The Weinstein Company has managed to convince the Motion Picture Association of America to lower the rating of its upcoming film Philomena from an R rating to PG-13.
As previously reported, the production company wasn't happy that their movie Philomena, starring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, got slapped with an R rating and decided to appeal.
The Weinstein Co. enlisted Dench to replay her role as M and announce that they would be appealing the rating. Harvey Weinstein felt that for using the f-word twice didn't justify the R rating and that it should have been PG-13.
On Wednesday, The Weinstein Co. had a formal meeting where it appealed to the MPAA to lower the rating, TheWrap reports.
TWC got the chairman of Motion Picture Consulting, Ethan Noble, to speak about how the film deserved a PG-13 rating rather than R. Coogan also appeared at the hearing to speak on the movie's behalf.
In the end, they swayed the MPAA. "We owe this victory to Barbara Broccoli, producer of the James Bond series, Daniel Craig and Sam Mended who because of their relationship with Judi Dench gave permission to spoof the ratings system using the M character," Weinstein said.
"This is a film that evokes an overwhelmingly positive response from people. I'm delight children have already seen it and have responded to it so positively. We felt the MPAA had made the wrong decision in handing the film, which has no violence or lewd material and the bare minimum of adult language, an 'R' rating," director Stephen Frears said.
image: TWC