- 09 Sep 2013 20:00
#14296459
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401380/A-Belfast-Story-Balaclavas-duct-tape-sent-grim-PR-stunt-promote-new-film.html
These critics need to get over themselves. Id say they're just pissed they didn't get a free phone or i-pod in the press pack. NI is a place where nails duct tape and balaclavas are still very much a part of real life in some areas of Belfast.
The director of a new film has been forced into a grovelling apology after he sent out a promotional pack including a balaclava, nails and a roll of duct tape.
The film, A Belfast Story, is about paramilitaries in Northern Ireland and is set in a post-Troubles Belfast which is still marred by violence.
Starring Irish actor Colm Meaney the film is meant to the reality of modern Belfast.
But film writers were horrified when they received the press pack full of unsavoury accessories leading Northern Irish writer Chris Hewitt, of Empire magazine, to brand it 'the most distasteful freebie ever.'
In evident dismay Hewitt tweeted that he had received 'a box containing a bag of nails (for a nail bomb) and a balaclava, for A Belfast Story. Not quite sure what point whoever sent it is trying to make. But I'm pretty sure it's a moronic one.'
The promotional boxes, which also feature fake newspaper clippings and surveillance photos, were sent to media outlets including Belfast’s UTV.
The plot of the film, follows Meaney playing a weary detective tasked with investigating the murders of former paramilitaries.
These critics need to get over themselves. Id say they're just pissed they didn't get a free phone or i-pod in the press pack. NI is a place where nails duct tape and balaclavas are still very much a part of real life in some areas of Belfast.