Hollywood stars invoke 'Oppenheimer' in anti-nukes campaign ahead of
Oscars
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[March 07, 2024]
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S.-based disarmament organization has seized
on public attention surrounding the Academy Awards-nominated film
"Oppenheimer" and enlisted support from Hollywood stars for a pre-Oscars
campaign calling for a global end to nuclear weapons.
The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a non-profit think
tank, kicked off the effort on Wednesday with an open letter signed by
an array of celebrities and activists and posted on the website
www.makenukeshistory.org.
The same letter, which states: "These weapons of war must be abolished
before they abolish us," is to be published as a full-page advertisement
on Thursday in the Los Angeles Times.
It cites the anti-war themes raised by "Oppenheimer," the Christopher
Nolan-directed bio-pic about theoretical physicist J. Robert
Oppenheimer, who led the U.S. development of the first atomic bomb
during World War II and went on to warn of its threat to humanity.
"As artists and advocates, we want to raise our voices to remind people
that while Oppenheimer is history, nuclear weapons are not," the letter
says.
The total stockpile of nuclear weapons worldwide consists of more than
13,000 warheads controlled by nine countries, some of them 80 times more
powerful than those dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in 1945, according to NTI and the letter.
Among the letter's signatories are such screen stars as Jane Fonda,
Michael Douglas, Viggo Mortensen, Emma Thompson, Ellen Burstyn and Lily
Tomlin, and recording artists such as Annie Lennox, Graham Nash and
Jackson Browne.
Others include PBS children's science television host Bill Nye "The
Science Guy" and Oppenheimer's grandson, Charles Oppenheimer.
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Cast members Trond Fausa Aurvag, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr.,
Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Jason Clarke, Director Christopher
Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas, and Producer Charles Roven pose
during a photocall before the premiere of the film "Oppenheimer" at
the Grand Rex in Paris, France, July 11, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah
Meyssonnier
The campaign also encompasses
several billboards expected to go up around Los Angeles on
Wednesday, videos on social media and an art installation opening on
Friday at a popular shopping and restaurant complex, organizers
said.
NTI organizers said the effort was timed to leverage attention
garnered by "Oppenheimer," which was nominated for 13 Oscars,
including the award for best picture, in the days leading up to the
Academy Awards presentation on Sunday.
Voting by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
ended on Feb. 27.
The campaign also comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin
explicitly raised the specter of nuclear war with the West, saying
in a speech to Russian lawmakers that NATO countries risk provoking
such a confrontation if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine.
NTI was co-founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, a
leading expert on national defense, and onetime media mogul turned
philanthropist Ted Turner.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry)
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