The assumed narrative since December 2017 has been that Disney is expected to keep making R-rated movies with Deadpool and Kingsman sequels. Well, it was pushed a little more to the possibility of all R-rated franchises sticking around at 20th Century Fox during a recent earnings call from Disney CEO Bob Iger alluding to R-rated movies staying at 20th Century Fox.
“We do believe there is room for the Fox properties to exist without significant Disney influence over the nature of the content. Meaning that we see that there certainly popularity amongst Marvel fans for the R-rated Deadpool films, for instance, we’re going to continue in that business, and there might be room for more of that.”
Disney film chief Alan Horn (will oversee the studios like 20th Century Fox) has reaffirmed this to TheHollywoodReporter and might be suggesting that all R-rated movies (some harder PG-13 films too), possibly including that Deadpool sequels are more than likely going to be strictly released under the Fox banner, not Disney to avoid letter-writing campaigns while also keeping fans/audiences happy.
Here’s what Horn had to say what would be happening with the Fox films studios after the merger closes.
“With Fox, we can make movies that right now I say no to. Take Bohemian Rhapsody, which is PG-13. It’s a hit movie and very, very good. But there’s no way we could make it under the Disney label because the characters smoke cigarettes and other content. Nor could we have made [Warner Bros.’ R-rated] Oscar-winning Argo because the characters smoke and use the F-word. We always have to think about the smoking policy. The audience for a Disney movie may not know what they are going to see, but they know what they aren’t going to see. There are certain things we just can’t include because we’ll get letters.”
Basically, it sounds like Alan Horn and Bob Iger aren’t looking to Disneyfy an entire studio, something that fans of the R-rated franchises at Fox had been telling themselves would happen once the merger closes.
Keep in mind, Kingsman: The Great Game and Kingsman 3 (both R-rated movies) will be Disney owned films at release, a franchise that Iger has said they’re excited to get their hands on. This likely means that if Deadpool movies are R-rated, 20th Century Fox still distributes them and not Disney. That hasn’t been confirmed but this sort of sounds like what Alan Horn is talking about here.
Disney and Marvel Television recently announced plans to develop and release four mature animated series for Hulu (Disney mature wing of their streaming service), with Fox under the Disney umbrella I’m not sure why they wouldn’t make R-rated movies as well.
It’s not terribly shocking as Disney has operated other studio arms like Miramax, Dimension Films, and Touchstone Pictures in the past that released mature content like Starship Troopers, Scream, and Kill Bill. They’ve been in the R-rated movie business before and now controlling Fox would return them that level of access to the adult demographic that Disney has ignored over the years.
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
