MPAA Bends ‘Brüno’ Over With Early NC-17 Rating

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 30, 2009

It would appear as if Brüno, the popular character from the Sacha Baron Cohen arsenal who is about to get his own movie, has finally found a way to be a bit too dirty. As Sharon Waxman is reporting over on The Wrap, the Universal comedy has been given an initial rating of NC-17 from the Motion Picture Association of America based on “numerous sexual scenes” and other objectionable material.

As Waxman explains, the objectionable scenes include one where Bruno — a gay Austrian fashionista played by Baron Cohen — appears to have anal sex with another man on camera. There is also a scene in which a naked Bruno goes on a hunting trip and sneaks into the tent of his unsuspecting fellow hunters in the nude.

Now, as a securely heterosexual man, I can’t say that any of this would bother me in a movie, especially if it were to be used for humorous effect — but I can see how the MPAA might not like it. It’s a long-held theory of many in the industry that they are a very prude group, consistently being more harsh on sexuality than violence. Then again, who knows what kind of footage Baron Cohen has put into this movie — it was certainly enough to have our own resident cynic Rob Hunter laughing his ass off when they screened 20-minutes of the thing here in Austin during SXSW.

According to a Universal spokesperson though, Baron Cohen is currently still experimenting with various cuts of the film and it is certainly “too early” to suggest that they are having any sort of struggle with the MPAA. While I’m sure that many of us would like to see the full-fledged raunch of Baron Cohen’s vision, the studio is expecting him to deliver an R-rated film, as those make more money. Seeing as Brüno is essentially one of Universal’s  2009 summer tentpoles, releasing July 10th, they are going to need to squeeze every possible penny out of it. So expect news soon of cuts being made and a more financially viable rating being delivered.

For those of you who absolutely need to see the NC-17 stuff, you can wait for the DVD.

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