Director Zelda Williams recently shared hopes for an unrated release of Lisa Frankenstein, a sentiment ultimately echoed by screenwriter Diablo Cody.
The PG-13 horror-comedy followed an unpopular high schooler who accidentally reanimates a handsome Victorian corpse in 1989, but it’s one that the filmmakers envisioned as an R-rated feature.
Last year, Williams shared on her Instagram stories, “Endlessly thankful to all the Lisa Frankenfamily out there. It’s been lovely to meet you, to see your tattoos and paintings, and to hear your stories about what our weird, wacky movie means to you. Please know it means the world to me! And who knows, maybe one day we will even be able to resurrect an unrated version for you all.”
Producer Mason Novick and Diablo Cody confirm that R-rated scenes were initially filmed before pivoting to PG-13 when speaking to The Boo Crew podcast on their newest episode, and echo Williams’ hopes for an unrated cut.
Moreover, Cody revealed that their original R-rated vision would’ve been the better version of the story.
“Of every film that I’ve worked on that’s been defanged from R to PG-13 – it breaks my heart every time – Lisa Frankenstein is the one where the R-rated version would have been superior.”
Cody continues, “I’m being totally honest. I wrote it as an R-rated movie. If I had known that it was definitely going to be PG-13, I would’ve written it as a PG-13 movie as opposed to writing an R-rated movie and having to change the creative to accommodate the writing.”
Of course, the odds of a director’s cut with restored R-rated scenes are dependent upon fan demand.
Kathryn Newton (Freaky) and Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”) lead the cast of Lisa Frankenstein, which also includes Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher), Liza Soberano (Alone/Together), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things), and Henry Eikenberry (The Crowded Room).
Newton is currently slaying at the box office in the sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
