Kevin Smith fights the Battle of the Balls to get Yoga Hosers a PG-13

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Kevin Smith Yoga Hosers Battle of the Balls Johnny Depp

For most horror filmmakers, having their film cut down to a PG-13 is a disappointment. Kevin Smith is not most horror filmmakers. His newest film, YOGA HOSERS was intended to be PG-13. In fact, he calls it a cross between "CLUELESS and GREMLINS."

However, the MPAA has a slight problem. They insist that Smith cut a scene with Jonny Depp carrying a photo that has been vandalized with a crude drawing of testicles.

Smith is looking to tour with the film à la RED STATE, beginning in June or July with a theatrical release in August 2016, but he can't do so without MPAA approval. So until then he'll be fighting, in his own words, "the Battle of the Balls!" Here's hoping everything gets arranged in time, because whether or not you like Smith's horror work, PG-13 horror that was intended to be so is always mighty intriguing (if you don't believe me, ask INSIDIOUS).

Check out the offending image (slightly NSFW) and its concurrent novella-sized caption below!

A spin-off of TUSK that features Harley Quinn Smith, Lily Rose Depp, and Johnny Depp reprising their roles, YOGA HOSERS:

centers on 15-year-old yoga nuts Colleen Collette (Lily-Rose Depp) and Colleen McKenzie (Harley Quinn Smith), who have an after-school job at a Manitoba convenience store called Eh-2-Zed. When an ancient evil rises from beneath Canada’s crust and threatens their big invitation to a Grade 12 party, the Colleens join forces with a legendary man-hunter from Montreal named Guy Lapointe (Depp) to fight for their lives with all seven chakras, one Warrior Pose at a time.

Tony Hale, Natasha Lyonne, Austin Butler, Adam Brody, Tyler Posey, Kevin Conroy, Stan Lee, Jason Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach, Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, Ralph Garman, and Harley Morenstein also star.

 

The #MPAA gave my kids movie @YogaHosers an R rating for a cartoony drawing of testicles on a book cover. So now, for the 4th time in my 22 year career, we will hold an appeals screening with the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board and try to get the R overturned for a less severe (and far more appropriate) PG-13. I also ran afoul of the MPAA the first time I made a movie set in a convenience store, when they initially slapped Clerks with an NC-17 rating for language. Back then, Harvey Weinstein hired mega-lawyer Alan Dershowitz and turned our rating appeal into a Free Speech case. But on the day of the actual appeals screening, it was just me and the Miramax lawyer getting up in front of the appeals folks to argue for a less restrictive rating without having to change or trim any shots. We won that day and Clerks received the R rating without a single cut. The next two occasions I fought an MPAA rating was on Jersey Girl (won a PG-13 instead of the R they gave us) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (which went from an NC-17 to an R, without cuts). I don't mind doing this dance with the MPAA a fourth time (hey – at least they even OFFER an appeals screening) but this #YogaHosers R rating is riDONKulous. The core audience for the flick is tween girls (it's Clueless meets Gremlins!), so I refrained from salty language to make a totally kid-friendly movie. And while it's a "horror" movie, there's no blood on display: when our Bratzi bad guys get killed, concentrated sauerkraut explodes everywhere – not guts or entrails. Honestly, this movie is TAME (or "lame" according to some reviews). Even so, next week I'll screen the flick for the MPAA appeals audience and, lawyer-like, plead my case for why the film is really PG-13 – all so that I can keep the graffiti drawing of nuts on a fictional library book in my goofy girl-power monster movie. Weird life. Mind you, this is NOT a First Amendment issue at all; instead, it's the very definition of a First World Problem. But before I can tour the movie in June & July and release it in theaters this August, I'm gonna have to win #TheBattleForTheBalls! #KevinSmith #harleyquinnsmith #lilyrosedepp #johnnydepp

A photo posted by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on

Source: Instagram

About the Author

1654 Articles Published