Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman follow-up The Revenant is being driven by hype thanks to the legendary mystery of it all. We know that the film was produced in a near-impossible shoot in the frozen Alberta wilderness, that it's a merciless 156 minutes long, and that it's a viciously violent film. Now, some people are reporting that it sees Leonardo DiCaprio's character get raped. By a bear. Twice.
The supposed news set the Internet aflame after it was first reported by the right-wing news tabloid The Drudge Report. The site correctly does report that there's a brutal and visceral battle between Leo and a giant bear, but adds the strange idea that he's apparently raped by the beast.
"The bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling," the report reads.
The strange report has got the entire web talking about Leo's alleged rape scene in The Revenant. Unfortunately (perhaps it's more accurate to say fortunately), the report doesn't appear to be true.
We haven't yet seen The Revenant, but Brian Abrams at Death + Taxes has. In a blog post, he goes into detail with explaining the bear attack scene, and explains that while it's impossibly realistic and hard to stomach, there's nothing that resembles bear-on-man sexual assault. Read the post here if you need more proof, but know that there are some spoilers involved.
We're not sure exactly why The Drudge Report would feel compelled to make this story up, but one thing's for certain: We're in for one hell of a weird awards season.
UPDATE (12/02 11:30 A.M.): Incredibly, the rumour got so out of hand that a representative from Fox was forced to make a statement to Entertainment Weekly. "As anyone who has seen the movie can attest, the bear in the film is a female who attacks Hugh Glass because she feels he might be threatening her cubs," the spokesperson said. "There is clearly no rape scene with a bear."
The supposed news set the Internet aflame after it was first reported by the right-wing news tabloid The Drudge Report. The site correctly does report that there's a brutal and visceral battle between Leo and a giant bear, but adds the strange idea that he's apparently raped by the beast.
"The bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling," the report reads.
The strange report has got the entire web talking about Leo's alleged rape scene in The Revenant. Unfortunately (perhaps it's more accurate to say fortunately), the report doesn't appear to be true.
We haven't yet seen The Revenant, but Brian Abrams at Death + Taxes has. In a blog post, he goes into detail with explaining the bear attack scene, and explains that while it's impossibly realistic and hard to stomach, there's nothing that resembles bear-on-man sexual assault. Read the post here if you need more proof, but know that there are some spoilers involved.
We're not sure exactly why The Drudge Report would feel compelled to make this story up, but one thing's for certain: We're in for one hell of a weird awards season.
UPDATE (12/02 11:30 A.M.): Incredibly, the rumour got so out of hand that a representative from Fox was forced to make a statement to Entertainment Weekly. "As anyone who has seen the movie can attest, the bear in the film is a female who attacks Hugh Glass because she feels he might be threatening her cubs," the spokesperson said. "There is clearly no rape scene with a bear."
