LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- If you ever find yourself on the phone with the most hated man in Hollywood, one of the first things you'll notice is how disarmingly self-effacing he is. "I went to a special college called the Weinstein College of How to Be a Sleazebag," laughs Courtney Solomon, a partner in genre-film label After Dark Pictures.

Million dollar gash
But after the "Captivity" firestorm, the MPAA brought the hammer down. For the first time, the ratings board suspended its rating process for two months in order to punish After Dark and Lionsgate for their transgression. As a result, "Captivity" had to postpone its release, which set After Dark scrambling to redo all of its marketing plans -- TV, outdoor, online, at a cost of millions. Other purveyors of cheapie horror are both angry and terrified it'll cost them, too. (With good reason, apparently: Mr. Koules' newest project's title? "Tortured," about a young child who's abducted, tortured and killed. His parents do much the same to his abductor.)

Meanwhile, Mr. Solomon has his hands full with another hot potato. Having gotten new ads approved by the MPAA for "Captivity," he's in the midst of planning the marketing for what he calls a dark comedy about purgatory called "Wristcutters." He picked up the movie, made for less than $1 million, at Sundance last year. The marketing campaign calls for cardboard cutouts of characters jumping off bridges, electrocuting and hanging themselves -- in keeping with the film's teen-suicide theme. The signage was reportedly planned to go on telephone poles and even on trees in major markets.

"Then [Lionsgate CEO] Jon Feltheimer got about 1,000 letters from anti-suicide groups," said Mr. Solomon, who was also buried under protest-letter writing campaigns from groups such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Save (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education). The Virginia Tech massacre didn't help matters.

But Mr. Solomon was undeterred. In fact, taking a page from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which reached out early on to Greek Orthodox churches, Mr. Solomon said he believes the suicide groups that have brought the most pressure to bear are, in fact, his most important marketing partners for "Wristcutters."

"It has a really strong anti-suicide message," he said, "and so we're sending screeners to all the groups and meeting with and screening it for several of them. We're not making them any promises, but we're telling them that we are going to listen to them and hear them out. We're not here to promote suicide -- even I don't go that low."