What's everyone's thoughts on writing a script that from a subject-material standpoint would result in a PG-13 rated movie, but would end up being R-rated because your characters say "fuck" or "shit" too many times?

What I'm getting at, is if you're writing a script for a movie that would require a blockbuster level budget, are you shooting yourself in the foot by including swear words that would push the movie into R-rating territory, since R-rated blockbusters are way more rare than PG-13 blockbusters.  Or do most readers ignore the swearing and just focus on the story and characters, knowing that the swearing can be toned down later if the rest of the script is what they want?

I think a lot of films have excessive swearing where it is not necessary. It really isn't necessary.
I have this feeling that a lot of it is added when the script actually goes to filming, that the actors and directors feel is 'beleivable dialogue'.
I could be totally wrong.

If it’s sci-if or fantasy, a common trick is to simply make up a word that everyone cane decode in context, but network censors don’t treat any worse than heck.

Heartbreak Ridge went in the opposite direction with just enough violence to have to worry about their rating then added enough foul language to make it unambiguously R. The PG-13 rating was still new at the time, and they may have intentionally blown past it to avoid a “kid-friendly” rating. If so, it was a stupid decision because the US Marine Corps withdrew their support citing the language (and one scene that could easily have been edited).

Occasional swearing is one thing, but lacing every line of dialogue with it shows that the characters are uncreative... which readers may then attribute to the writer.

My advice would be don't approach it as trying to write a PG-13 or R rated movie.

If you know your characters' voices, let them speak naturally. I have written things where hardly anyone says the word 'shit', and then I have other scripts where some characters are a bit more tame and others drop F-bombs like they're in MIDNIGHT RUN.

In the end, you'll have authentic characters, and your rating will be your rating. Leave it up to the eventual producers / financiers to give you notes on how to soften it up if they want to go for a friendlier rating.

AJR

Concur with AJR here

Go for hard R rating each and every time.

Include graphic violence, full nudity, and lots of sex.

;D ;D ;D ;D

Quoted from Dreamscale Go for hard R rating each and every time. Include graphic violence, full nudity, and lots of sex. ;D ;D ;D ;D

"You obviously have a strong artistic vision, but perhaps you forgot that this commission was for a toothpaste commercial?" :)

Quoted from FrankM "You obviously have a strong artistic vision, but perhaps you forgot that this commission was for a toothpaste commercial?" :)

Keep all commercials at a G rating, but anything else, even TV, go for Hard R!

You can do it!!