Director Ruben Fleischer has defended his film 30 Minutes Or Less amid complaints from the family of a man who was killed during a similar crime.
In the film, Jesse Eisenberg's pizza-delivery boy is kidnapped and forced to rob a bank while wearing a bomb strapped to his chest.
That mirrors the real-life case of Brian Wells, a 46-year-old pizza-delivery man who died in 2003 when the bomb around his neck detonated. Wells claimed he had been forced to rob the bank.
Now Wells' family has made it clear they are not happy with 30 Minutes Or Less .
"It's hard for me to grasp how other human beings can take delight and pride in making such a movie and consider it a comedy," Wells' sister Jean Heid told The Associated Press.
"I don't think it's funny to laugh at the innocent who are victimised by criminals, who care nothing for human life."
Fleischer has responded by saying that his movie “doesn't really relate to that story other than the fact that there's a bomb strapped to somebody's chest.”
When asked what interaction he had with the people involved in the real Brian Wells case during the production, Fleischer said, “None.”
“For me the best reference was Fargo . It's another misguided crime plot where somebody comes up with a bad idea and then, as it goes down, it gets worse and worse and spirals out of control and has dire consequences. Ours is definitely a more positive, funny, uplifting version of that,” he told Moviefone.
