Apparently while at WonderCon McG, director of the upcoming Terminator Salvation, got convention goers all riled up by saying a Warner Bros executive wanted him to edit his current cut of Terminator Salvation in hopes of a PG-13 rating as opposed to the certain R-rating the current cut would receive.
Peter at SlashFilm says the exec is referring to a topless shot of star Moon Bloodgood. Peter then goes on to say:
Having seen the footage myself, not in the context of the film or even scene, I will say this – it was beautifully and tastefully shot. I’m not sure if it furthers the story along (as I said, I did not see the shot in the context of the full scene), but it didn’t seem gratuitous at all.
Don’t most people say “Playboy” is tasteful when compared to “Penthouse”? While I understand Pete’s position in terms of not seeing it in context I have to say — without seeing the scene — no matter what it is gratuitous, just as I believe 98.1265% of all nudity in scripted films is gratuitous. I don’t say this as a staunch advocate against nudity, but let’s be real here, it is hardly ever necessary. You didn’t see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s full-frontal in the Terminator films because it wasn’t necessary. Kristanna Loken didn’t put her happy hats entirely on display in Terminator 3 because it wasn’t necessary, and both those films were rated R.
I believe it was Eva Marie Saint in a DVD feature for North by Northwest where she says something to the effect of, “You saw them go into the room together. You didn’t need to see anything happening because you knew what was going on.” This is just the same as what’s going on with Arnold and Kristanna, we didn’t need to see Arnold’s cock to know he was naked just as we didn’t need to see Kristanna’s breasts to realize she was naked. If you can cut out one thing and get a PG-13 rating instead of an R-rating I don’t see a problem with the studio asking the director to remove it. However, I am a staunch advocate of giving directors as much freedom as possible — if not complete freedom — and if McG is as adamant about leaving it in as he seems based on Slash‘s report then leave it in there.
Of course, all the Terminator films to this point have been rated R without Arnold’s dick or Kristanna’s tits so go figure. I just wonder, will the violence in the new film still be on par with the earlier films, and society has simply become so desensitized to violence only nudity offends the censors now? I mean, we can’t show a naked woman, but we can show a beheading and mice slitting throats in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and get away with a PG-rating. Someone please explain that one to me, it still has me baffled.
Now, with that behind us, I can point out some new posters and photos that have popped up over at Yahoo with new character posters and a nice dose of new images (examples are seen in this post) from the film all in preparation for a new trailer that will debut on Yahoo tomorrow, Monday, March 2, at 4 PM PST.
You can check out the complete gallery of images right here and I will have the new trailer for you once it’s released tomorrow.
Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 21, for more information on the film click here.
