Going Clear director says Scientology threatened 'every distributor, every film festival'

Alex Gibney's expose on controversial religion Scientology, Going Clear, has been the subject of a PR war with the church.

A few months ago, entertainment.ie and several of our staff members received e-mails from representatives of the Church of Scientology taking umbrage over our coverage of Going Clear and of the topic of Scientology as a whole.

It seems we weren't the only one.

Sky Atlantic was originally scheduled to show Going Clear on Irish televisions in April of this year, however the broadcast was "postponed" by Sky due to a legal challenge by the Church.

In a recent interview, Alex Gibney said that Ireland "has some pretty bad laws if you're thinking about a free press."

He went on, explaining that "every step of the way, every distributor, every festival has received multiple threatening letters from the Church of Scientology."

The film opened internationally this week in several markets, however it's not yet known if Going Clear will be screened in Irish cinemas.

Ireland's restrictive blasphemy laws could be mean that the film will never be shown in Ireland via traditional methods.

Have you seen Going Clear? What did you think?

Via THR.com