If you’re one of the many people who are anxious and skeptical of the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation, you can rest easy knowing that all your favorite scenes of explicit S&M sex will make it into the film.
Kelly Marcel, the screenwriter tasked with adapting the novel, has stated that the film will be so steamy that it will receive an NC-17 rating. Considering the novel explores a “kinky relationship between virginal college senior Anastasia Steele and 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey,” the rating does seem appropriate.
“There is going to be a lot of sex in the film,” Marcel said in a recent interview. “It will be NC-17. It’s going to be raunchy.”
Despite Marcel’s comment, Universal has responded with a claim that Marcel’s words should not be taken as confirmation.
“A screenplay has not yet been written, a rating has not been designated, and we have no further comment,” a rep for the studio said today.
As you probably know, NC-17 is usually a bad sign for a film’s box office take. The highest grossing NC-17 film of all time, Showgirls, only made $20 million domestically. That being said, if a film should be NC-17 then I do think that the studio should stand by the rating. And Fifty Shades of Grey is most definitely a film that should be NC-17. If the studio waters it down they will turn a lot of people away, but then again, if they go all out and take the NC-17 then they will severely limit the box office potential for a film that has a ton of potential to make the studio a ton of money.
As you can see, it’s a difficult situation. Do they preserve the source material and stay true to it, risking the NC-17 rating? Or do they water it down a bit and hope to make more money? Like I said, difficult situation.
What do you think? Should Fifty Shades of Grey be NC-17?
