Issue of Stars' Safety Delays Kite Runner

Producers fear film may inflame Afghanistan's ethnic tensions
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2007 1:02 PM CDT

Paramount Vantage is pushing back the release of "The Kite Runner" to allow its child stars to leave Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. The studio, worried that a “Danish-cartoons situation” could erupt over an ethnically charged rape scene, has moved the film's release date to Dec. 14. The 12-year-old starring in the scene says he fears for his life.

Paramount plans to move the families to the United Arab Emirates and assume some of their living expenses. None of this seemed a problem when the film—based on a best-selling novel—began shooting, but Kabul has destabilized substantially in the year since. Ethnic groups “would be killing each other every night” over the movie’s depictions, an Afghani politician warned. (More Afghanistan stories.)

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