US snubs film with 'too little violence'

The film director Richard Attenborough condemned Hollywood last night for being obsessed with sex and violence after American distributors rejected his latest film.

The film director Richard Attenborough condemned Hollywood last night for being obsessed with sex and violence after American distributors rejected his latest film.

Lord Attenborough said only films containing the "pornography of violence or sex" now stood a chance of appearing in cinemas in the United States.

His film Grey Owl, starring Pierce Brosnan, will go straight to video in the US. Based on the true story of an Englishman who fell for a Mohawk woman in Canada in the 1930s and became an Indian environmentalist, it cost £20m to make.

Lord Attenborough said Hollywood did not know how to deal with the film. "They say they don't know how to sell it... they mean it doesn't have the supposed prerequisites of commercial success. It does not have a sufficient scale [or] special effects and does not demonstrate either the pornography of violence or sex."

He told Radio 4's Front Row:"I don't mind sex in terms of a movie ... but I don't accept the pornography of violence under any circumstances. If that's a prerequisite to getting a distribution in America, I'll accept the non-distribution."

Grey Owl is released in British cinemas this month.