THE EXPENDABLES (Sylvester Stallone, 2010)

[MFS]

Yeah a friend working at the French distributor's saw the opening and told me that big D is doing some damage

Without getting to spoilery, that's the part with the pirates right? Really looking forward to that one.

[Jox]

That's the scene at the beginning of the trailer...

[MFS]

When you wrote "opening", you meant that your friend saw the opening scene, right? Just want to make sure that I didn't misread your comment. Anyway, I believe that's the "scene" when Dolph gives someone the "viking-treatment", which will surely be one of the highlights of the film.

[Jox]

Not sure what the viking treatment is but you did not misread my comment.

[MFS]

Good. Well, I call it the "viking-treatment", since according to one of the set reports SPOILER Gunnar Jensen tries to hang a pirate and when Barney Ross asks him what he's doing, he says it's an old viking technique SPOILER. I hope that line ends up in the movie.

[Jox]

It's weird, just when Sly proudly announces the film being a "hard R" there's rumors that Lionsgate is still fighting him to make it PG13...
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/06/ ... xpanda.php

[MFS]

Aaargh, conflicting reports! But I'll choose to trust Sly til proven otherwise, if only to keep my sanity intact.

I should add, though, that I'm not really against PG-13 in general, there are plenty of actionfilms that have worked with that rating, but I would still be disappointed if The Expendables was rated PG-13, since the blood and the cursewords are a huge part of the old school-charm.

Let's hope Sly assembles the Expendables cast and goes to the Lionsgates executives office to talk some sense into them ...

[Nathan]

If this article and debate between Lionsgate and Stallone is current and on-going, I am seriously asking myself how they think cutting all of the violence out of a deliberately uber-violent old-school 80's action fest will garner more interest? Thirteen year olds ain't gonna see this, thirteen year olds don't have a clue who half of them are. I used to respect Lionsgate, who the hell is running companies like Lionsgate, Cinetel, First Look and Nu Image?

[Dragonrage]

But hey guys...If jox said that French distributor's all ready saw the movie, so they probably have the movie all ready...and I know that distributors get some movies and two-three moths before release date, so...why the story about the rating!!!?

[Jox]

Right now I believe they only got a digital version, dialog list, and probably M&E (music & effects) to make the dubbed version and subtitles. Then should follow with inter-negative and misc material etc.

How long before the release date do they get the material to make prints depends of the titles, in the case of big movies like THE LORD OF THE RINGS the final touches are still being made a 2 to 3 weeks prior. Also, us French almost always get unrated/uncut versions, as we are very liberal regarding ratings, but it doesn't keep US distributors from cutting a version for the American territory...

That said I believe we can trust Sly's words to keep it R and prove it wrong to the suits.

[MFS]

If this article and debate between Lionsgate and Stallone is current and on-going, I am seriously asking myself how they think cutting all of the violence out of a deliberately uber-violent old-school 80's action fest will garner more interest? Thirteen year olds ain't gonna see this, thirteen year olds don't have a clue who half of them are. I used to respect Lionsgate, who the hell is running companies like Lionsgate, Cinetel, First Look and Nu Image?

Exactly. It's like they're confused what their target demographic is. Even looking at it from the "money"-perspective, it doesn't make any sense. Besides the cast, isn't the main attraction of The Expendables that it will be extremely violent? Why market it to people (teens/tweens) that's not gonna go see it anyway?

[MFS]

That said I believe we can trust Sly's words to keep it R and prove it wrong to the suits.

It does seem odd that there would be talk of making it PG-13 now, with his quotes about the "crazy hard 'R'" plus the fact that the official site says "Rated R" ... so yeah, like I said before, I'll trust Sly until, God Forbid, a PG-13 is confirmed.

[MFS]

Triple post, sorry, but this is good news regarding the rating:
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/w ... -pg-13.php

[Jox]

Triple post, sorry, but this is good news regarding the rating:
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/w ... -pg-13.php

UPDATE: We received a note from Lionsgate early this afternoon saying that there is no PG-13 version of The Expendables on the horizon. They also noted that the film’s Official Website has been updated to show the R-rating. I’ve screencapped it below. Every ounce of me believes them on this one. Mostly because (a) Lionsgate has never shied away from edgy material and (b) even the most dimwitted studio exec would know that making a film like The Expendables PG-13 would be an awful idea.

[Jox]

The teaser (there's really only in the US that they didn't use it first) in French
http://video.fr.msn.com/watch/video/exp ... e/jm978pzk