As we reported yesterday, Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on Saturday, under an arrest warrant issued by the US to get him to return to America after he fled the country following his conviction on statutory rape charges in 1977.
At the time of his arrest, Polanski was finishing post-production on his new film, The Ghost, an adaptation of Robert Harris' novel about a ghostwrited hired to to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, whose life is put in jeopardy after he uncovers dangerous secrets. Of course, with him now in custody and his lawyer saying he'll fight extradition to the US, the film has been put into limbo, with much of the editing done, but things like music scoring and sound mixing yet to be completed.
According to THR, It looks like the film will be put on hold until the outcome of the extradition fight is known, which could take several months. If Polanski wins his battle, he will return to France and finish the film, although of course if he gets sent back to the States, the likelihood is that he'll be locked up until a decision is made on what to do about the 1977 conviction (although there's no argument that he did it, there's a chance the charges could be dropped because of the conduct of the judge), which would mean the film would have to be completed without his input.
However while everyone from the French and Polish government, to film figures like Harvey Weinstein, Wong War Wai, Walter Salles, Monca Bellucci and various others have all come out in support of the filmmaker, it is odd that no one seems to be concerned that despite prosecutorial misconduct and tragedies like the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, he did rape a 13-year-old during a photoshoot and then fled the US rather than answer to his crime. It's difficult to imagine all these people coming out in support of any other convicted pedophile. Is making great movies enough to mitigate any past actions, no matter how distasteful?