Roland Emmerich's 2012 may have failed to live up to its apocalyptic promise, but one group are nonetheless not too happy about how it all turned out: The Catholic Church are seeking restitution over the movie's treatment of Jesus.


According to reports, lawyers for the Brazilian Catholic Church are objecting to the treatment of the famous Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro in last year's destructoporn. Attorney Claudine Dutra, speaking on behalf of the church, told reporters that moviemakers were specifically denied permission to show the figure being destroyed by a tidal wave in the movie, but went ahead and did so anyway:

The archdiocese refused the use of the religious symbol during pre-production of the movie, but Columbia Pictures did not respect the prohibition... [M]any faithful have said they are shocked and offended by the images of the destruction of this sanctuary that the archdiocese wanted to preserve. We want Columbia Pictures to publicly declare that it did not intend to cause offense.


A spokesman for Columbia responded that they did have permission... just not from the church:

Acting on a good faith belief that the estate of the sculptor of the statue held the copyright, we sought and received their permission to use the image in the movie... We are currently in discussions with the archdiocese in hopes of reaching an agreement in this matter.

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Talks have been going on between parties since December last year, but an amicable resolution doesn't seem to be on the cards just yet; Dutra is quoted as saying "We are at the start of negotiations and don't know the amount of damages we are looking at." Maybe they should just ask themselves what Jesus would do.

Church sues Hollywood for using Rio's Christ statue in movie [Yahoo], Lawyer: Studio must pay for destroying Jesus Christ [The Hollywood Reporter]