Stallone refuses to star in 'genocide' film, Gibson under pressure
Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone has refused to star in a
film about the "genocide of Armenians" after a wave of protests
from the Turkish community.
As soon as the news on his planned role in the "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" movie came out, over 3,000 angry e-mails were sent to the actor from Turkey under a campaign launched by an Ataturk University academician Savas Eyilmez, prompting Stallone to take the move.
Another American great Mel Gibson, who is now expected to star in the film, has come under pressure to follow suit.
The movie is to be shot by Icon Production, which is co-owned by Gibson.
"Stallone has refused to play in the movie thanks to our efforts," Eyilmez says. "We have now started sending documents reflecting the realities to Gibson."
Armenians say Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people during World War I, a claim strenuously denied by the Turkic world.
The film is based on a 1934 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel describing an event that took place on Musa Dagh in Turkey in 1915. The book was first published as Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German in November 1933.
As soon as the news on his planned role in the "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" movie came out, over 3,000 angry e-mails were sent to the actor from Turkey under a campaign launched by an Ataturk University academician Savas Eyilmez, prompting Stallone to take the move.
Another American great Mel Gibson, who is now expected to star in the film, has come under pressure to follow suit.
The movie is to be shot by Icon Production, which is co-owned by Gibson.
"Stallone has refused to play in the movie thanks to our efforts," Eyilmez says. "We have now started sending documents reflecting the realities to Gibson."
Armenians say Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people during World War I, a claim strenuously denied by the Turkic world.
The film is based on a 1934 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel describing an event that took place on Musa Dagh in Turkey in 1915. The book was first published as Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German in November 1933.
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