Brett Ratner’s next movie just got a lot more controversial. The director of X-Men: The Last Stand and the Rush Hour movies is producing a follow-up to the 2008 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, his publicist confirmed to EW. The film will be directed by Marina Zenovich, who directed Wanted and Desired. The news that Ratner would be working on a film about the in-the-news-again Oscar-winning director of Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown was first reported in the New York Post.
Polanski was arrested this weekend at the Zurich airport when he arrived in Switzerland to be honored at the Zurich Film Festival. Swiss authorities, armed with a U.S. warrant, took the 76-year-old director into custody until he can be extradited to the United States to face sentencing in an infamous case dating back to the late ’70s, when Polanski was convicted of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. The case was the subject of Wanted and Desired.
Ratner also recently joined several other directors including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese in signing a petition protesting Polanski’s arrest.
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of course. see that people, its the bandwagon everyone will be getting on soon enough.
Brett Ratner is a HACK. Who keeps greenlighting this guy’s movies?
He is Awful. Just Dreadful.
Unbelievable, only in Hollywood would they idolize a rapist.
the NBA too… besides, if we judged people solely on their single worst moment, you’d just be a moronic comment poster.
Is there a petition to support his arrest? I know a lot of people who would like to sign that, but they aren’t famous, so their voices obviously wouldn’t matter.
I would love to sign a petition to support his arrest.
it is amazing how egotistical and out of touch Hollywood is – these directors DEMANDED their rapist pedophile colleague be released and not face jail, for the serious crimes he committed. what next maybe petition Obama for pardon?
Why is it that these people think the fact that he is an “artist” excuses him from responsibility for raping a child? SICK people!
Woody Allen I understand, but Scorsese I expect better from. And please oh Lord let Ratner not title this doc “How to Be a Playa.”
why are these people trying to help a convicted rapist?
if they think his trial was unfair, there is always the next lawful step, appeal.
if they think it was too long ago, then lets stop extraditing the Nazi SS guards.
if they think it was consentual, read the testamony and the statutory rape law.
if its because he’s a great artist, let him do a reality movie on prison rape starring himself.
In the U.S., rapists are prosecuted and put on sex offender lists.
why aren’t these people trying to defend that guy who kidnapped, raped and held captive an 11 year old, that was a long time ago too.
He wasn’t found guilty, he struck a plea deal. He admitted guilt.
He still is guilty in the eyes of the law. The only difference is that his disposition will say, Guilty upon his plea of guilt, as opposed to Guilty upon jury verdict.
Reb Polanski, as documented in the comments above, is the target of undisguised antisemitism, as well as their ignorance of the original case. He did not know her age (yes, I have read the court material), and, as the original documentary pointed out, the salacious conduct of the ‘judge’ was reprehensible.
STEPHAN PICKERING / Chofetz Chayim ben-Avraham
Then I guess you missed the part where he admitted, under oath, that he knew she was 13. Look at page 10 of the transcript of his plea.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0928091polanskiplea1.html
MR. GUNSON: On March 10th, 1977, the day you had sexual intercourse with the complaining witness, how old did you believe her to be?
THE DEFENDANT (POLANSKI): She was 13.
MR. GUNSON: Did you understand that she was 13 on March 10th, 1977, when you had sexual intercourse with her?
THE DEFENDANT (POLANSKI): Yes.
Stephan, you also missed the news where the Assistant District Attorney who made the allegations against the judge in the documentary has now admitted he lied in the film.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/retired-prosecutor-hbo-roman-polanski-case.html
A retired Los Angeles County prosecutor who claimed in a 2008 documentary that he advised a judge to sentence Roman Polanski to prison for having sex with a minor now says that he lied on film about his role in the case.
“Polanski, as documented in the comments above, is the target of undisguised antisemitism, as well as their ignorance of the original case.”
Stephan, it is so sad that you have to resort to such a heinous charge as antisemitism. The people here are commenting about the admitted BEHAVIOR of Roman Polanski. You obviously have never been a victim of antisemitism or you never would have used that detestable accusation without any justification. Shame on you.
Fail.
So Ratner is promoting someone who drugged and raped a 13 yr old girl.
Add him to the pile of Mel Gibson movies I threw out.
Sex laws have been built on misconceptions and myth.
The Supreme Court just ruled on sex offender laws where some factions of our government think by some inert reasoning that sex offender should be quarantined like some virus steaming from draconian/Islamic radical view that sex offenders should be executed. I have seen for myself, video taken in another country where a sex offender is placed on a pole much like the Catholics use to use a pyramid shaped object and have them sit on it and spin, the pole travels through the body looking for the throat but if not found its ok cause the sharpened end of the pole will come out somewhere to the delight of these very strange people. The heritage of the act is in its self a throwback to troglodyte’s who are so obsessed with any sex they can find & the only way to deal with this kind of “hierarchy” of historic hysteria. A word taken from hysterectomy, hysteria is tied to castration used to make animals less threatening which clearly explains the atmosphere we have made for our selves.
Anyway we are supposed to be the most advanced nation and we still have a death penalty when the rest of the world except for nations we are still warring with, {think!} While other nations went home our weapons dealers and torture lovers delighting in support for the death of people they don’t know or want to simply because they don’t know how to get money with out taking it from someone by force. Is that supposed to includes mutilations? In my humble opinion that alone are terrorist activities as much as severed hands, ears, heads, or making a case with nothing more than an obsession justified by lies.
The truth about the sex offender registry will come out soon enough. When it does, People will see how the use of the registry was created, and by exactly who and why and the devastation it has created and the worthlessness of the use of it. It’s origin in the Jim Crow hangum laws that brought disgrace to our nation allowing thieves and murderous societal bigots who have trashed any shot at making good of a program in its design to make money destroying our nation and its people. We can not play god and we can not survive using this behavior model because we are compounding the problem since the numbers increasing to include the children they report to protect.
It’s a ruse designed by people who are getting rich off the castration/hysterectomy/health care/physic care of people through sex laws that have gone wild. What about the people who are being used by the Medicare programs that requires these mutilations for both men and woman after they take their means of support? Can’t you see? You have created the model and it is worthless! [Why don't we just indiscriminately kill people we don't know? That’s statically the next sex offender] because over 90% of all new offences are people not on the sex offender registry and the numbers are increasing not decreasing so as a behavior model is really worthless
So what is the use of such laws as the sex offender registry other than to terrorize people? With the murder of so many sex offenders and the continued disregard for life by the use of the registry it’s just a mater of time before the federal government will be held liable for the deaths through federal court.
In a nation where a statement may have a double or triple meaning and our entire linage can be traced through mud, guts, and beer it’s nice once in a while to get the picture of what is meant instead of what some thinks someone may have implied. So it is from the trenches to the hill. Remember the game where someone says something in someone’s ear then passes it the same way to the next; the person advocating such destructive laws are the ones who need to be section 8 by simple brake down of the issue not sex offenders. Best regards
Bravo to the United States of America taking the red carpet right from under Polanski glory and his flaky
over paid chickens, they didn’t see the Fox coming,
now see who is laughing? showing disrespect with despicable arrogance toward American Law and the
Bill of Rights that it stands for and it’s citizens.
an arrogance
Just watched Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired today, a very interesting movie. As for Polanski, I hope everything turns out well for him.
Too bad the movie has many, many flaws. Go to Salon’s website to read the problems with this documentary.
Turns out the film featured a big bunch of lies:
A retired Los Angeles County prosecutor who claimed in a 2008 documentary that he advised a judge to sentence Roman Polanski to prison for having sex with a minor now says that he lied on film about his role in the case.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/retired-prosecutor-hbo-roman-polanski-case.html
Americans and their laws are nazist in nature! They are as criminal as the criminals themselves, and propogated by a blood thirsty ignorant society who is brainwashed by a capitalistic facist government!!! Wake up people!! Start thinking for yourselves!!! Stop being so Trigger happy!! Your society is in such a police state that the government has turned ordinary citizens into Joe Cops!!! You have no freedom!! and the freedoms you have are watered down to make you think you are free, when you are nothing but a puppet of your so called democratic state. Under Reagan and prior America was truly a free state, that the world was proud of, but today after the bushes and clintons, you are worst that The Nazis, and comparable to the SS!! Shame on You!!
And yet Americans, unlike say, Germans, can leagaly call people Nazist. We have a system, sometimes it workes better then other times. If you don’t like it, don’t visit, and don’t rape a 13 year old when you do.
No, you got it wrong. The Americans and their laws are not Nazi in nature. It’s the Americans who saved your European asses from the Nazis. If not for the Americans, all of Europe would be a Nazi parking lot. Just remember that when you defend your rapist of a defenseless 13 year old and call the US Nazis for pursuing a pedophile. You are SICK SICK.
eob, I completely agree with you. I’ve been posting all of my arguments in several places around the web, and I’m glad to finally find someone who share my opinion.
Hey eob at least your not the only child molester supporter on here you have a buddy!!!
Where is the outrage?!?!?! This man is a convicted rapist. He confessed, cut a deal, and took off. Hollywood is supporting him – are they insane? People are angrier at Kanye West and his stupid stunt at that awards show than at a convicted sex offender who fled the country in order to escape punishment. Where are the children’s rights activists, the women’s rights people? Why aren’t Tim and Susan standing up for the 13 year old girl raped by a 44 year old man who considers himself above the law. Whoopi says it wasn’t “rape rape”. Sorry Whoopi the law doesn’t have a special law for when you decide it’s not “rape rape.” Crazy. He pled guilty, no question he did it. He fled the country and has lived the high life for years. Yes, it was a long time ago, but to me that just means it’s way past time for justice.
Yo Roman Polanski, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Mary-Kate Olsen is the hottest 13-year-old piece of a$$ of all time!
This guy is a total a-hole.
Yes yes, this can all be blamed on Bush. *yawn*
How about shame on the guy who stuck his thingie in some 13 year olds poo hole. Shame on anyone who thinks this guy should be set free.
Excuse me, but who the hell cares what Brett Ratner, Woody Allen, or Martin Scorsese thinks about whether Polanski should or shouldn’t have been arrested? I enjoy their work – and Polanski’s too, for that matter – but we have something called the rule of law in this country, and fortunately ts application doesn’t depend on your weekend box office or how many Oscars you have on your mantelpiece. Polanski admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl, then showed himself to be a complete coward by running and hiding rather than facing the consequences of his actions. I’ve seen “Wanted and Desired,” and if there are problems with the conviction, he should get his ass back here and let his lawyers challenge it before the judge or on appeal, just like non-celebrity defendants do every day. This seeme like a total no-brainer to me.
Dan said it perfectly. And making an exception to the law for a celebrity would set a dangerous precedent.
Who Cares ? Incest, Child rape waht the heck- lets make a movie -As if movies really make a difference. PS I own 14 screens and I realize how sleazy these guys really are. Been there done that . In two years no one will remember and in five years no one will ever be able to remember !!!!!!!
He is innocent! Leave him alone! The woman said it was as lovers!
She did not. Stop speading lies. Besides, it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a 13-year-old even if the 13-year-old consented (which in Polanski’s case she did NOT)
I wonder what the petition says.
I think in fairness all the people signing it should donate their 13-year-old daughters (and sons) for some good old-fashioned statutory rape (or sodomy) while the child is drugged with Qualudes and alcohol.
HERE IS THE PETITION (NOTE IT CALLS HIS CONVICTION A “CASE OF MORALS”):
We have learned the astonishing news of Roman Polanski’s arrest by the Swiss police on September 26th, upon arrival in Zurich (Switzerland) while on his way to a film festival where he was due to receive an award for his career in filmmaking.
His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.
Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.
By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.
The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.
Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.
Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians – everyone involved in international filmmaking – want him to know that he has their support and friendship.
On September 16th, 2009, Mr. Charles Rivkin, the US Ambassador to France, received French artists and intellectuals at the embassy. He presented to them the new Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the embassy, Ms Judith Baroody. In perfect French she lauded the Franco-American friendship and recommended the development of cultural relations between our two countries.
If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.
Thats funny not one mention of child rape?? Celebrities have to be the most clueless people on the earth. I think they should also sign a petition stating that they would feel the same way if one of their stalkers did the same to one of their children. Then see how many of the a-holes would sign it. Since they only see child rape as a case of morals.
Since when did film festivals become sanctuaries from the law?
We solidly condemn the persecution of Roman Polanski.
There is something deeply sick in this. Exactly why are these Hollywood people supporting Polanski? What part of child rape do they not understand? Or is there a bizarre idea here that the morals of an “artist” are somehow so different from ordinary morals that they should not be held to the same standard as the general society? I’m afraid that, if that is the case, it is a reprehensible idea and attitude. Polanski may be a brilliant artist. That is completely irrelevant to what he did. He drugged and raped a child. Frankly, if he drugged and raped anyone, it would merit his punishment. As it is, for the past three decades, he has lived the high life in Europe and elsewhere while avoiding resposibility for his disgusting conduct. It’s time that justice was served.
It’s about time people recognized the real victims in child sex cases, the adults. Those children are almost always asking for it, with their veneers of innocence and cherub-like faces.
Um, Mike – if he is “innocent,” why did he plead guilty? Because a 13-year-old, under our laws, cannot consent to sex with an adult (yes, even if it’s “as lovers”). .
Ahh, all them morons with their second hand opinion are out in the garden again: appaling.
Please SOMEONE put together a petition to support jail time for this slimy creep. Since when did people decide that it was acceptable to violate a child, as long as you made movies for a living? We are truly despicable if we idolize and sympathize with this ugly underbelly of humanity. The hypocritical sycophants who are outraged by the unfair treatment poor Roman has endured should all know the pain and humiliation of being sexually violated by someone older, richer and more famous than them. How nice it must be for that young victim, now grown, to get to see that the sympathy and compassion in this case is flowing in the direction of her rapist. What is WRONG with these signers of this laughable petition? Not one penny of my family’s hard earned money will be spent to support any of these advocates of child molestation. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on all of you. I can’t imagine how you can sleep at night…
Are you all forgetting he also gave her booze and a lude to get her in the mood ?
Regardless of how much he paid off her parents and the courts for rape, he is still a drug pusher in the case, hope he rots in a cell.
I would like to revisit what is an ever elongating list of supporters at a time when their daughter or granddaughter experiences the same thing. At that time we can present to them the same 43 day sentence that they found acceptable here.