Richard Gere is at odds with filmmaker Richard Shepard over the violent content of harrowing new movie, The Hunting Party, in which he stars.
Buddhist Gere, who plays a TV reporter seeking justice in post-war Bosnia, has criticised the film's violent ending which sees journalists exacting their own revenge on a war lord.
The actor admits he "debated" the subject "endlessly" with his director, telling him: "It's not an appropriate message. It's cheap."
But Shepard refused to change it. "We both hoped it would go away, but every time, it kept coming back," the actor was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. "And finally Richard said to me, 'Look, I wish I could please you, but the truth is, I like it the way it is, and I don't know what else to do about it.' "
Shepard confirmed: "His political beliefs didn't coalesce with what I was trying to say but I think that's OK. I've worked with actors who are complaining about things that have nothing to do with what the movie is about. But if you're going to have a discussion about something that is intrinsically going to help or hurt the movie, that's a good thing."