Los Angeles — The Weinstein Co. has asked a toy maker to discontinue a line of “Django Unchained” action figures after receiving complaints that they were offensive. Not speaking for the entire African-American community, some mainstream Black media liaisons, such as Al Sharpton and Najee Ali, director of the Los Angeles civil rights group Project Islamic Hope called for them to be withdrawn from sale saying they ‘trivialise the horrors of slavery’.
TMZ reported that shortly after advocacy groups including Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and Project Islamic Hope spoke out, the Weinstein Company asked that the toy line be discontinued as soon as possible. Only 1,000 dolls were reportedly produced before production stopped.
The controversial “Django Unchained” toys were produced by the National Entertainment Collectibles Assocation (NECA) in collaboration with the Weinstein Company. The Weinstein Co. said Friday that such collectibles have been created for all of director Quentin Tarantino’s films, including “Inglourious Basterds,” and that they were meant for people 17 and older, the audience for the film.
“We have tremendous respect for the audience and it was never our intent to offend anyone,” The Weinstein Co. said in a statement. Toy maker NECA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Django Unchained,” an uplifting spaghetti western revenge tale detailing the re-imagined trials of a freed African slave in America, stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson. Released December 25, 2012 in the U.S. around the time of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” another film about life in antebellum America, “Django Unchained” digs deeps into the muck of the Deep South and Old West. “Django Unchained follows a freed slave (Foxx) who treks across the United States with a bounty hunter (Waltz) on a mission to rescue his wife (Washington) from a cruel and charismatic plantation owner (DiCaprio).
“Django Unchained” received acclaim from critics and is nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Waltz) and Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino). At the 70th Golden Globe Awards, Christoph Waltz won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and Quentin Tarantino won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.
1 comment