Iran may sue Hollywood over several movies, not just "Argo"

By Greg Gilman

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Argo" is just one of many films that have offended Iran over the years and a lawyer representing the country in a possible lawsuit has reportedly suggested she'll be suing Hollywood for all of them.

According to the Guardian's translation of a quote carried by Iran's semi-official Isna news agency, French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre said: "I'll be defending Iran against films that have been made by Hollywood to distort the country's image, such as 'Argo.'"

Coutant-Peyre, who is married to and also represents jailed Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ram?rez S?nchez - also known as Carlos the Jackal - did not yet specify what other movies she was referring to. However, history gives us some idea.

Brian Gilbert's 1991 film "Not Without My Daughter," which starred Sally Field as an American woman fleeing Iran with her daughter to escape her Iranian husband, was criticized by both American and Iranian critics for casting the country's citizens in a negative light.

Roger Ebert said the film "does not play fair with its Muslim characters" and if made in American about any other ethnic group, "it would be denounced as racist and prejudiced."

Zack Snyder's "300," an action movie fictionalizing an epic battle between 300 Greek Spartans and 30,000 Persians, was denounced by many Iranian officials after it was released in 2007. A cultural advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it "American psychological warfare against Iran."

Similarly, the country was outraged by Oliver Stone's "Alexander," due to the 2004 film's portrayal of the Persian empire which Alexander the Great - a historical figure reviled in Iranian culture - conquered in 331 BC.

Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," a 2008 drama starring Mickey Rourke as a down and out professional wrestler, also angered Iran. Officials criticized the film for a scene in which Rourke breaks a pole bearing an Iranian flag over his knee, while Rourke's wrestling nemesis, The Ayatollah (a character referencing Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran), was also the cause of Iranian outrage.

When a delegation of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences visited Iran for a conference in 2009, a cultural adviser to Ahmadinejad demanded an apology for Hollywood's "insults and libel."

Warner Bros., which released "300," "Alexander" and "Argo," had "no comment" when contacted by TheWrap.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-may-sue-hollywood-over-several-movies-not-215925796.html

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