The Kremlin is unaware of the situation with the failure of US movie Hunter Killer about the rescue of Russian president by US servicemen to receive a distribution license, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2018) The Kremlin is unaware of the situation with the failure of US movie Hunter Killer about the rescue of Russian president by US servicemen to receive a distribution license, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
On Thursday, the Film Distributor's Bulletin reported, citing the distributor's letter, that the movie, which was scheduled to be released in Russia on Thursday, did not receive a distribution license.
"You should better ask the Culture Ministry. I am sure that the Culture Ministry will answer this question, as it is in charge for issuing distribution licenses. We do not know what kind of movie it is," Peskov said.
The Culture Ministry's press service said in a statement that the movie had failed to receive a license, as its first copy, which distributors must submit to Russian state cinema archive Gosfilmofond by law, was of a bad quality, and the other one was submitted as late as on Tuesday.
"The distribution license for the Hunter Killer movie has not been issued due to the lack of a mark confirming the delivery of a movie copy for permanent storage to the Russian state cinema archive Gosfilmofond ... According to our data, the company handed over a hard disk drive with the movie to the Gosfilmofond on September 24, but the copy was of bad quality. The second hard drive was submitted to the Gosfilmofond as late as on October 30, that is, in fact, just before the release date. It is obvious that in such a short time the Gosfilmofond could not make a disk check and accept the movie's copy for permanent storage," the ministry said.
The movie's distibutor Megogo Distribution hopes to get a license in the coming hours, but has not yet received an official response from the Culture Ministry, the company's spokesperson told Sputnik.
The distributor apologizes to cinemas and spectators for the whole situation, he added.
The Hunter Killer, directed by Donovan Marsh and starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Alexander Diachenko as Russian President Zakarin, is about a US combat submarine crew taking part in an operation to rescue Russian president kidnapped by rebels. The movie, which has a $40 million budget, grossed $6.65 million in the opening weekend in the United States.
