Asteroid City: Wes Anderson fans celebrate movie’s ‘brief graphic nudity’

Director’s new film successfully appealed its original R rating

Wes Anderson’s forthcoming movie Asteroid City has victoriously overturned its original R-rating.

The director’s new comedy-drama, featuring a star-studded cast of Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie and Maya Hawke, was initially given a restricted rating for “brief graphic nudity, smoking and suggestive material”.

However, following an appeal to the Motion Pictures Association of America (an organisation representing the five major US film studios), Anderson’s film has now been re-issued with a PG-13 rating.

MPAA ratings act as a guide for parents to determine the appropriateness of its content for children and teenagers.

An R-rating means persons under the age of 17 are restricted from attending the film unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. Meanwhile, PG-13 ratings caution parents as “some material may be inappropriate for children under 13”.

On Tuesday 2 May, film commentator @mavericksmovies posted a screenshot of the appeals form, writing: “I believe this makes it the first ever PG-13 film with the ‘graphic nudity’ descriptor’.

“What this means is Wes Anderson seemingly got away with showing someone going full frontal nude in a PG-13. I’m sure it’s brief and in the background or something but still, wholly unprecedented.”

Several others celebrated the “historical” win, with one declaring, “The movies really are back”.

“Saw someone else theorise this, but I’m guessing that means it’s a painting or statue or something like that,” a second postulated.

“When I saw the original rating (which was just ‘R for brief graphic nudity’) along with intent to appeal, I thought no way does that appeal succeed,” another wrote. “Wes just has that kind of power now I guess! Very cool.”

Someone joked: “We getting TITIES or BALLS in the new Wes Anderson film. This is historical.”

The film is said to be a “poetic meditation on the meaning of life”. Set in a fictional American desert town around 1955, it will tell the story of the town’s Junior Stargazer convention and the students and parents it brings together.

Bill Murray was initially among the film’s high-profile cast, however, he had to drop out in July 2022 after contracting Covid.

Asteroid City is scheduled to release in cinemas on 16 June.