On the brink of the highly-anticipated Wonder Woman, director Patty Jenkins recently revealed to CinemaBlend why, despite the success of Deadpool and Logan in making R-Rated superheroes marketable for studios, she was 100% set on avoiding the rating for her own film.
Despite Wonder Woman being set during the atrocities of World War I – where naturally, brutality and death were rampant – Jenkins was determined to keep the film from getting an R-Rating in order to allow a younger set of viewers to see her film:
“I cared a lot about it never being an R-rating. And I totally support the movies that do have an R-rating, but in this case I was very aware that little girls were going to want to see the film, and I was very protective of that. So it had to not be Rated R to me. I would have been happy to go for PG, but it’s World War I, so we couldn’t!”
While there were likely those clamouring for an R-Rating in order to take advantage of DC’s darker, grittier universe compared to the MCU, Jenkins is absolutely right. Wonder Woman is a big deal, sadly there aren’t many female superheroes with their own big-budget blockbuster. So, allowing young girls to cheer on a female superhero in her own film is far more important than a little extra violence.
Wonder Woman opens Friday, June 2, and its opening weekend could be a big one for the future of female-directed blockbusters, possibly determining opportunities for female directors going forward.
Kirsten Schaffer from the #52FilmsByWomen movement has created the #WonderWknd campaign in an effort to get as many people to see the film as possible, so sign up here to pledge and help the film change the landscape of Hollywood.
#Peace.Love.WonderWoman
