Sean Penn and Javier Bardem movie blocked by Barcelona bullfight ban

Javier Bardem and Sean Penn have been in Barcelona filming their new movie, "The Gunman," for most of July. However, they have run into a problem filming the bullfighting scene, due to the Catalan ban on the sport.

The film is being produced by French director Pierre Morel, well known for the action movies "The Transporter" and "Taken."

Morel ran into a problem while filming the latest film "The Gunman", which is set partly in Barcelona. The city's Town Hall stopped him from staging the bullfight scene in Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring, saying it would go against animal right laws recently introduced in the region.

Film producer Adrián Guerra told Catalan daily El Periódico, “The scene wasn’t actually going to take place on the arena."

“All we wanted to film were a few bullfighting passes with the cape in the streets and the bullpens, not to actually fight the animals,” he added. 

However Barcelona's Town Hall wishes to disassociate the Catalan capital from Spain’s image of a bullfight-loving society.

It now seems that Morel will get around the problem by using oxen in the scene rather than bulls. His team will have to use computer-generated imagery to make the oxen resemble Lidia bulls on screen.

The bullfighting ban in the Catalunya region was passed in Parliament in 2012 and was supported by animal rights groups, but was opposed by detractors who claimed the practice was “an asset of cultural interest.” 

The video below shows scenes of the filming in Barcelona.

The film is an adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchete's 1981 war novel, "The Prone Gunman."

The plot of the movie is an international spy must clear his name in order to save himself from the organization that he used to work for. Main stars: Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn.



To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355441