MPA News

Possessor is a 2020 UK / Canada Sci-Fi horror thriller by Brandon Cronenberg.
Starring Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Tasya Vos is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. While she has a special gift for the work, her experiences on these jobs have caused a dramatic change in her, and in her own life she struggles to suppress violent memories and urges. As her mental strain intensifies, she begins to lose control, and soon she finds herself trapped in the mind of a man whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.

The US release of Possessor was cut for an MPA R rating. However the uncut version will be released on video with the variant title Possessor Uncut. This version is MPA Unrated. It seems likely that Possessor Uncut will be used for international releases. The UK rating has yet to be published by the BBFC.

The LA Times explains that director Brandon Cronenberg prefers the Uncut version:

Presented stateside by distributor Neon, Possessor Uncut -- titled so to distinguish it from an R-rated version that also will be available in some markets -- is the complete version as far as Cronenberg is concerned, replete with the uninhibited moments of sex and violence, such as the transfixing erection glimpsed in a sequence memorably bathed in electric blue, that might otherwise have earned the film an NC-17 rating. Cronenberg commented:

Generally I prefer explicit violence, and I prefer violence that is viscerally disturbing to people. I find it more unsettling if violence is very sanitized. If you have a PG-13 movie where 100 people get killed and no one bleeds, to me that's doing a disservice by trivializing the violence. So I prefer people to have that visceral response, because you should.

Hamilton is a 2020 USA musical music film by Thomas Kail.
Starring Jonathan Groff, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The real life of one of America's foremost founding fathers and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Filmed live on Broadway from the Richard Rodgers Theatre with the original Broadway cast.

The original stage show contained three uses of the word 'fuck' but these were reduced to one so as to obtain an MPA PG-13 rating as required to make it suitable for Disney. See details from polygon.com

Comment: PTC to Disney: Zero F-Bombs when Hamilton Streams on Disney+

14th July 2020. See article from parentstv.org

The Parents TV Council (PTC) is a US TV morality campaign. The group writes:

The Parents Television Council is calling on Disney+ to reevaluate allowing even one f-word in the forthcoming PG-13-rated Hamilton. Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda confirmed that two of three f-words were dropped from the streaming version in order to reach the broadest audience. The Motion Picture Association allows one f-word to be used in PG-13-rated films

PTC President Tim Winter said:

We applaud Lin-Manuel Miranda for wanting to reach the broadest possible audience for the film version of his epic and brilliant Broadway musical, Hamilton , and for allowing the removal of harsh profanity in order to do so. But Disney's decision to allow even one 'f-word' to be heard on its Disney+ platform is shameful. Even with the stated permission from the program's creator to remove them, Disney is choosing to keep an f-bomb in the film.

The MPA's own rating system that enables one 'f-word' must be reevaluated. Most families consider any usage of that word greater than zero to be vile and totally off-limits. And Disney needs to recall its swarm of lobbyists who are crawling all over Capitol Hill, working to prevent a legislative update to the Family Movie Act, and preventing parents from using content filtering technology to block explicit material that they find harmful or offensive.

Military Wives is a 2019 UK comedy drama by Peter Cattaneo.
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes.

Inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs, the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.

In the US the film was originally rated R by the MPAA for brief language and a sexual reference.

The distributors appealed hoping for a PG-13 rating, but did not win their case. Instead they edited  the film to achieve an MPAA PG-13 rating for some strong language and sexual references.

For comparison the BBFC gave the film a 12A rating for infrequent strong language, moderate sex references.

Scooby-Doo is a 2002 USA / Australia comedy mystery adventure by Raja Gosnell.
Starring Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The Mystery Inc. gang have gone their separate ways and have been apart for two years, until they each receive an invitation to Spooky Island. Not knowing that the others have also been invited, they show up and discover an amusement park that affects young visitors in very strange ways. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby soon realize that they cannot solve this mystery without help from each other.

Screenwriter James Gunn has confirmed that a lesbian kiss was filmed but was cut from the final edit. He also commented on a submission that was indeed MPAA R rated. See article from screenrant.com :

Gunn answered a fan's question on Twitter about an eventual release of the R-rated Scooby-Doo , and shed some light on how the whole rating fiasco went down. Gunn confirms that the film was originally rated R by the MPAA, but that he never set out to write an adult movie. Apparently, the harsh rating was because of one stupid joke the MPAA misinterpreted. The film eventually earned a PG-13 from the ratings board, but by then a successful test screening skewed the film's target demo to a younger audience. This led to a third PR rated cut of the film removing material such as language, cleavage, and sexual situations - including a same-sex kiss between Daphne and Velma. Gunn tweeted:

Yes, the first MPAA rating was R, but it was only because of one stupid joke the MPAA misinterpreted.

The movie was originally meant to be PG-13 & was cut down to PG after like 3 parents were outraged at a test screening in Sacramento. The studio decided to go a more family friendly route.

Language and jokes and sexual situations were removed, including a kiss between Daphne and Velma. Cleavage was CGI'd over. But, thankfully, the farting remained.

I thought at the time the rating change was a mistake. I felt like a lot of teens came out for the first film and didn't get what they wanted (and didn't come back for the sequel). But today I don't know. So many young kids loved those movies, which is pretty cool.

Also, for the record I doubt any of those old cuts still exist.

Military Wives is a 2019 UK comedy drama by Peter Cattaneo.
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes.

Inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs, the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.

In the US the film was rated R by the MPAA for brief language and a sexual reference.

The distributors are now appealing the decision presumably hoping for a PG-13 rating.

For comparison the BBFC gave the film a 12A rating for infrequent strong language, moderate sex references.