:
Alonzo: [on the phone talking to Smiley] Make sure that bathtub is clean, homey.
[Jake gets in car]
Alonzo: It behooves you not to dick around on this one. Justifiable homicide in the line of duty? What happened was…
Jake: What happened was murder… and armed robbery. Wait, we had badges, so it’s different?
Alonzo: Open your eyes, son. Can’t you see?
Jake: That man was your friend, and you killed him like a fly.
Alonzo: Why is he my friend, because he knows my first name? Roger sold dope to kids. The world is a better place without him. This man was the biggest major violator in Los Angeles. This is the game. I’m playing his ass. That’s my job. That’s your job. I watched that cocksucker operate with impunity for over 10 years, and now I got him. The shit’s chess, it ain’t checkers. What, we all of a sudden gonna roll up in a black-and-white? Come on, man, take the money.
Jake: I told you, I’m not gonna take that money.
Alonzo: All right, burn it, barbecue it, fish-fry it, I don’t give a fuck. But the boys’ll feel better about it.
Jake: Fuck their feelings.
Alonzo: You’re not making them feel like you’re part of the team.
Jake: The team? You guys are fuckin’ insane. All right, I’ll go back to the Valley. I’ll cut parking tickets. Why does it have to be this way?
Alonzo: I’m sorry I exposed you to it, but it is. It’s ugly, but it’s necessary… Sometimes you gotta have a little dirt on you for anybody to trust you.
Let’s see. To make this a PG-13, we’d have to make a few changes:
It behooves you not to [mess] around… I watched that [asshole] operate with impunity… The [stuff’s] chess… I don’t give a [damn]… [Screw] their feelings… You guys are [totally] insane.
You could do it, but it wouldn’t feel as authentic as the original dialogue. In other words, sometimes a story just has to be R-rated. Which means at the end of the day, the story rules.
Here is another movie example, where a PG-13 movie got an R-rating because of one scene. The movie is Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and the scene is this one:
Car Rental Agent: [cheerfully] Welcome to Marathon, may I help you?
Neal: Yes.
Car Rental Agent: How may I help you?
Neal: You can start by wiping that fucking dumb-ass smile off your rosey, fucking, cheeks! And you can give me a fucking automobile: a fucking Datsun, a fucking Toyota, a fucking Mustang, a fucking Buick! Four fucking wheels and a seat!
Car Rental Agent: I really don’t care for the way you’re speaking to me.
Neal: And I really don’t care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn’t fucking there. And I really didn’t care to fucking walk, down a fucking highway, and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile in my fucking face. I want a fucking car RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Car Rental Agent: May I see your rental agreement?
Neal: I threw it away.
Car Rental Agent: Oh boy.
Neal: Oh boy, what?
Car Rental Agent: You’re fucked!
On the face of it, a stupid decision to get an R-rating because of this, right? Wrong. First off, the script is by John Hughes who, let’s face it, could do no wrong. Second this is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. Like the fake orgasm bit of business in When Harry Met Sally, I have to believe this scene actually generated enough word-of-mouth buzz, it actually generated more ticket sales.
But it’s a third point that cuts through everything else: The scene in PT&A works and is, indeed, necessary because it speaks to the desperation and anger roiling around in Neal’s character. He blows his top here because his character needs to blow his top. It’s a perfect scene tied specifically to Neal’s deconstruction on his metamorphosis journey.
Again the story rules.
So when making that choice about your script — PG-13 or R — the easiest and generally smartest choice is PG-13. However if your story cries out to be an R, then you have to respect and embrace that when writing the script.
What say ye, GITS readers? How do you decide what rating to go after when you write a script?
[BTW Hwood is probably more receptive nowadays to R-rated screenplays, especially comedies, because of the success of movies like Bridesmaids, Horrible Bosses and Bad Teacher which all turned nice profits.]
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