Many people think that a movie needs to avoid an R-rating in order to become a blockbuster. Most recent top earners have followed that dictum, with only four R-rated movies among last year's top 25 at the box office. Zack Snyder's 300 was a defiant exception in 2007, earning more than $456 million worldwide, and clearing the way for Snyder's R-rated dream project, Watchmen. Its content advisory warns / promises: "Strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language." Can such an R-rated superhero movie become a blockbuster today, especially in the wake of PG-13 smashes like The Dark Knight and Iron Man?

If the history of the movies has taught us anything, it's that people will flock to see films that they really, really want to see, no matter the rating. As evidence, here are seven R-rated films with strong, adult content that may have made some folks blanch -- but it didn't keep the flicks from becoming blockbusters.

Basic Instinct
Paul Verhoeven's thriller has it all: sex, violence, profanity, and very adult themes. The most notorious shot features Sharon Stone's, er, legs, but the flick also includes male and female nudity, intense sex scenes, stabbing, blood spattering, dozens of profanities, and relentless sexual innuendos. But it's not just a sensationalist button-pusher. Indeed, Basic Instinct lives up to its title in its dogged, sometimes earnest exploration of the basest desires known to man or woman. It may have tittilated, but it also made you think long after the credits rolled.

Hollywood isn't known as a place for a 'conservative' frame of mind. I think Sean Penn reminded us of that quite nicely during his Oscar acceptance speech when he endearingly referred to the crowd of tinsel-town elite as "You Commie Homo-Loving Sons of Guns". But that doesn't mean our Red-state friends don't like to go to the movies just as much as their liberal brethren -- so what's a Conservative to do? Well, the National Review has come to the rescue and compiled a list of The Best Conservative Movies. And how does a movie arrive on such a list? According to NR, "Conservatives enjoy these films because they are great movies that offer compelling messages about freedom, families, patriotism, traditions, and more" -- because I guess it is impossible for someone with Liberal political views to care about those things. So even though the political leanings of the cast and crew reportedly did not come into play for the list, I'm not sure I believe the addition of David Mamet's The Edge wasn't inspired (if only a little) by the filmmakers political 180 earlier this year.

Now for the list itself, well, there are the obvious choices like Red Dawn, 300 and The Dark Knight that are praised for their themes featuring individuals fighting against a terrorist, invading hoards, and a chorus of naysayers (sound familiar?). But the rest of the list isn't so obvious, and there are some weird selections in the bunch. Juno was noted for being pro-life (but punished for its heroines "unrealistic level of self-confidence"), Brazil for its tale of bureaucracy run amok, Groundhog Day for promoting small town values, and The Incredibles was even noted for bringing a little Ayn Rand back to the kiddie set. Personal politics aside, I have to wonder just what, exactly, some of these people were on when they included Ghostbusters on the list (I know, I know, an EPA guy is a bad guy, but c'mon, leave Dr. Venkman out of this).

I know, I know -- "sequelized" isn't a word, but it's the most fitting label I can come up with. Ever since 300 hit theaters in March 2007, there has been talk of creating some kind of spin off. Would it be a prequel? Would it be a sequel? Would it be some demented fever dream invented by one Cinematical blogger on a late Colorado night?

Well, someone finally asked a 300 alumni other than poor Gerard Butler. IESB.net caught up with director Zack Snyder, who revealed that 300 would receive the sequel treatment. Snyder did the impossible, and actually spoke to Frank Miller about it, and learned he's writing a graphic novel that takes place between Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea which is seen at the end of the film. There's a mere year in between waiting to be populated with new Spartan heroes (though David Wenham's lone survivor, Dilios, could return) by way of Miller's pen. Snyder promises to direct the adaptation when Miller finishes the book.

There's certainly historical material to draw from -- the time between Thermopylae and Plataea was marked by several battles -- the naval Battle of Artemisium, which occurred alongside Thermopylae, and the Battle of Salamis. Both were victories for the Greek states (although Artemisium could be argued to be a draw), but not without cost. Several Greek cities, including Athens, suffered severe Persian attacks.

But while the Greco-Persian Wars are ripe for many stories and movies, I don't see any of them fitting the hyper-stylized mold of the original graphic novel or the film. The insanity of it all worked because it had a legendary story and king to anchor it down, and shine through the blood-splatters and giant rhinos. Why water that down? As fond as I am of Snyder, Miller and violent boys in leather pants, I wish they would just let the Spartans lie.

Gerard Butler may have once sported the greatest eight-pack in the history of mankind, but his punishment for it (besides all the puking and crying I assume happened in the shaping of it) will be to answer questions about a 300 spin-off until the end of his career.

While at the Toronto Film Festival, where many of my lucky colleagues are, Butler was asked again about the franchise potential of 299 dead Spartans by Superhero Hype. "I've heard some backroom chatter, but nothing more, so I don't know if it would be a sequel or a prequel. I don't want say anymore than that, because I really don't know. I haven't read anything. I can't see it myself -- sequel for me absolutely not, but I just mean the idea generally, I'm really not sure which way they would go with that."

He was asked this same question at RocknRolla's ComicCon junket, and his answer then suggested he'd actually been approached with a more solid idea. "No. They mentioned it, and we'll leave it at that. It's a very interesting idea, I have to say."

By "interesting" idea, I keep imagining that the story involves King Leonidas being resurrected by a necromancer to fight an unspeakable evil. (That's actually going to be written into a spec, I just know it.) But honestly, it really must suck to be Butler sometimes. He's got his own production shingle, he's going to be directed by Frank Darabont any day now, and everyone just wants to know when Leonidas is going to be resurrected by a necromancer.

Why doesn't anyone direct the question to Frank Miller? He's supposed to be the one writing it.

(Thanks to MoviesOnline for their transcript of the RocknRolla junket -- I still curse my tape recorder.)

Earlier today, you saw the trailer for one of the most anticipated adaptations of all time (no, not that one, this one). And it was amazing. Well, I thought so, anyway, and I'm one of the few people who said "ehh" after reading the graphic novel. Anyway, some of you bigger fans probably watched the new Watchmen trailer over and over and over again, forward and backward, in slow-motion and sped-up to compare the film with the panels in the book. But did you notice the odd lack of continuity in the sequence shown above? Unless you read MTV Movies Blog, or unless you were looking really hard for something like last year's 300 trailer surprise, there's a good chance you missed it. Fortunately, for you, I've done my best to highlight the anomaly after the jump.

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.

Last week, Collider spoke to producers Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari, and Bernie Goldmann of 300, as well as director Zack Snyder, who all confirmed they were still hoping for a follow-up of some kind to 300. Today, Variety is reporting it as a done deal.

There are so many things wrong with this story that I just don't know where to begin. First, it wasn't cool of Variety to scoop Collider, and not credit them. But honestly, I can't believe the trades even ran this story. I mean no disrespect to Collider, as they ran it in the right context, but Variety is implying that this is on the verge of being filmed. Any 300 spin-off is entirely theoretical at this point, as it depends on a book that Frank Miller is only believed to be writing. No one even knows if he's jotted an outline down, let alone what it will be about. I watched Collider's interview with the aforementioned producers -- and with all due respect, when asked point blank if they had been in contact with Miller, they didn't answer. That doesn't confirm a solid project. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and suggest Miller hasn't given it a second thought since the movie came out.

Did you know the Saturn Awards were last night? I sure didn't! You'll remember the Saturn Awards as where William Shatner did his famous rendition of "Rocketman" back in 1978. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films has given them out to the best in genre cinema for 34 years now, and this year's picks are ... kind of strange.

The prize for Best Fantasy Film went to Enchanted, which I think is silly in a category that also included Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Stardust, but okay. Then Sweeney Todd took Best Horror Film, which seems to me like a way to avoid giving an award to an actual horror film, like fellow competitors 30 Days of Night, 1408 and The Mist. I guess I can see why Sweeney Todd would be classified as "horror" -- a lot of throats get slit, after all -- but it's a stretch. Then the kicker: Cloverfield wins Best Science-Fiction Film, beating out, among others, Sunshine. The problem is that not only is Cloverfield not a science-fiction film, it's in some ways the opposite of a science-fiction film. Science-fiction entails some sort of larger cosmic context for the fantastic goings-on, which is precisely what Cloverfield refuses to provide. It's a monster movie in its purest form -- horror, not sci-fi.