Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) says he was misled in lending his name and image to an independent science-fiction film that sought to raise funds on the Kickstarter Web site.
In a letter to director Jason Wishnow, Ai said he did not approve of the way in which he was being used to promote The Sandstorm.
The film-in-progress has been described as a dystopian tale of a future China in which water has become scarce, with Ai playing a smuggler who evades authorities.
Ai said in the letter that he did not give consent for Wishnow to use his name and image to promote the film and that he agreed only to take a minor role in the project, but was now being advertised as the film’s star.
“Ai Weiwei considers that you have not only misled him in this regard, but are also potentially deceiving providers of funds to your project as to the extent of Ai Weiwei’s involvement in the project, potentially implicating Ai Weiwei in your deception without his knowledge or consent,” said the letter, sent on Ai’s behalf on Wednesday last week.
The letter called on Wishnow to direct Kickstarter to cancel and remove the advertised project, a demand he apparently agreed to.
The Web site currently carries a notice saying the film was the subject of an intellectual property dispute and presently unavailable.
Ai representative Darryl Leung said in an e-mail yesterday that the letter was authentic, and that no response had yet been received from Wishnow.
“We don’t know what the final resolution will be and we don’t know whether the film will be shown,” Leung wrote.
New York-based Wishnow did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
In an April 9 interview, Hong Kong-based cinematographer Christopher Doyle said the film had been shot over a few days in locations all across Beijing. He said the shoot was conducted in semi-clandestine fashion, describing it as a “very minimalistic simple shooting process.”
Footage for the film appears to have been shot without permits or official authorization.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS