The Kite Runner.

"The studio distributing The Kite Runner, a tale of childhood betrayal, sexual predation and ethnic tension in Afghanistan, is delaying the film's release to get its three schoolboy stars out of Kabul - perhaps permanently - in response to fears that they could be attacked for their enactment of a culturally inflammatory rape scene." David M Halbfinger reports for the New York Times.

Robert Cashill's seen the film, though: "Marc Forster, a flashy faux arthouse style director I have rarely liked (Finding Neverland and Stay being prime offenders on his resume), who raised red flags on this blog as the director of the next Bond picture, reigns himself in at the helm. This is the kind of cross-worlds, time-spanning saga that Mira Nair (The Namesake) does better than anyone, and Forster offers a suitable approximation.... I assume some of the creaky contrivances that reduce much of the second half of The Kite Runner to melodrama come straight from the source."

Updated through 10/6.

Updates, 10/6: "With careful nurturing, helmer Marc Forster's richly detailed screen translation of Khaled Hosseini's beloved bestseller should reach beyond the book's many fans," writes Alissa Simon for Variety.

"Paramount's own consultant concurs that the filmmakers walked into this situation naively at best," notes Kim Masters in Slate. "It's ironic. The Kite Runner, which takes children in peril as such a major theme, has ended up creating exactly the sort of situation lamented in its pages."

Posted by dwhudson at October 4, 2007 2:54 PM