Balls! Yoga Hosers Gets an R Rating! Kevin Smith Fights for PG-13! Testicular Fortitude Abounds!

Steve Barton |

Apr 19, 2016

The MPAA. You just never know how they’re going to rate something. It really seems as if it just depends on their mood at the time of a particular viewing. The next movie to fall victim to the cinematic mood swings is Kevin Smith’s genre comedy Yoga Hosers.

“The MPAA gave my kids movie Yoga Hosers an R rating for a cartoony drawing of testicles on a book cover,” writes Smith on his Instagram page. “So now, for the 4th time in my 22 year career, we will hold an appeals screening with the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board and try to get the R overturned for a less severe (and far more appropriate) PG-13.”

Really? A cartoon nutsac is the latest thing disturbing their applecart? Check out the whole post from Smith below!

The #MPAA gave my kids movie @YogaHosers an R rating for a cartoony drawing of testicles on a book cover. So now, for the 4th time in my 22 year career, we will hold an appeals screening with the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board and try to get the R overturned for a less severe (and far more appropriate) PG-13. I also ran afoul of the MPAA the first time I made a movie set in a convenience store, when they initially slapped Clerks with an NC-17 rating for language. Back then, Harvey Weinstein hired mega-lawyer Alan Dershowitz and turned our rating appeal into a Free Speech case. But on the day of the actual appeals screening, it was just me and the Miramax lawyer getting up in front of the appeals folks to argue for a less restrictive rating without having to change or trim any shots. We won that day and Clerks received the R rating without a single cut. The next two occasions I fought an MPAA rating was on Jersey Girl (won a PG-13 instead of the R they gave us) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (which went from an NC-17 to an R, without cuts). I don’t mind doing this dance with the MPAA a fourth time (hey – at least they even OFFER an appeals screening) but this #YogaHosers R rating is riDONKulous. The core audience for the flick is tween girls (it’s Clueless meets Gremlins!), so I refrained from salty language to make a totally kid-friendly movie. And while it’s a “horror” movie, there’s no blood on display: when our Bratzi bad guys get killed, concentrated sauerkraut explodes everywhere – not guts or entrails. Honestly, this movie is TAME (or “lame” according to some reviews). Even so, next week I’ll screen the flick for the MPAA appeals audience and, lawyer-like, plead my case for why the film is really PG-13 – all so that I can keep the graffiti drawing of nuts on a fictional library book in my goofy girl-power monster movie. Weird life. Mind you, this is NOT a First Amendment issue at all; instead, it’s the very definition of a First World Problem. But before I can tour the movie in June & July and release it in theaters this August, I’m gonna have to win #TheBattleForTheBalls! #KevinSmith #harleyquinnsmith #lilyrosedepp #johnnydepp

A photo posted by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Apr 18, 2016 at 12:12pm PDT

Smith is looking to tour with the film beginning in June or July with a theatrical release in August 2016, but he can’t do so without MPAA approval. The Battle of the Balls begins!

The cast for Yoga Hosers includes Harley Quinn Smith, Lily-Rose Depp, Michael Parks, Justin Long, Genesis Rodriguez, Ralph Garman, Jennifer Schwalbach, Harley Morenstein, Stan Lee, Tony Hale, Natasha Lyonne, Austin Butler, Adam Brody, Tyler Posey, Jason Mewes, and Johnny Depp.

Synopsis:
Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie are teenage besties from Winnipeg who love yoga and live on their smartphones. But when these sophomores get invited to a senior party by the school hottie, the Colleens accidentally uncover an ancient evil buried beneath their Canadian convenience store. They join forces with legendary man-hunter Guy Lapointe to fight for their lives.

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