'King Arthur' Gore Cut For Rating

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer didn't mind shedding some of the blood and violence in his latest action flick, "King Arthur."

Battle scenes were edited to bring the movie into American cinemas with a PG-13 rating, which allows children accompanied by parents and teenagers 13 and older to see the film. The original R rating would have restricted audiences to 17 and older.

"You want to fill as many seats as you can, and if you're limited by 17 and over, it's much harder," Bruckheimer told The Associated Press.

Disney, the film's distributor, originally planned to release the movie in the fall, a more adult-oriented season when the R rating would have made sense. After the movie was moved to the more competitive summer, filmmakers wanted to broaden the audience, Bruckheimer said.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day"), "King Arthur" stars British actors Clive Owen in the title role and Keira Knightley as Guinevere.

When questioned about the cuts to secure a PG-13 rating, the producer joked that he would have faced the opposite if filmmakers had stuck with the bloodier version.

"If I were sitting here and this picture was R, everybody would be saying, 'Why do you have the violence, why do you need the gratuitous violence? Do you have to chop off people's heads?'" Bruckheimer said. "So, you know, whatever I do is wrong."

"King Arthur" opens in the United States Wednesday.