‘Blade Runner Killer’ film draws heat
TOMORROW, South Africans can tune in to a Lifetime movie depicting the trial of the century. While Oscar Pistorius sits in his jail cell on Saturday, thousands of South Africans will be watching the movie which tells the story of the rise and fall of the Paralympian.
Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer will air on Lifetime (DStv channel 131) on November 18 at 8pm.
Written by Amber Benson, directed by Norman Stone and co-produced by ThinkFactory Media, the made-for-TV movie is based on public records.
It stars Andreas Damm, a South African actor, as Pistorius and Toni Garrn as Reeva Steenkamp. Garnn once dated Leonardo DiCaprio.
Pistorius earned worldwide fame after reaching the semi-finals of the 400m during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The following year, on Valentine’s Day, the double amputee shot and killed his girlfriend – Steenkamp – at his home in Pretoria. Steenkamp was a model and law graduate. The Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer film focuses on the trial of the disgraced Paralympian, who is serving a six-year sentence for shooting Steenkamp through a bathroom door, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.
The movie also looks at Pistorius’s resilience in overcoming his disability, combined with his apparent fairy-tale relationship with model Steenkamp.
According to the Mirror, an overseas publication, the family of the murdered Steenkamp have been left outraged after the controversial movie about her murder aired in the US.
“They are horrified and upset to have read a report that said the movie is told from Steenkamp and her mother, June’s, perspective.
“Any impression that this is June’s (Steenkamp) view and that the movie is endorsed by the Steenkamp family is untrue and incorrect,” a statement from the family read.
Reeva’s sister, Simone, dismissed the movie as “a money-making exercise and very wishy-washy”.
The Pistorius family said they would be taking legal action against the film’s makers.
The film was produced by Eric Tomosunas and Swirl Films for Thinkfactory Media and executiveproduced by Leslie Greif.
Last week prosecutors sought to have Pistorius’s prison sentence reviewed.
They urged five judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn the six-year sentence handed to the double-amputee athlete and give him the prescribed minimum of 15 years.
“Murder is murder,” said chief prosecutor Andrea Johnson, adding that the sentence given to Pistorius by Judge Thokozile Masipa in 2015 was “shockingly lenient”.
If the Supreme Court agrees, Pistorius, now 30, could remain in prison until he is in his forties.
● Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer will air on Lifetime (DStv channel 131) on November 18 at 8pm.
They are horrified and upset The Steenkamp family reaction to the airing of Blade Runner Killer