20th Century Fox has been forced to publicly deny a very strange rumor that is making the rounds on the Internet claiming Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is raped by a bear in his upcoming movie, The Revenant.
The Drudge Report recently posted an article about the Oscar-touted western directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. In the report, it was said the film includes “a shocking scene of a wild bear raping Leo DiCaprio ,” stating that this scene had caused some controversy at early screenings of the upcoming western movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio ‘raped by a bear TWICE in his new film The Revenant’ https://t.co/5qaps5hlar pic.twitter.com/nHyBOkRjOd
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) December 1, 2015
The report continued saying, “The bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling.”
“He is raped – twice!”
However, the studio has now made it clear to the media that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the film is merely brutally assaulted by the bear.
The fact that the rumor is not true has now been verified by film journalists working for the Guardian , who have already viewed Iñárritu’s movie .
In a statement reported by Entertainment Weekly, a Fox spokesperson said there is clearly no rape scene with a bear in the film, and “as anyone who has seen the film can attest, the bear in the film is a female who attacks Hugh Glass because she feels he might be threatening her cubs.”
Never mind Leonardo DiCaprio: has anyone ever been ‘raped’ by a bear? https://t.co/eDK4UhDwcq pic.twitter.com/y8D1PJz7EI
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 2, 2015
While The Revenant is already being considered a front-runner for the Oscars next year, with Leonardo DiCaprio a favorite to receive his first Oscar, some observers in Hollywood have been questioning whether the film might be too violent for the Oscar voters. This is the reason the studio was so quick to deny the “bear rape” claim by the Drudge Report. 20th Century Fox did their best to ease any apprehension the public might have about viewing The Revenant.
Other reports going back to July of this year have raised even more controversy, forcing Iñárritu to defend the shoot of the film. Some reports claim the filming descended into a “living hell” for the actors, with some of them exposed to freezing temperatures, while many crew members had reportedly quit under the brutal conditions experienced during the shoot.
The Guardian also quotes a veteran film blogger, Jeffrey Wells, as saying the film would be unsuitable for female audiences, due to its “unflinchingly brutal nature.”
Bear accused of assaulting Leonardo DiCaprio in the #Revenant rape trial cleared of all charges. pic.twitter.com/fynbyq7kPG
— Marshall Julius (@MarshallJulius) December 3, 2015
The Revenant features Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Hugh Glass, as a frontiersman out in the woods, where he confronts the bear and her cubs. While the bear attack is pretty brutal, it definitely does not involve rape, despite any claims to the contrary by The Drudge Report .
That particular scene has been utilized heavily in the marketing campaign for the film and can be seen in the video trailer below at around the 49-second mark.
The Revenant , which is described by Fox as an “immersive and visceral cinematic experience based on true events,” is set to debut in a limited release in the US theaters on Christmas Day, along with another controversial film, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
Reports have suggested that the latter movie could also be deemed too violent for Academy voters. Also a western, the film stars Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Lee.
However according to reports, it is more the controversy surrounding Tarantino himself that is causing the problems due to his ongoing feud with the police and the conservative media following his comments about alleged police brutality in the US.
On October 24, 2015, just two days after an NYPD officer was killed chasing a suspect, Tarantino attended the #RiseUpOctober Rally “To STOP Police Terror & Murder,” where he made the following remark, according to an AP report on the New York Times website.
“I’m a human being with a conscience. And if you believe there’s murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.”
[Photo screen capture of The Revenant trailer via YouTube ]