'The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies' Extended Edition May Be Rated R

When we heard an extended version The Hobbit trilogy would be coming to theaters in the fall with the unveiling of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies extended edition, it wasn't all that exciting of news, if only because the new trilogy just isn't as good as Lord of the Rings and the last thing anyone wanted was for those movies to be longer.

However, our interest in at least the third film in the longer version of the franchise might be piqued as The Battle of the Five Armies extended edition has reportedly been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. Find out more about The Hobbit rated R after the jump!

Ropes of Silicon says the MPAA has given The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies extended edition an R-rating for "some violence," and that's it. Considering how forgiving the MPAA usually is when it comes to violence (The Dark Knight is one of the more controversially PG-13 rated films in recent memory), this is wholly surprising, especially considering all the Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit movies have high amounts of fantasy violence but have never had to worry about a R-rating.

So it begs the question, what has Peter Jackson added to The Battle of the Five Armies in order to amp the rating up to an R? But that's likely exactly what Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line and MGM want you to think so that you're inclined to go see what all the fuss is about when the extended edition hits theaters in October and also home video in November. It's the same logic behind releasing an unrated cut or a director's cut (though the latter is sometimes a motivation from the filmmaker rather than the studio).

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but I wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros. maybe told the MPAA they wouldn't mind if they got an R-rating for the final Hobbit movie, just to turn some heads. The MPAA isn't the most consistent organization when it comes to rating movies anyway, and they've struck plenty of deals with studios when hoping to land a certain rating before the movie hits theaters.

For now, count me intrigued to see what's been added to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, but likely not enough to go sit through the extended edition in theaters. Surely we'll hear what was gruesome enough to land the film an R-rating once fall rolls around, but until then we'll just have to imagine what it might be. However, the studio could end up appealing the rating and maybe all this fuss will be for nothing. Stay tuned.