Max Payne Rated R, Director Pissed

Soon after filming began on the video game adaptation of Max Payne word came out that the flick was aiming for a PG-13 rating, which didn’t particularly please a lot of people who enjoyed the mature rated game. Now comes word from director John Moore, in an interview with Das Gamer, that Payne is having a much harder time of securing the teen friendly rating.

Moore tells the site that right now he’s been given an R rating because the film “feels dark”. While Moore is hard at work trying to reverse the rating, he is more upset over how the MPAA conducts itself.

“The MPAA will never publish the rules. They’ll never tell a director, Here’s what’s going to get you an R, Here’s what’s going to get you a PG-13. People might think that’s impossible, but let me tell you, if I’m making a TV beer commercial, I know exactly what the rules are. The MPAA changes their rules willy-nilly and it depends on who’s seeing your actual movie at the time. It’s very difficult to get a hold on what’s acceptable. The only thing you can use is current standards. So I go and see The Dark Knight and I say, “Gee, that’s pretty gnarly for PG-13,” but I felt good about Max Payne after coming out of the theater. I thought Max wasn’t going to have a problem. And that’s not the case. They’re coming down on us pretty hard.”

Head on over here for the full interview, where Moore also says the R rating is being abused by films like Saw and Hostel.

Max Payne opens on October 17.