Quentin Tarantino launched an extraordinary tirade at Krishnan Guru-Murthy after refusing to answer questions about movie violence.
Quentin Tarantino erupted when Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked whether there was a link between scenes in his notoriously bloody films and real-life attacks.
The 49-year-old director snapped: “Don’t ask me a question like that – I’m not biting. I refuse your question. I’m not your slave and you’re not my master.
“You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not a monkey. I don’t want to talk about the implications of violence… because I’ve said everything I have to say about it.
“I have explained this many times in the last 20 years.
“I just refuse to repeat myself over and over again because you want me to for you and your show. And your ratings.”
Towards the end of the interview he rebuffed further questions on the topic, telling Krishnan Guru-Murthy: “I’m shutting your butt down.”
Quentin Tarantino, who was promoting his latest film, Django Unchained, told a stunned Krishnan Guru-Murthy the interview was simply “a commercial for my movie”.
Quentin Tarantino launched an extraordinary tirade at Krishnan Guru-Murthy after refusing to answer questions about movie violence
Django Unchained, about a freed slave who turns bounty hunter in 1850s America, was nominated this week for five Oscars, including best picture. However, it has been criticized for its graphic violence. It was released last month, days after 20 children were killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.
Hours after Quentin Tarantino’s outburst, Hollywood bosses promised a “dialogue” with the Obama administration as US lawmakers seek ways to curb gun violence.
President Barack Obama has pushed gun controls to the top of his domestic agenda following the school shooting.
His administration is assembling proposals that would include a ban on sales of assault weapons, limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines, a crackdown on gun fairs and universal background checks for people buying guns.
Few analysts expect Hollywood to make any sweeping attempts to curb violence in films.
But Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading a White House task force putting together the proposed gun legislation, won a pledge from film and television industry groups that they would work closer with Washington.
America’s top gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, also met Joe Biden – and told him they will try to block any new gun laws.
Instead of making it more difficult for Americans to own guns, the NRA wants to post an armed security officer in every school.
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The Snowman has been a perennial Christmas television fixture for almost 30 years in UK.
Now Channel 4 has decided that The Snowman needs to be updated with new characters and without its “Walking in the Air” theme song.
In a bid to “freshen” the animation, based on a story by Raymond Briggs, a remake is to be made with the little boy at the centre of the story updated and the Snowman joined by a “snow dog”.
The new version of The Snowman, which is about to go into production, will be shown next Christmas as part of a celebration of the television channel’s 30th anniversary.
The Snowman and the new little boy will no longer fly over Brighton pier, but will be seen soaring over landmarks including the London Eye.
They will also go to a ski resort, rather than a Snowman’s party as in the 1982 version.
Channel 4 has decided that The Snowman needs to be updated with new characters and without its “Walking in the Air” theme song
The song “Walking in the Air” will also be axed because the makers say the remake needs to feel “new and fresh”.
“Walking in the Air” was originally sung by St. Paul’s choir boy Peter Auty, but was made famous when it went into the top-10 after it was covered by Aled Jones a few years later.
One element from the original will remain though, the sad ending, as the Snowman will still melt away as the sun comes out.
The production, which makers are considering making in 3D, will cost £2 million ($3 million) and is being made with the help of many of the original creative team.
Raymond Briggs, who had resisted the idea of a remake for many years, said that he has given it his approval for the production, but is not involved.
“I am keeping a polite distance,” Raymond Briggs told The Guardian.
“I haven’t written the new story.
“I was against making a new version for years and refused to agree. But there has been such a huge elapse of time, 30 years, a lot of people have died in that time.
“An awful lot of the old team are being reassembled to make it, that is good. I am not grumpy at all about it.”
The original version of The Snowman will be shown on Channel 4 on Christmas Day this year at 2:30 p.m.
Alan Billis, a terminally ill taxi driver from Torquay, UK, has become the first man to be mummified in the style of the ancient Egyptians for at least 3,000 years.
Scientists embalmed Alan Billis following his death from lung cancer using the techniques that preserved Tutankhamun’s body after his death in 1323 BC.
Alan Billis, 61, loved watching documentaries and he agreed to have his body preserved after seeing an advertisement from Channel 4 looking to film the process.
The former taxi driver wife Janet, 68, said:
“He just said, <<I’ve just phoned someone up about being mummified>>. I said, <<You’ve what?>>. I thought here we go again. It’s just the sort of thing you would expect him to do.”
Alan Billis before to be mummified in the style of the ancient Egyptians and his wife Janet
Janet Billis and their three children gave his decision their blessing, and the resulting programme – Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret – is due to be screened on Channel 4 in UK next week.
Alan Billis, who has been dubbed Torquay’s Tutankhamun, explained his unusual decision in the documentary, saying:
“People have been leaving their bodies to science for years, and if people don’t volunteer for anything nothing gets found out.”
Alan Billis died in January this year and, over a period of several months after his death, the internal organs were removed and kept in jars, with the exception of his brain and heart.
Alan Billis’ skin was covered in a mixture of oils and resins and bathed in a solution of Natron, a salt found in dried-up river beds in Egypt.
Then, his body was kept for a month in a glass tank at the Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield, which houses the city’s mortuary. After this period, Alan Billis’ body was taken out, placed in a drying chamber and wrapped in linen.
According to Dr. Stephen Buckley of the University of York, who helped research Egyptian mummification techniques before the programme, Alan Billis’ body could now last several millennia.
During an interview with the Radio Times, Janet Billis said:
“I didn’t find it upsetting. There wasn’t anything scary.
“I think it was because you could see they all took such good care of Alan. When I did eventually watch the film and saw his mummified face, you could see it was still him, still very much Alan. <<I won’t be Tutankhamun, I’ll be Tutanalan>>, he used to say.
“The involvement in the television programme kept him occupied, took his mind off the illness.”
Dr Stephen Buckley with the mummified body of Alan Billis
As well as Dr. Stephen Buckley, the team of experts behind the mummification included Dr. Joann Fletcher, Maxine Coe and forensic pathologist Prof. Peter Vanezis. Prof. Peter Vanezis said he was pleased with the result, adding:
“The skin itself has this leathery appearance which indicates that he has become mummified all over.
“It makes me very confident that his tissues have been mummified correctly and in a very successful manner.”
Alan Billis’s mummy is expected to stay in Sheffield until the end of 2011. It will then be studied by scientists researching decomposition.
