What’s better than having one Fifty Shades of Grey film? Having TWO Fifty Shades of Grey films, of course. And if producer Dana Brunetti gets his way, that’s exactly what we’re going to see. Two versions of the film, one rated R and the other NC-17. Be still my girlish heart.Â
Here’s how Brunetti floated his idea to Collider (via /Film):
It’ll be R, obviously it has to be R. This is just my opinion and this doesn’t mean this is going to happen, but I always thought it would be really cool if we released the R version and then we had an NC-17 version that we released a few weeks later. So everybody could go and enjoy the R version, and then if they really wanted to see it again and get a little bit more gritty with it then have that NC-17 version out there as well. It’d be great for the studio too because they’d get a double dip on the box office… What we’re kind of hearing from the fans is they want it dirty, they want it as close as possible [to the book]. We want to keep it elevated but also give the fans what they want.
Despite the obvious chances at double entendre there, I’ll be very professional and not make fun (‘double dip’…hehehe). While Brunetti might be misunderstanding his source material here in referring to Fifty Shades of Grey as ‘elevated,’ he’s actually got a solid idea. I’m not certain that this film will make any money from its target audience if it is not as explicit as the book; but at the same time, most studios balk at releasing NC-17 films. So a compromise of producing both an R-rated and a more explicit version of the same film is a good idea. It also could mean more box office take.
As Brunetti points out, though, this is not his decision to make. So far the studio has made no overtures about releasing two cuts, and the film has not even begun production. But it’s an interesting notion to start things off. More importantly, if a hard R or NC-17 cut of the film is successful, it could open new avenues for more explicit mainstream films.
I personally will find the whole production quite funny. It’s one thing to read about abusive sex acts and call them erotic; it’s another thing to actually see them acted out on the screen. I quietly question whether the women who have romanticized Fifty Shades of Grey will not be horrified by the actual film.
What do you think about Brunetti’s proposal? More Christian Grey to go around? Let us know in the comments.
