The Movie: "The Grey". Wolfwatcher has an Insider's Look!

Co-President Dave Hornoff received an advance screening of the movie, “The Grey,” as we were attempting to work with Open Road Films’ VP of Publicity Liz Biber, hoping to attach true scientific  education to the film.

After viewing the film and realizing it was far worse than could be imagined, our concerns and suggestions were then ignored.  Our concerns are the negative message attached to wolves . while Open Road Films  is  all about the box office.  The breakdown was inevitable.

We are offering an education based Take Action for the opening of the movie The Grey. We have been in contact with Open Road Films VP of Publicity Liz Biber over the past couple weeks. We made several attempts to use this opportunity and promote real wolf behavior and dub this film as pure fantasy. Biber originally was on board and even sent a copy of the film to Co-President Dave Hornoff to review. Needless to say the movie was far worse than all expectations, and when we insisted on certain things that needed to be done for us to remain involved the brief relationship to do the right thing disintegrated . We were certainly not going to remain on board under conditions that appeared to us to be  strictly promoting the movie.

Plans originally had Board Member and WCC Managing Director Maggie Howell, along with Ambassador Wolf Atka, of the Wolf Conservation Center appearing on media outlets including the Weather Channel, and others. We were quite insistent that Maggie and Atka had the opportunity to dispel the gruesome behavior of wolves displayed over and over in this film.

We parted ways, and shortly thereafter stories appeared where the actors actually ate a wolf (as discussed on Jimmy Kimmel Live):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CPXyAFXxk

This information grew even more disturbing with reports surfacing that the director Joe Carnahan contacted a trapper for four wolves, two of which were eaten by the actors, and two more used on the set. Dave inquired with no response if one of the dead wolves supplied by the trapper was used in the scene by the actors where the head was cut off and tossed into the field.

Dave Hornoff not only found the film disturbing but the subsequent information makes this film one of the worst of it’s kind. Even the lead actor Lliam Neeson described eating the wolf “jerky” as tasty. He was quoted as saying that he was Irish and has eaten a lot of bad stew, and just throw some potatoes and onions in it and he could eat it all day long.

Most recently in the LA Times, Defenders of Wildlife criticized the film briefly in regards to OR-7, better known now as Journey, the wolf that crossed into California looking for a mate. To show you how out of touch Liz Biber is with reality she actually asked Dave for a wolf to walk the LA Premiere on January 11th, and specifically asked if Journey could be that wolf.

This film comes out at the worst of times, when wolves are literally fighting for their lives. Currently Wyoming is considering their Wolf Management Plan and they are pushing a shoot on sight policy. Well, in the movie one of the actors is wearing a Wyoming hat with two bold letters WY on the front. This was mentioned to Biber yet she took the information and tried to turn it around and supply Carnahan with it so as to deflect. Our motivation is wolves and wildlife. Obviously theirs is  focused mainly on the box office.

The film is short in dialogue, and what dialogue there is about wolves is for the most part erroneous. Director Carnahan comments in the LA Times about how he didn’t want the wolves to look like killers, yet says why have a problem with it, if it was a football game the wolves would have won 41 to 3 and laughs. Real funny Joe. So why don’t you talk more about the trapping and brutal killing of four wolves that went into making this film? We all need to look for that disclaimer but no wait a minute. Sorry we can’t do that because we aren’t going to watch it!

Several groups are advocating boycotting the movie. Some may carry pickets, others may send the message on outlets such as facebook. We chose to run this story and also  follow up stories in media  outlets . One such story was carried recently in the New York Post. We hope to reach the millions  of potential movie goers that may not even know about the wolf issues, and perhaps think  again before considering buying a ticket. And if they do go to the movie, just realize that the movie is NOT based on real facts about wolves, and we are here to answer their questions. Dave said that he also tried watching the film as an ordinary movie goer, and because of the crude language, the gore, and the real lack of a story line other than plane crashes, survivors trek the Tundra, wolves stalking and killing each and every one of the survivors as if they were bloodthirsty velociraptors in Jurassic Park, he found it somewhat difficult and disturbing.

Here is what we would like everyone to do. Follow the two links below, or copy and paste them in your browser. Print the first file and then print the second one on the back of the first file to make one nice and informative flyer. This Friday when the movie “The Grey” opens visit your local theater and distribute the educational flyers. By all means go as many times as you can and enlist others to help do the same. Getting our message out there is paramount in educating people about true wolf behavior and an opportunity to enlist them in this battle for wolves. And maybe, just maybe they will have a change of heart and go see the movie, “We bought a Zoo” instead!

Below are the two documents to use:

THE GREY Side One

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7xYnjjogLTJMWRkOWM5NjAtNDQxMi00YzZlLWEyZDQtNzA5NGUzMGFiODBk&hl=en_US

THE GREY Side Two

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7xYnjjogLTJNGIwMzZhN2YtNjI0MC00MGZhLWFjMGItNDI0NDFhNGE1ZDU5

National Wolfwatcher Coalition                

Understand, Love, Protect