When most comedians are planning to crack a joke about a tragedy, they tend to pause for a few minutes and ask themselves the important question: is it too soon? Unfortunately, this director didn’t even think to do this…
French-born director Jonathan Bucari is facing a huge backlash after he announced plans to make a film that is based on the Sandy Hook tragedy. The movie would centre around the character of a young boy with a mental illness who was severely affected by the shootings, which occurred on December 14th 2012.
Mr Bucari took to the fundraising website Indiegogo and put forward his idea. He also stated that he was planning on shooting the film in Ridegfield, Connecticut, a town just 20 miles from the Newtown school where gunman Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children, six teachers and himself.
Despite the plot of the film, Mr Bucari reportedly posted on the website and claimed that he was not making a movie about what happened in Newtown “and never will do so.”
Director Jonathan Bucari at the Cannes Film Festival
However, the backlash began immediately on social networking website Twitter. The director was branded “opportunist slime” and warned to “stay away” from the people of Connecticut.
The outrage continued until Mr Bucari was forced to delete his Twitter page and remove all links about the film, entitled Illness, from the internet.
“I will do everything in my power to prevent this,” said Rudy Marconi, the first selectman and Ridgefield town leader.
“It’s a bad idea. If you were to poll the residents in town, they’d be overwhelmingly against it,” he added.
Mr Maconi also said that a permit would not be granted to allow Mr Bucari’s crew to film in Ridgefield.
