The Prometheus Hypocrisy

@Jeystone - Same here, if this is given a stupidly low rating then I'm not gonna bother either. I don't wanna watch this film with a bunch of stupid rowdy kids sat near me! YES I know people will say "See it at a later time then), maybe I don't want to. . . :) This movie needs at least a 15 rating!

im sure i read somewhere that ridley championed it be rated an 18.. if they want to piss off the fans he will stand firm with the bean counters.

It's been known Ridley Scott submitted 2 cuts, one PG13 & one R rated (Google it). Europe will most likely get the R rated one. If American audience wants to experience "an uncompromising vision of outer space terror" they are either gonna have to wait for BluRay Director's Cut in December, or get a plane ticket to Paris on 30th of May. The reason for a PG13 release is because 20th Century Fox, after grossing $2.7billion with AVATAR, cannot wait for James Cameron to get his space-age 3D gear ready for the sequel, and ask Ridley to deliver "something like AVATAR.."

Ive also heard that two cuts were filmed 1 PG13 for the theatres and 1 R for the blu-ray release I cant see that though, a watered down version for the theatre?

I was thinking... even in today's ratings world, would the chestburster scene from 'Alien' make a PG-13 rating? I'm not sure. Could you imagine that film without that scene and still have the effect it has had on people. I am having trouble imagining true horror (some blood and guts help emphasize ideas as evidenced in the chestburster scene in 'Alien') in a PG-13 rated movie. I guess we'll see how effective it is if in fact it is released with a PG-13 rating.

Didn't LORD OF THE RINGS get away with PG13 with all those beheadings, the disgusting sliminess of the Orcs, the constant battle violence (stabbing, slashing), giant elephants goring cavalrymen etc. I think PROMETHEUS can be intense & involving without the R rating.

True about LOTR and I agree that a PG13 can be intense and involving. However, I'm not sure anything in LOTR was even close to what the chestburster scene was like or what it did to audiences. I just think 'Alien' minus the chestburster scene (I don't think that scene would make a PG13 rating, even today) would change things dramatically and that's a concern for people when it comes to Prometheus. The chestburster scene unsettled so many people. Prior to it erupting, the Nostromo crew (and you, the viewer) had no idea what the facehugger was doing. So, when it erupts from Kane's chest and you see it coming out, you know it was an egg/creature, you know something was alive inside Kane all that time and you know the pain he must have gone through. It also played on homophobic fears that some men have and tortured women who've given birth, both at the same time. Sure, you could allude to the eruption/bursting without showing anything, but, again, I'm just not sure the audience would have been as unsettled. And that is a concern for some people when it comes to Prometheus. Could you imagine John Carpenter's 'The Thing' without seeing the transformations and grotesque things happening to the men's bodies? And for the record, I'm not into blood and guts just for the heck of it. I just thought I could explain the concerns of many people over what might be left out in a PG13 and how that could affect the experience.

My hatred for the people behind region coding, unskippable ads and BD-related access control nonsense is far, far greater than any notion that I would easily shrug off buying an 'R' rated version after already being conned into buying the PG13 one. I'd rather wait.

But this movie, even if it is pg13 won't make anywhere near what Avatar did! It's not nearly as commercial or "popular" in many peoples eyes. Even though Prometheus will be a million times better. . . Also, please God don't let Cameron do a sequel to it!

I dont think is a matter of age there are kids/adults that want it to have an R to see sex and kinky things ( that there will be NEVER is a ridley scott movie ) and there are kids/adults that fear a "light" tone of the movie to reach a pg13 ...and missing that couple of moments of "ohh shitt" that made alien great . hostel and saw to me are movies for teens ( and not regarding the age ) .

Did you see how many kids (7 and younger) were out with their parents to see Avatar when it was released? I don't think nearly as many parents will allow their youngsters in to see Prometheus with them.

I'm expecting something with a lot more weight and gravitas then lord of the rings a hell of lot more,.. dont get me wrong lotr was an reasonable fantasy picture but ridleys a lot more grounded then that and when he says he wants to make a NASTY pic it will be visceral, competent, effective, and above all believable. He has always made a point of reflecting that he never believed most sc fi so when he takes on a scfi project he comes at it with a view to making it as realistic and challenging as possible . It cant have escaped his attention the massive amount of anticipation and speculation about this and its more than likely that this film in particular is being discussed and debated more than any one of his films in recent years. Maybe this film is or will be viewed as the most talked about film of his career since in the days of blade runner, and alien, there was no internet so to speak therefore i am pretty sure that his people, and staff will be updating him on the vast speculation, and expectation of this film and it wont have escaped fox's notice either. So will they go with a film that younger audience numbers can attend or will ridley keep to his original notion of creating a nasty perverse scfi epic the anticipation is palpable.

@LyleP that's exactly it...Prometheus is already NOT in the mainstream Transformers, Avatar etc category, and will not appeal to these types of people anyway..I'd be suprised if they could even say the name properly So why not just satisfy the people who WILL see this movie...i.e. the Alien/Aliens generation..we sure as hell know what we want, and if some 9 year old kid doesn't get to see it because of a scene where a Xeno rapes a crew member anally, so be it...tough.... Making this a PG is wrong on so many levels and dimensions I can't even discuss all of them here...I wonder what Giger thinks of this

Something else to remember is at Comic Con, Scott said, "What I want to do is scare the living shit out of you." Is it easier to do that in a PG13 or an R? Hmmm....

Membrane...the timing of your post right after Jeystone's could not have been more funnier. LOL!

Where are you getting this idea that people want sex and kinky ideas from frantz that is not why i want an adult film to be made. I want exposition, i want visceral, i want realistic, i want challenging deep sc fi with an emphasis on the primal fears of humankind, and a philosophical, outlandish perverse content,.. perverse means unusual not sexually perverse. There's been a plethora of kids scfi over the years and quite frankly i'm bored to death of this safe predictable nonsense, i want something that i can leave the cinema debating with friends and myself for a long time afterwards i want original fresh involving scfi not kiddy fodder. And to assume ridley would not deliver such a thing is just not true remember the brain frying scenes in Hannibal. If it makes an impact and serves the story well ridley will do what ever it takes to reach his objectives if he's really serious about scaring the crap out of his audience.

the LotR movies are cartoons....the violence is not realistic

@membrane..yes he said that...and I hope to God it is true....however more recently to that the PG rumours have been near confirmed I think Burke from the company hijacked this movie.."with an R rating everyone steps in, administration steps in, bbfc steps in, and there's no exclusive rights for anyone" Bottom line: film violence is a thing of beauty, it is art...to restrict it is to censor art...

Wasn't there something somewhere that said one or two of the human males is forced into having sex cause the SJ were interested in how our reproduction worked, or didn't know we had males and females and made the one guy rape the other cause there species only had one sex....if that's true then no way it's pg-13

and i agree with you alteredstate ..but remember that Ushbuck was a stereotype of people that actually exist ... btw violence in movie is art only when its artistic and have a mean ... you cant remove the rape scene from Deliverance ...but the violence in hostels movies or saw movies is "pathetic" imo ...reservoir Dogs NEED that violence ...so depend ....

no SSGT fett ....that was from a fake plot ....the alien harvest fake plot ( that have nothing to share with Spaihts )

violence in itself isnt interesting...Alien had very little violence

no way it's pg-13...fox would be shooting it's self in the foot if it made Sir Riddley make a movie pg-13 when his direction was R....Not to worried...i'm sure he'll get his way and the movie will rock. Haven't seen a bad Scott movie yet

well like so much of this films speculation we have to sort the wheat from the chaff, that rumour is exactly that a rumour and all we really know for sure is whats been discussed by ridley and lindelof at comic con and the recent articles in the magazines, and press. The space jockey orgy is just another piece of supposition unless ive missed something.

Well some movies were rated pg13 or 15/16 despite of some really gross and scary scenes like in event horizon While some harmless movies like Residen evil apocalypse got a 18 rating in germany. I wonder why nobody here suspects that Fox might got through with a pg13 with prometheus through its influence, while some others With the same movie might end up as r rated!

imdb has event horizon classified as 18 / r

It should be 'R' rated and be a brave new threshold of thoughtful horror. Time dilation horror, adult Giger horror. Alone on a distant planet thousands of light years away horror. Not cheap jumps, frights and bumps. I agree wholeheartedly Jeystone, the Scott/Giger roots belong in '79 and the Necronomicon when the audience of that time was about to be plunged across a new horror threshold. Let it happen again and sweep away the teen 'safe' muck. A revolution in film is needed. Badly.

here here zeta.

I just want something that can only be described as profound, surreal, and disturbing.....that isn't asking much

jeez, chill folks. This movie [i]won't[/i] be, nor should it be a carbon copy of "Alien." If there's any gore/shock-content that doesn't make the theatrical cut, it will unquestionably show up on the blu-ray release. What? like you're not going to buy the blu-ray or DVD? Yeah, that's what I thought.

there are some simple things you can do to raise the fear threshold one is sound there are frequencies you can use to put people on edge that they can barely detect not soundscapes and atmospherics but raw hyper low frequencies. Gore and shock wont cut it for me i'm more terrified by the prospect of being taken out of ones equilibrium and the prospect of being unable to distinguish reality from fantasy. Madness and the loss of ones faculties is more terrifying then jumping out of a plane with a parachute or a bungee jump. Deep seated psychological issues which are attributed to individual cases as opposed to general audiences like phobias but those childhood fears and the strength of imagination like the boy alone in a dark room who creates demons in the wallpaper that is the core of fear. sexual, psychological, physical, sensory, and emotional, i'm hoping Prometheus taps into the lot and more. Gore and bumps in the night are secondary to all that for me.

I of course don't know the parameters of the rating system, but I think had Alien been released now- it would still be rated R. Yeah, the chestburster was gory, but no more so than many movies with a lesser rating today. I think the "intense horror sequences and disturbing images" will still be the determining factor, and I hope those are present in Prometheus. Ridley might be able to omit SOME blood and gore, but this movie still needs to be profoundly disturbing to truly stay in the "same universe" as Alien. If some of those scenes (or extended scenes) are on the director's cut BD, then I can wait for that. My curiosity is more with exactly WHAT this "epic" story will be, but as many have said already- I wonder how much they can scare us with a PG13 movie. I think it's rather humorous that some say they won't even go see this if it gets a PG13 rating. All the naysayers will still be in that $10 movie seat, just like the rest of us... I'm sure Fox is banking on that.

i agree with all of what your saying but initially i was taken in by ridleys announcement that he wanted to make a nasty sc fi epic and i was sold on that especially when it emerged it would take place in the alien universe. I have never heard ridley use that term before (NASTY) in any film he has made including Hannibal which was the last thriller he made. Its fair to say that i think it will be magnificent regardless i just hope there are some genuine nasty surprises in store .

i also think once you bring the word 3d into the mix its almost a licence to market to the young because your average adult without kids like me just cant relate to 3d in the same way . I and many of my friends are just not in the least bit interested in 3d so i feel that although i was part of the generation that grew up with alien me and my age group are not the target audience for this however its amazing to see the old fans coming out of the woodwork to take an interest in a genre defining film prequel and that may be something fox was not anticipating on the level that it has stirred debate.

@Jeystone - You have managed to put into words exactly how I feel about this movie been watered down to some Walt Disney, kiddy friendly sci fi flick. I have been so excited about this film, and find it hard to verbalise my utter disgust if it gets the kid rating. To quote Ridley "its gonna be really nasty" "its the dark side of the moon" "I want to scare the living shit out of you" ...Playing it safe with Prometheus is not the correct strategy, even financially I think it would get more traction in the long term if they really went for it(the Gods_- Xenos doing really perverse things) Its not that I want to see violence and perversity for the sake of it, I just believe those ingredients are required to make this the dark, foreboding, unnerving entity that it should be. I fear Ridley has gone all Lucas on our asses! He should tell the soulles fox suits to go fuck themselves and not have bothered, or at least had the creative intellect to make the thing on a lower budget.

I can honestly say i have never in my adult life paid to see a pg13 film at the cinema the last time i did go to the cinema i had a press pass when i did a review for revenge of the sith and I was doing a short column in a local publication.

Anyway, I just hope it's not softened as in the case of the Expendables 2 ... or as Carter of Mars (Disney) where we see a Dejah Thoris running across the sand dunes of Mars with more costumes than Mother Teresa...instead of wearing a dental floss

The biggest problem is the movie budget...they don't make 150 million R rated movies...period! That is the only reason why this movie might end up as a PG13...I trust that their will be a directors cut on the blueray/DVD...but in the cinemas...we will be lucky to get an adult rating.......sadly!

Hey I wish PROMETHEUS to be a hard R, but just by analyzing the market (AVATAR & APES movie success, both Fox Production), I think it is safe to say that the movie will likely be PG13. Europe almost definitely will get the R version, if Fox decides on 2 ratings. I hope not.

PG13 or R, I'll be at the theater to see it along with my wife, while my daughter stays at the grandparents'. :-) I think/hope Prometheus will be good regardless of the rating. Besides, 2012 looks to be a good year for movies, so one of them on my list (and hopefully several) are going to satisfy me.