Kevin Smith
treated his fans to some adults-only material at Comic-Con
on Saturday.
The
writer-director -- a cult favorite at the comic-book
convention -- showed footage from his new film,
Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
He said the
comedy, starring Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Long,
and Traci Lords, has been rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture
Association of America.
Smith called that
rating, which prohibits children under 17 from seeing
the film, ''disappointing.'' He said he hopes to have it
revised to an R rating.
''I didn't feel
it was an NC-17 movie,'' he told the crowd during a
90-minute presentation peppered with profanity. ''I think
it's a hard R. I think we earned the R.''
Smith said he
edited and resubmitted the film three times but couldn't
shed the adults-only rating. A hearing will be held August 4
to determine whether his latest cut meets R-rating
standards, which would allow a person under 17 to see
the film if accompanied by an adult.
An R-rated
version of the film is scheduled to be released October 31.
The Zack and
Miri clip shown to the crowd of thousands featured a
heated discussion between a gay couple played by Justin Long
and Brandon Routh. Long's character is a porn star who
has appeared in various films with unprintable titles,
and Zack (Seth Rogen) is fascinated.
Banks, who plays
Miri, described the film as ''a really sweet love
story,'' but Smith assured fans it was just as raunchy as
any of his past flicks, including Clerks,Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
The film is a
departure visually, though, he said.
''Going into it I
wanted it to look better than the stuff we'd done in
the past. It kind of looks like a real movie," Smith said.
"The most important thing was, how do you shoot sex
because I've never done that before.... I wanted the
sex to look much better than my sex.'' (Sandy Cohen,
AP)