10 Films Intended To Be R-Rated That Got Neutered To PG-13

The Meg has a long and winding road to getting made. The adaptation of the book was originally set to be directed by torture porn auteur Eli Roth as a hard-R rated monster film before Roth withdrew from the film, leaving National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub to come in and pick up the pieces.

But even after Turteltaub came onboard and filming officially began, The Meg was still set for an R-rated release. Despite his family-friendly past, Turteltaub has stated in multiple interviews that he was very anxious to push the film's rating as far as he could, filming several extended sequences containing gore and blood.

However, money ultimately won out as Warner Bros. saw dollar signs in advertising the movie as a more irreverent blockbuster for families than as an R-rated horror flick. The version released was just about as tame of a PG-13 as a giant man-eating shark movie could possibly be, a fact that Jason Statham himself was quick to point out, saying;

"Jon’s interpretation of this is a fun end of summer [movie]. It’s full of humor. It’s a little bit more directed to a different taste of what my own is in terms of I like more gory adult stuff... You go, 'Where’s the !*$% blood?'"