When it comes to fighting the MPAA, Harvey Weinstein's got a secret weapon: M.
Judi Dench is reprising her role as James Bond's tough-as-nails boss for a humorous short video in which she dispatches an MI6 agent—007 we presume—to take on a new foe: the folks at the Motion Picture Association of America.
The purpose? To stop the trade association from slapping an R-rating on the Oscar winner's new film, Philomena, just because the British comedy drops two f-bombs.
The short clip, which features menacing music, finds Dench spinning around in an office chair, gazing at the camera and saying, "Just when you thought I was dead." After which, Philomena's title appears onscreen with the letter "m" boldly standing out before the scene cuts back to M in closeup.
"I have an important mission for you," she adds, then asks, "Are you familiar with MPAA?"
The clip is a teaser to a full video that's due to premiere on Funny or Die's website in the near future and which also features Dench's Philomena costar, Steve Coogan.
The idea of resurrecting M—who died in the last Bond outing, Skyfall—for the purpose of battling the MPAA was the brainchild of The Weinstein Company head, who has an appeal pending against the agency's decision on Wednesday.
Weinstein, who has never been one to back down from a good ratings fight (especially given all the free publicity it generates), took his case to CBS This Morning.
"There's two 'F' words in the movie. You're allowed one 'F.' And this is like The King's Speech," the mogul told Charlie Rose and company. "The movie is the gentlest, wonderful true story filed with humor and joy. And they should just put PG-13 for strong language on this and make it the exception. So it's under appeal."
Dench stars as the titular character who teams up with a journalist (Coogan) to find the son she gave birth to 50 years earlier who was taken away from her and put up for adoption.
According to Weinstein, the strong language is "not gratuitous" and when asked by Rose why he just didn't remove the second f-word, he replied, "It's like asking a director to change his intention."
In a statement released to CBS, MPAA chairman Chris Dodd, explained the reasoning behind Philomena's R rating.
"It's not a judgment value but rather an indication to parents that it contains elements strong enough to warrant careful consideration before allowing their children to view it," he said. "This is an instance that is no different from any other film."
The former Miramax honcho, however, called that line of thinking "absolutely wrong," and acknowledged the video was his way of "having fun with the MPAA."
It was only a few months ago that Weinstein got into another brouhaha with the MPAA over the name of The Butler when the association forced him to change its name to Lee Daniels' The Butler, ruling that Warner Bros. had a 1916 silent movie with the same title and therefore owned the rights.
Philomena hits theaters on Nov. 27.