Female-Led ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ Remake Earns PG-13 Rating Following Appeal
The female-drivenDirty Rotten ScoundrelsremakeThe Hustleis officially rated PG-13. The film, which starsAnne HathawayandRebel Wilson, had originally been awarded an R-Rating, but producers weren’t happy. While many modern comedies embrace their R-ratings,The Hustlewas hoping to reach a wider audience. Now it has the chance.
All has been quiet on theDirty Rotten Scoundrelsremake front. A year ago, the project was going by the nameNasty Women. Now it has a new name,The Hustle, and a new rating – PG-13. R-rated comedy has thrived in recent years. This year alone, we’ve had the R-ratedGame Night,BlockersandThe Spy Who Dumped Me. But while none of those titles were box office bombs, they didn’t exactly break the bank either.
Just recently, the R-ratedHappytime Murdershit theaters and received a critical drubbing. It also flopped hard at the box office. AsThe Ringerpoints out, 2018 has resulted in “the first summer in more than 20 years without a $100 million comedy.” Perhaps producers are starting to get cold feet about R-rated comedies now. Or perhapsThe Hustletruly didn’t deserve its R-rating, and was justified in appealing it.THRreports star/producer Rebel Wilson and MGM film group president Jon Glickman both appealed the rating, and won out in the end.The Hustleis now rated PG-13 for “crude sexual content and language.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrelsis a hilarious 1988 comedy from director Frank Oz, starring Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly. Martin and Caine play two very different con men: Caine is cultured and sophisticated, while Martin is rough around the edges. The two are rivals both working the same territory – French Riviera – and decide to stage a wager: whomever bilks an heiress (Headly) out of her fortune first gets to stay, while the loser must leave town. The film did well with critics and audiences, and was later adapted into a Broadway musical.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Hustlechanges the genders of the three main characters: now it’s focused on two female con artists trying to swindle a tech billionaire in his early 20s. Chris Addison, who has helmed episodes of HBO’sVeepand BBC’sThe Thick of It, directs the remake, from a script by Jac Schaeffer, who is also writing Marvel’sBlack Widowmovie. It’s hard to get too excited about this project without seeing any footage, but I’m all for Anne Hathaway getting more comedy work, so I hope this turns out to be a winner.The Hustleopens onMay 10, 2019.
