I just heard from a contact who knows his way around that studio who saw my recent post about the anonymous warning that Darwinists might sue the makers of the Ben Stein Expelled film. The film does not flatter them, and perhaps they’d want to at least stop it from opening on Darwin’s birthday next February. Said studio rat writes,
Not only would any lawsuit be a waste of time, but there was nothing unethical about how they obtained interviews from what I’ve heard. In some cases, namely Richard Dawkins but a number of others as well, the interviewee saw the questions prior to the interview and it was very clear what the subject matter was about. Interviewees were told that the working title was Crossroads, which it was for a while (remember some interviews happened more than a year ago). It’s not uncommon for a movie to have one or even a few working titles while it is being produced.
At the end of each interview the interviewees were asked to sign a release form. If they didn’t like how the interview had gone it seems that would have been the time to say ‘no, I won’t sign that’ which would have protected them from being included in the film.
He wonders how likely it is that Richard Dawkins or PZ Myers said anything that they haven’t said or written publicly before.
Not likely.
Is anyone other than the Pharyngulite complaining? Funny, I would have thought that the Prophet of the Pharyngula would be too busy with other legal matters.
Anyway, Ratsy says he was kind of expecting the Darwoids to make these noises because they don’t have many other options. The picture ain’t pretty, apparently, but it isn’t illegal either. I’m waiting to see if Premise Media wants to issue a statement. Might clear the air a bit.
Update: Here’s a podcast with the executive producer of Expelled, Walt Ruloff.
Ruloff gives a brief overview of Expelled, explains how he came to spend over two years making the film, talks about intelligent design as a disruptive technology compared to dogmatic Darwinian evolution, and tells how the film will show that Darwinian evolution is a science stopper. Rather than get mired in the politics of the debate, Ruloff explains that Expelled gets to “where the rubber meets the road, where the science is being done.”