The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Auschwitz Museum upset at scene in Amazon series ‘Hunters’
WARSAW, POLAND » The museum of the Nazi German Auschwitz death camp is objecting to a scene in a new Amazon TV series that shows a murderous game of human chess being played there, insisting that no such thing took place at the camp.
The museum that guards the Auschwitz-Birkenau site in southern Poland, its historic facts and the memory of the victims tweeted about the scene in Amazon’s series “Hunters.” It said inventing fake scenes is “dangerous foolishness and caricature,” encourages Holocaust deniers and is disrespectful of the camp’s more than 1 million victims. Most of the victims were Europe’s Jews. They died in the camp’s gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor.
Museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki said Monday that authors and artists have a special obligation to tell the truth about Auschwitz, and that the “Hunters” authors did not contact the museum for facts.
Box office goes ‘Sonic’ again but hears ‘Call of the Wild’
LOS ANGELES » The hedgehog edged the sled dog by a nose at the box office.
“Sonic: The Hedgehog” zoomed to the top of the box office with a take of $26.3 million in its second weekend, while audiences ignored critics and heeded “The Call of the Wild” as the Harrison Ford CGI dog flick finished a close second with $24.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was a strong weekend for both films, with each outperforming expectations and overcoming early doubts about design problems.
Paramount Pictures’ Sega video game adaptation “Sonic the Hedgehog” was a laughingstock when its first trailer was released last year, but after a delay and a title-character makeover, the film has now spent two weeks atop the box office and brought in more than $200 million globally.
20th Century Studios’ “The Call of the Wild” was also mocked by many on social media for its CGI dog and reviews were decidedly mixed with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 62 percent.