It seems like Tales of the Black Freighter, the direct-to-DVD animated feature that will tie in to Watchmen is going to receive an 'R' rating. Rope of Silicon has kept an eye on the latest ratings and reports the news about the tie-in, as well as the somewhat surprising news that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is going to get a 'PG' rating - the first film in the franchise to get that rating since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The news about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is somewhat surprising considering the fact that the Potter books get progressively darker as the series has gone on. One would suspect that the films would start to get more adult, not get a downgrade in rating.

That said, the Tales of the Black Freighter news is somewhat to be expected. Anyone who has read the original graphic novel of Watchmen knows that Dave Gibbon's illustrations for the Black Freighter segments are very graphic and vivid depictions of both nudity and intense violence. And when one considers that Watchmen itself received an 'R' rating, the rating for Tales of the Black Freighter is about what we expected.

Watchmen was released March 6th, 2009 and stars Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer. The film is directed by Zack Snyder.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released July 15th, 2009 and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Dave Legeno, Elarica Gallacher, Jim Broadbent, Geraldine Somerville, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters. The film is directed by David Yates.