MPAA Gives SAW IV An NC-17 Rating
SAW IV producer Mark Burg and director Darren Lynn Bousman announced at Comic-Con that the MPAA has given SAW 4 an NC-17 rating. I assume they will go back and make cuts to earn a R-rating but producer Mark Burg says "One day we'd like to have the guts and leave it like it is" So who knows. I'm sure Lionsgate wants to reach as many people as possible and unfortunately that means they must conform to the ratings board. In fact, even a clip of the first five minutes of the film was rejected by Comic-Con because it was too intense.
Bousman says that if there was ever a line that he promised himself he wouldn't cross, he crossed that line in SAW 4. And as for the critics, Bousman says "Fuck em". Burg adds, "We'd like to think that you (the fans) are coming for the story in addition to the fucked up brutal violence"
"With the last two films the traps were the very last things we worked on," says Bousman. "It starts with the themes first."
When asked how there can be a Saw 4 when (spoiler alert) Jigsaw dies in the third film. Bousman says "In our world, legends never die." Producer Mark Burg promises fans that there are no cheats, and that fans will be shocked to find out who everything happens.
"I think it;'s the best ending of any SAW movie we've done yet," said Burg, who promises the biggest shocker yet.
Bousman even admitted that he thought there was no way to make a sequel when he agreed to film SAW 3, but Mark promised that it was not only possible but inevitable – there was a plan.
Tobin Bell who plays the character in the film series was also in attendance. Bell has done extensive research into the background of his character. Bousman says he has notebooks worth of data on everything about the character.
"I could ask Tobin if Jigsaw is a vegetarian and he would know and tell me why and how."
The clip shown involves a man who wakes up in a room with his eyes sewn shut. He has a collar around his neck attached to a chain. The other end of the chain is attached to a man who has his mouth sewn shut. There is a key on the man with no vision which may open the man with no voice's neck clamp. In the middle of them is a trap device which is spooling the chain inward. What follows was a blood filled brutal fight for survival. I'll just say this, if they allowed this clip than the first five minutes of the movie most be disgustingly gory.