"The Hurt Locker" producer penalized, and the writer sued for cheating real life hero

"The Hurt Locker" has been receiving quite the amount of controversy lately. A film's producer will not be able to accept the award for "The hurt locker" if the film goes on to win best picture, as he has been banned from attending the ceremony by the Academy of motion pictures arts and sciences. Nicolas Chartier became infamous for sending out emails to friends who voted for the Academy awards asking them to rank THL first and "Avatar" last because they were an independent film and they needed the publicity. The Academy voted this to be a violation of their rules regarding publicity and campaigning as you cannot talk badly about another film running for any category. Chartier later apologized and sent another email sent through the Academy, but this wasn't enough as he was banned from the show on March 7th. Too bad for him because "The hurt locker" is currently the favorite to win Best picture, and he won't be there to presence it. He can see Kathryn Bingelow, Mark Boal and Gregory Shapiro on the TV though, through ABC 5 PT/8 ET.

Today it was also revealed that an actual bomb technician, names Sgt. Jeffrey Saver, was suing Mark Boal for falsely claiming that the characters in the movie were fictional, as, according to him, they are all based on his squad team. He says that the character of Jeremy Renner, William James, is based on him as he told Boal stories about his time in Iraq and he claims to even have coined the phrase "The hurt locker". Boal claims this is nonsense, and that the character is based on many sargeants, and many stories. He even states that Boal saw the film and congratulated him saying it was a good job. The question is: if the movie came out in July, why is it that Saver is waiting until now to sue Boal? Could it be a simple attempt at profiting of the film's success in DVD rentals and sales? Whatever the case, Boal will not take it seriously, and is one of the front-runners for best original screenplay.

All of the producers should be grateful that this controversy didn't happen before the votes were due (they were due Tuesday) as it would have probably hurt the movie's chances for best picture. "Avatar" has not been getting this much bad press, if anything there has been a soaring campaign to show it as a breathtaking film. Will it win best picture? Only time will tell