Fox promises not to "compromise" Prometheus

During a Q&A at cimenacon Fox CEO Tom Rothman was asked about what MPAA rating Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" may wind up with. Scott himself has expressed disdain for the rating agency stating flatly that they need to "get their house in order". He's also said that he believes that using recent history as a guideline he thinks his new sci-fi film would probably receive an "R" rating. But because big studios are hell bent on the bottom line and an R rating could potentially cut into overall profit there's been some speculation that Fox could force Scott to edit his feature in order to receive the more box office friendly rating.

When Rothman was asked about the issue though he implied that Fox will not be hacking up the movie just to procure a PG-13 tag.

“I can assure the fans—I’m very aware of their concern—absolutely they can take it that the film will not be compromised either way. So if that means that the film is R, then it’ll be an R. If it’s PG-13, then it’ll be a PG-13, but it will not be compromised.

[For] Prometheus, it would have been very easy—in fact probably in Chapter One of the Executive Handbook, if I ever read such a thing, it would say, ‘Go ahead, make a straightforward prequel to Alien.’ That would have been the easy thing to do. Prometheus is the more challenging thing to do. It’s bolder, it’s original, it’s in the universe, but it’s not a literal story-based prequel to Alien, it’s a wholly new science-fiction entry from Ridley Scott, who hasn’t made a science-fiction film in 30 years.”

Only time will tell if Rothman is a man of his word and the film we see is the film Ridley Scott wants us to see. In the meantime Mr Rothman be warned: the head is watching...