Director of Lord of the Rings trilogy Peter Jackson and its script writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have made a statement following Aydın court ruling to assign an expert witness to determine whether “Gollum is evil” in defamation case against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Creators of the movie said, “It is not Gollum but Smeagol in the photos”.
According to news by Entertainment Weekly, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens issued a statement upon the case took place in international media.
The statement said, “If images in question have become subject to Turkish lawsuit, it should be said that none of the photos are images of the character known as Gollum. They are all photos of Smeagol”.
“Smeagol shouldn’t be confused with Gollum”
Walsh who wrote scenes of Gollum and Smeagol stating Smeagol is a very cheerful, sweet character said the following:
“Smeagol doesn’t lie, nor cheat, nor try to manipulate others. He is not evil, coconspirator, nor vindictive. Those are Gollum’s qualities and should never be confused with Smeagol. Smeagol never imagines to manipulat ones weaker than himself by force. He is not a tyrant, but rather full of love. For this reason, people all over the world liked this character”.
What had happened?
A prosecution has been launched against doctor Bilgin Çifti who shared photos Smeagol and President Erdoğan juxtaposed on Facebook. In February, penalty of 20 caveat points was imposed by Aydın Public Health Directorate, but drawn back by Aydın Governorate in July.
Afterwards, Çiftçi was indicted for “defaming public official” by Aydın Chief Public Prosecution and Çiftçi charged with “Publishing or sharing any banned statement, banner, poster or the likes” has been imposed penalty of “discharging from civil service”.
In this trial of Çiftçi also being tried over defaming the President, it was ruled to assign expert witness to determine whether Gollum is evil. (NV/TK)
* In the trilogy, Gollum living in dark and damp caves returns to his former identity, Smeagol as he started a journey with Sam and Frodo. In the movie, we see Gollum’s efforts to repossess Gollum and dialogues between the two.
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