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John and the makers of "Rocketman," which
depicts the warts-and-all rise to fame of the gay British
musician, issued a statement after Russian media reported that
scenes involving gay sex and drug taking had been cut from a
screening in Russia.
"We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to
pander to local laws and censor 'Rocketman' for the Russian
market," John and the filmmakers said.
"That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes,
denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was
intended, is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live
in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love
between two people," their statement added.
The English-language Moscow Times on Friday quoted a Russian
film critic who had seen the film at its May 16 world premiere
in Cannes as saying that several scenes, totaling about 5
minutes, had disappeared from the Russian version.
They include a male sex scene featuring actor Taron Egerton, who
plays John, and a photograph during the closing credits in which
the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" singer is pictured with his
real-life husband David Furnish, who was a producer on the film,
film critic Yegor Moskvitin was quoted as saying.
The movie, which has won warm reviews, began its worldwide
rollout earlier this week.
John, 72, a prominent gay rights campaigner, has previously
spoken out against a 2013 law banning the dissemination of "gay
propaganda" among young Russians.
In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be
willing to meet with John. Although the singer played a concert
in Moscow in May 2016, no meeting with Putin took place.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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