William Friedkin-Directed ‘Killer Joe’ Will Be Released NC-17 By LD Entertainment
EXCLUSIVE: The William Friedkin-directed black comedy Killer Joe will be released by LD Entertainment on July 27 with an NC-17 rating. The film received that rating in late February, and the decision was made after the distributor and filmmaker unsuccessfully went through the appeals process before deciding they didn’t want to change the ending.
An adaptation of the Tracy Letts play, Killer Joe is the first release by LD Entertainment after Mickey Liddell formed the distribution company late last year and hired veteran indie executive David Dinerstein to run it. It’s not the first time Friedkin turned in a cut of a film that drew a dreaded rating from the MPAA. While Friedkin tackled rough subject matter in films like The Exorcist and To Live And Die In L.A., he got an X-rating for the 1980 film Cruising, in which Al Pacino played a detective who goes undercover looking for a killer preying on gay men. Friedkin said he had to cut 40 minutes of that movie to get an R rating. But he won’t have to cut a frame of Killer Joe. LD Entertainment will release a trailer for the film tomorrow, and it will wear the NC-17 rating like a red badge of courage.
It is a somewhat surprising development considering the pedigree of Friedkin and Letts, the latter of whom won both the Pulitzer and Tony for August: Osage County. Killer Joe is a garish, sexy black comedy that stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church. It is provocative, but played strongly in Venice, Toronto (where it was acquired by LD Entertainment) and SXSW.
LD Entertainment’s Dinerstein confirmed the decision and issued this statement: “We support the artistic integrity of our filmmakers — Academy–award winning director, William Friedkin and our screenwriter Pulitzer-Prize winner Tracy Letts — and the film will be released in theaters on July 27th in its original version as an NC-17 film. The film has played to enthusiastic crowds at the Venice, Toronto and SXSW Film Festivals where many critics have noted this is Matthew McConaughey’s best performance to date. As our initial LD Entertainment release, we are to excited to bring this very entertaining, funny and provocative film to audiences this summer.”
This will be the first significant film released with NC-17 since the Steve McQueen-directed Shame. Fox Searchlight co-presidents Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula acquired that film at Toronto last year, right after viewing it in Telluride. The deal stipulated that not a frame of the film would be cut, and it was clear all along that the film would be NC-17. The feeling was that McQueen’s direction, and the performances of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, made Shame Oscar bait. Despite glowing reviews, Shame was shut out of the nominations by Oscar voters, and Utley and Gilula wondered if voters ever even bothered to watch the film because of its rating. In the U.S., Shame grossed just $3.9 million of its $17.7 million worldwide total.
Here is an early clip from Killer Joe:
I would love to see a Director’s Cut of the way Friedkin originally intended CRUISING to be seen.
Was at the Premier in Venice
Beautifully directed and sculpted film, of its Gendre
Deserves a well marketed release
people laughed at these screenings but NOT where they were s’pose to…..
never believed McConaughey’s performance for 5 seconds and that opinion was shared by a number of people in the lobby…
i like dark comedies but this was just meh….
I guess you were involved with the making of the film, Screener24? Or maybe you chat regularly with Mr. Letts and Mr. Friedkin? How else would you know where the audience was “s’posed” to laugh?
This is too good to be true. With this, “Shame,” and “Prometheus,” dare I say we are about to enter an era where studios let artistic expression flourish and release movies on that and not the marketability of the rating? Perhaps its naive to think so, but one can only hope…
This, Shame….and Prometheus? How can you put those 2 with a Ridley Scott movie with a $100 million budget?
There was a lot of speculation that Prometheus was being cut as a PG-13 film to broaden the audience and make more money. The studio has come out and said it won’t cut a single frame of the film, preserving Scott’s vision. That’s what this article is about, studios that don’t pressure the director in order to make more money. That’s why he can “put those 2 with a Ridley Scott movie with a $100 million budget.”
it’s a great movie! Congrats LD! Good luck with the release! We need more distributors standing up to the morons of the MPAA.
Great to see McConaughey finally making films (e.g. “The Lincoln Lawyer”) worthy of his talent!
“Killer Joe” looks, well, killer, and kudos to LD Entertainment f
or having the balls to release it uncut!
F*** the MPAA!
Not so much a trailer as it is a sneak preview of a key scene, but looks great nonetheless. Can’t wait.
“Significant” can be interpreted different ways, but Kino Lorber recent released Elles, which played as a Special Presentation at Toronto last year and showed at Berlin as well as NC-17 as well. It starred Juliette Binoche, who like Friedkin is an Oscar winner.
I saw this at SXSW and all I can say is that it is a depraved piece of sh*t. An absolute full-blown laughably bad disaster of epic proportions. It is an embarrassment to cinema and good taste. How Friedkin or any of these stellar actors got talked into it is beyond me.
Jack, did we see the same movie? Killer Joe was awesome. Not a movie for everyone but definitely will call to cult fans.
I’m afraid to think of what could have been cut out of Cruising to get an R!