Company Town : 2 Films Sure to Raise a Rating Ruckus

Motion Picture Assn. of America President Jack Valenti may want early retirement after dealing with the upcoming back-to-back ratings for two controversial movies: Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls” and Larry Clark’s “Kids.” The presence of both films, each with sexual content sure to bring NC-17 ratings, is being felt here.

On Sunday afternoon, Verhoeven screened for foreign distributors and the news media about 13 minutes of compiled footage from his provocative movie about Las Vegas showgirls. The trailer featured wall-to-wall fleshy images of topless revues and nude lap dancing.

The heavily European audience cheered at the end of the screening. While one journalist noted the pornography-like nature of the sequences, foreign distributors exalted about the film’s potential overseas. Its German distributor predicted the movie will be a big hit in that country.

In an interview following the screening, Verhoeven said he does not expect any audience or media backlash, nor any censorship problems in Europe, because of the Continent’s more relaxed attitudes toward sex. He said he is making no special edited version for foreign TV broadcast. However, the Dutch director acknowledges that his movie may not be as well received in more “puritan” markets such as Australia, Korea and Britain.

Verhoeven, whose last erotic adventure, 1992’s “Basic Instinct,” is also realistic about what “Showgirls” may stir up at home. “I expect more anger, irritation and worse problems in the United States,” he said.

Even before he signed on to the project, Verhoeven made it clear that he intended to shoot the script by Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct”) as an NC-17 movie. He has no intentions of cutting his movie to appease the MPAA’s rating board.

He said all of his previous movies, including “Total Recall,” “RoboCop” and “Flesh and Blood,” initially received NC-17 (or its predecessor, X) for either too much sex or violence, though ultimately all were released as R films after he re-edited them.

MGM/UA, which will market and release “Showgirls” domestically this fall, has stood behind Verhoeven and said it is willing to release the movie with the NC-17 rating despite the potential economic implications. A film’s earning potential at the box office and on video can be greatly hurt by an NC-17 because some theater chains and video stores will not handle those titles and some publications will not carry advertisements for them.

“Showgirls,” a movie with no big-name stars, cost $37 million and was financed by the French media and textile giant Chargeurs. It seems more of a risk than “Basic Instinct,” which paired newcomer Sharon Stone with Michael Douglas.

“Showgirls” is the first major studio release to test the NC-17 waters since Universal’s “Henry and June,” about writer Henry Miller, opened in 1990 as the first title under the then-new rating.

Verhoeven, who expects to have the film ready in a few weeks, bristles at the suggestion that his movie may be considered pornographic. “This is not a movie about sexual acts. It’s about sexual innuendo and sexual provocation.”

Meanwhile, Miramax Films, which also prides itself on pushing the provocative envelope, screened “Kids” on Monday for the media. Directed by noted still photographer Larry Clark, the gritty and disturbing 90-minute film is billed as a cautionary tale about a group of urban American teens and their abandoned sexuality and drug abuse in the age of AIDS. Miramax’s parent, Walt Disney Co., is apoplectic about the film and has demanded that Miramax pay back the money Disney spent for the rights.

Valenti, who was due in Cannes on Monday, is said to be gritting his teeth over this one and is once again prepared to go to war with Miramax brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

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Whistling while he works: PolyGram Pictures Chief Michael Kuhn has a lot more on his plate these days than the porridge and eggs he was eating at breakfast the other morning at the posh Hotel du Cap outside Cannes.

Just for starters, he is in the throes of shaping the game plan to make PolyGram Hollywood’s next major studio and global software distributor. By the middle of next year, Kuhn expects PolyGram--which owns such movie labels as Gramercy Pictures (a joint venture with Universal Pictures), Interscope Communications, Jodie Foster’s Egg Productions, Propaganda Films and Working Title Films--to have its own domestic distribution operation in place.

Kuhn is mulling the idea of setting up two different marketing and sales units to handle the bigger-budgeted, wide-release films and the more specialized titles. And by 1998, he hopes to see PolyGram directly distributing its movies in 80% of the world’s markets as it currently does in Britain, Spain, Benelux and, by next year, Australia.

On Kuhn’s more immediate agenda is the fate of Gramercy, whose three-year co-venture with Universal expires at the end of this year. Given that MCA is being sold to Seagram Co., Kuhn says it is imperative that he and Gramercy President Russell Schwartz meet with the entertainment giant’s new owner, Edgar Bronfman Jr., to figure out where things stand.

On a lighter note, one new venture Kuhn is most excited talking (and literally singing) about is a $25- to $30-million Andrew Lloyd Webber movie musical that PolyGram plans to finance and distribute called “Whistle Down the Wind.”

“Hopefully this will be a trial run for us doing a whole load of musicals,” said Kuhn, noting that both he and Webber believe strongly in the genre that was once the staple of the movie business but in recent years has had a dismal track record. PolyGram is a one-third owner of the famed composer’s London-based company, Really Useful Group.

“Whistle,” scripted by Pat Knop (“9 1/2 Weeks”) and likely to be directed by Brian Gibson (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”), with music by Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, is expected to begin production in the fall. The musical, a remake of Brian Forbes’ 1960s British movie of the same name, which starred Haley Mills, is about some kids in rural Louisiana who discover an escaped convict they mistake for Jesus Christ.