Kevin Smith’s upcoming comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, with Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen, may actually be a porno. No, seriously. The MPAA is trying to slap it with an NC-17 rating, meaning you’d have a tough time seeing it down at the megaplex.

So what’s in this thing that makes it so, like, porny? We asked Seth, and here’s what he said…

“It’s like a romantic comedy,” Rogen told us this week, at the press day for The Pineapple Express, which opens in August. “It’s a romantic relationship movie—with a lot of porn and balls.”

Wait, whose balls? “My balls are not in it,” he clarified.

Still, Smith is fighting for an R rating, as he did when Clerks first got slapped with an NC-17—simply for dirty language. “You can disembowel someone in a youth hostel in Romania, but you can’t show people having sex,” Rogen said. “I think it’s weird.”

If Zack and Miri does get an NC-17, Rogen thinks his hit flicks Knocked Up and Superbad should have, too.

“This is not anything outside of what we’ve done before,” he told us. “The word porno is in the title, and that kind of freaks people out.”

Well, that and the balls, maybe.

From E! Online

Kevin Smith’s latest, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, is apparently having trouble securing an R rating from the MPAA, sending star Seth Rogen on the obligatory rant about how the MPAA cracks down on sex while giving virtually all violence a pass. You can check out his full comments at MTV if you like, and no prizes for guessing which torture-happy recent horror franchise he cites as an example of what the MPAA should be targeting instead of pestering his movie. The tongue-halfway-in-cheek kicker from Rogen: “The MPAA? It’s my mission to sue the MPAA and take them down. I don’t know how to go about doing that. But to me, it seems like it’s something that has to be taken care of.”

I’m in the camp that thinks the problem lies less in the MPAA’s attitudes toward “objectionable” content and more in the stigma placed on the NC-17. For a movie whose marketing campaign has consisted of cheerfully courting controversy — check out the hilarious teaser if you don’t believe me — it’s a bit disappointing that Zack and Miri doesn’t run with the harsher rating. The asinine restrictions on advertising that accompany the NC-17 stamp would be a bummer, but the blogs and magazines would go nuts, and I think the movie would do pretty well.

Do watch that teaser (which had MPAA issues of its own) if you haven’t already. Among other things, it will make you fall in love with Elizabeth Banks. Uh, if you haven’t already.

From Cinematical

We are just over a month away from the biggest and best pop culture event in world, San Diego Comic Con 2008!

I have been attending San Diego Comic Con for almost a decade. Organizations have tried to copy the success of the Con but with only mediocre success. San Diego Comic Con is the ultimate place to be if you are a fan of movies, TV shows and comic books.

First if you plan on attending, get your passes now if you haven’t already. Four day passes have already sold out and only individual days are available. If you still haven’t booked your hotel rooms, you are probably S.O.L. If you have one already, good for you.

So what can we expect come late July in the beautiful city of San Diego?

While the final schedule is yet to be determined and guests have not been locked down (and with the actors strike who knows who will be showing up), this what we have heard so far from various sources.

Warner Bros. will be featuring RocknRolla, Ninja Assassin, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Terminator: Salvation, Watchmen and Friday the 13th. Christian Bale, Zack Snyder and the cast of Watchmen, Jared Padalecki are rumored.

Paramount will have a Tropic Thunder screening. We have heard there might be something for G.I. Joe and Star Trek. No guests rumored.

The Weinstein Company will showcase Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno and possibly premiere the highly anticipated film from Kyle Newman, Fanboys. Kevin Smith, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Kyle Newman and Jaime King are rumored.

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There is a preview for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and you can check out the embed below. Click here if the embed doesn’t load or work.

Although we all already know how scruffy Seth Rogen looks and how gorgeous Elizabeth Banks is, we still haven’t officially seen the two together in a photo from the upcoming Kevin Smith movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno. USA Today has the first look all wrapped up in a very interesting article titled “If the title says ‘Porno,’ will moviegoers say ‘no thanks’?”. But as they go on to say, the edgier a comedy is, the better it is (and the better it performs), at least in today’s time. With that said, whether you’re a Kevin Smith man or not, it’s time to jump ahead and take a look at the first new photo from Zack and Miri.

Rogen and Banks star as Zack and Miri (respectively), two “broke friends who embrace their desperation by making their own X-rated tape to pay off their debts. In the process, they uncover romantic feelings for each other.” Beyond that, who knows what other shenanigans will take place in Smith’s comedy. Also co-starring are (of course) Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, Tom Savini, and even Traci Lords.

USA Today does bring up a very interesting point about the title, but Smith himself isn’t too worried, saying “we’re just hoping that by the time the movie comes out, if the marketing people do their jobs right, it’s a word that people will kind of get over.”

On the other hand, Jeff Block, an “analyst with movie tracking firm Exhibitor Relations” praises it, saying “It’s one of the best titles of the year. It sells the film for exactly what it is.” He goes on to explain that Smith has a dependable fan base and that “They’ll follow him anywhere. I don’t think anything is too risqué for Kevin Smith fans.”

Without much to go on besides a simple story explanation and perfect cast, this is already near the top of my list of highly anticipated movies for this year. I’m thinking, like Superbad, it’ll hit on all the perfect “sex comedy” notes yet still remain a true Kevin Smith film, and that I truly can’t wait for.

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