SANDRA BULLOCK as she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. \nNEW YORK - Sandra Bullock a porn star? It's about as likely as bringing up a child from the Little League to pitch the World Series - but if you believe B-movie legend Roger Corman, the Motion Picture Association of America has practically called her one for, er, dogging it in a film she made before she became a major star.
Corman's fury involves Fire on the Amazon, a film Bullock shot with Corman before she became a star in the 1994 film Speed. Corman wants to release it theatrically, but the MPAA hit it with an NC-17 rating - despite its original R rating when Corman tried to release the film in the wake of Bullock's breakout in Speed.
Corman held the film back originally to concentrate on selling his movie library, says Variety. When he finally returned to release Fire on the Amazon, he added five seconds to a scene in which Bullock and co-star Craig Sheffer, according to press materials cited by the daily entertainment bible, ``drink a hallucinogenic liquid drug from an Indian ceremonial bowl. This spawns the couple's passionate canine-style lovemaking in the jungle.''
"The board says the movie is obscene, which is ridiculous," Corman fumes. He had planned a screening for potential buyers at the American Film Market and the NATPE convention of television executives later this month. "I'm not going to release an NC-17 movie because too many theater chains in the U.S. won't take it,'' he tells Variety. ``And a number of video stores, including Blockbuster, won't carry a movie with an NC-17.''
NC-17 ratings (no one under 17 admitted) usually mean a film is restricted to what Variety calls "the fringes of the movie world, because of a misplaced perception that they depict extreme pornography or violence."
Corman finally wanted a spring 1999 release for Fire on the Amazon. When the added five seconds brought home the NC-17 rating, its distributor trimmed a few seconds from the steamy scene and resubmitted it to the MPAA, whose report Corman tells Variety is expected within a few days.
He's threatening to "start looking at my legal options" if the NC-17 rating stands, even as he vows not to make any more cuts to the film.
The film was shot on location by Luis Loca, who has since made The Specialist and Anaconda.
