Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Out of the blue this morning I was contacted by Frank Darabont. He read the test screening reviews (one here and one here) that have hit and he wanted to clear something up that was mentioned, regarding the film's rating:

As you know, these test screenings are organized by independent companies who do that sort of thing...so this ain't Dimension's fault...but apparently (if I'm understanding the first reviewer correctly) they posted something outside the theater saying "Movie not yet rated, but likely PG-13." Or words to that effect.

That was clueless. I don't where they got that idea (maybe it's their standard shot-in-the-dark practice at test screenings), but PG-13 was NEVER a possibility for this film. Dimension went into this knowing I was going to make an R movie, and that's exactly what it is. We got our rating from the MPAA just a few days ago, and I can assure everybody it's a big fat R. And there's no way I'm trimming a frame of this movie to make it less of an R for the release.

So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth as it were. Good news to be sure, at least for us die hard King nuts that want to see this story faithfully realized. If you've read it, you know there's no way in hell there is a faithful PG-13 version of THE MIST. Can't wait to see those spiders ruining everybody's day!