This from Westeros:
A sudden and perhaps not unexpected flurry of media interest in a passing DVD commentary remark made by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss—that’d be for the Bluray and DVD released back in March—has led to a response from both HBO and Benioff & Weiss.
As those who’ve sat through the commentaries know, Weiss and Benioff pointed out that one of the heads on spikes in a season 1 scene featuring Joffrey and Sansa was in fact a repurposed prop head that appears to have been modelled after George W. Bush. In the commentary, they noted it was not a political statement, merely the result of having to work with the heads they have around (prosthetic heads are quite expensive to make—so much so that the idea that George R.R. Martin could get his cameo as one of the severed heads was nixed when they revealed to him how much it would cost to get a custom prop head made).
That is, apparently, not good enough for Craig Eaton, head of the Brooklyn Republican Part. According to the Daily Mail, Eaton—who doesn’t actually watch the show—has called for a boycott, likening the revelation that one of the heads was that of former President Bush to weakening the United States in the eyes of the world.
In the early Pacific evening, the following statement went out from Benioff and Weiss:
We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can’t afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush.
In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.
And from HBO, in the same release:
We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production.
22 commentaires:
The best part is that they said somebody mentioned it "Looked like Bush." They didn't even say it was actually a re-purposed Bush head. Will every prop head have to be examined now to ensure it does not even resemble a head of state? (pun intended)
What a bunch of pansies. I think it's hilarious, and I'm a fan of the former President. Funny the minor issues people often make a big deal out of.
Shouldn't they all be playing Diablo 3 right now, anyway?
DW
Silly republicans... lol
If fat George wasn't such a flaming leftist loon I might believe it wasn't political.
it's not hillarious.
i very much doubt that they would have done the same with obama's head or clinton.
i don't buy it, that it's not a political statement.
but what do i care ?
when i saw the 6th episode in season 2 where the dragons were stolen ... that was the end of the show for me.
it's no longer for me.
Much ado about nothing, but don't patronize, boys....Of course it was political.
Glad they apologized for it. Not a Bush fan, but all the Presidents of the US deserve a little respect.
Interesting what people will comment on or take away from this. My first thought was, Is HBO removing the IMAGE or that bit of commentary from future DVD productions?
^ Like GRRM has anything to do with the props used by the producers of the show... dumbass. Then again, attacking the guy because he's fat shows what a classy person you are.
Man The States are stupid. To think this drivel actually had to be apologized for is terrible. This idiot should have been shouted down not apologized to.
Its bad enough some Fucktard is calling for a boycott over an off hand remark that means NOTHING to anyone, Former President or not. What really pisses me off about this is how Politically Correct our society has become. HBO is "Deeply dismayed?"
Its pathetic how quickly HBO threw the show runners under the bus. They should have stood up, said how ridiculous this non-news item and boycott really is, and told Craig Eaton to STFU.
Sgt Hulka said it best: "Lighten up, Francis."
Why would HBO and D&D pander to some Republican nut job that most other Republicans probably think is a tool?
Does eh also complain about the presidential heads in Futurama?
I think HBO & D&D made the absolute wrong move by apologising so profusely, I especially think it tacky of HBO to "reprimand" D&D.
I'm a democrat but frankly I don't think spiking the head of a controversial former president on a spike is good form. I imagine if they did it to Obama, who I voted for and will again, we'd never hear the freaking end of it. It doesn't matter whether it was a political move or not, the fact that it was a president's head makes it de facto political. I imagine this will blow over in a few days though given the apology.
When does 'looked like Bush' turn into 'was the face of Bush'
Crying out loud. Stop making it out what it isn't. It looked like him, it wasn't him. It wasn't mean't to be him.
PC gone mad.
Would you all be shouting if the image looked like Hitler? I think not.
I thought it was hilarious. Bush was an awful r-tard and it was funny to see him get dumped on.
I am dismayed that HBO tucked it back and claimed to be ashamed.
Omg, I'm glad it wasn't Obama's head. He's black.
It might have seemed racist! Nobody wants to be racist...
Darn it - I thought when I started to read this that the controversy would go like this...'HBO execs are concerned they have a stellar hit on their hands with their Game of Thrones sweries, but are now concerned that in about 7 or so years they will have to cancel the series before its time as they have discovered they will have at least a further 5 year wait to find out what the ending will be to this epic series. HBO inside rumours suggest an alternative TV ending to the saga has been contractually agreed upon that may differ from the books if the book fail to eventuate in time'
Presidents are just people. They deserve no more respect than anyone else, and many deserve less. Plus, if no one noticed it on the screen, then it definitely wasn't at all obvious and wasn't intended to be political.
I find Eaton's comments entirely hypocritical, since I'm sure he doesn't complain about people making America look weak in the eyes of the world if they defame our current president.
Even if it had been a political statement, who cares? Our history is filled with burnings in effigy, etc. It's called free speech people, not "only the speech you happen to agree with".
I love it when people say, "if it were Obama or Clinton we'd never hear the end of it,".... You're absolutely right, and you know what? The people shouting about Obama's head on a spike and demanding apologies would be wrong too. Just because the other side would bitch doesn't mean anything. And considering the amount of news coverage I've seen for this thing over the last two days, "we're never gonna hear the end of this" either.
This is seriously dumb. Wow. I don't even know what to say.
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/06/15/game-of-thrones-season-1-finale-pulled-due-to-bushs-head
HBO should have said, "They used a prosthetic head that looked like George Bush, so fucking what?" and not caved like a bunch of pathetic pussies. What a fuss over nothing!
Yes! Free advertising for Game of Thrones!!
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