Maybe the better phrase would be “fantasizes about an NC-17 rating?”
Often shied away from by studios and cinemas alike, NC-17 may best serve the source material but will hardly serve the potental box-office returns that would make this phenomenon worth the purchase price.
And so it’s understandable that Universal is a bit hesitant to publicly commit to screenwriter Kelly Marcel saying “It will be rated NC-17. It’s going to be raunchy… We are 100% going there.” The studio has only gone on record with the response of “a screenplay has not yet been written, a rating has not been designated, and we have no further comment,” with producer Dana Brunetti adding “the script isn’t even written yet, so how could we know how [the MPAA’s Classification and] Ratings Board will rate it?”
Sounds like either Marcel is overexcited, or screenwriter and studio aren’t quite on the same page (so to speak). Either way, the question of course remains – would 50 SHADES OF GREY going the full NC-17 be any bigger of a draw for you to see the movie? No matter what Universal eventually decides to do with the rating though, Marcel seems to indicate that she’ll remain enthused for the project, saying “regardless of what you may think of the writing, this is a modern love story, involving two complex characters, and that’s what I’m interested in. You have to work at it and talk about shit and figure it out, regardless of what that shit may be.”
Screenwriter Kelly Marcel