00:00HBO Max is temporarily pulling the Civil War epic Gone with the Wind from its roster of available films.
00:12The move comes as media companies re-examine content in light of nationwide protests over police brutality and systemic racism after the death of George Floyd,
00:20a black Minneapolis man who was killed while in police custody after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck.
00:27Gone with the Wind phase renewed scrutiny for its controversial depiction of black people and its positive view of slavery after 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.
00:38Ridley called on HBO Max to consider removing Gone with the Wind from its platform as the film had its own unique problem, writing,
00:45However, HBO Max has said that it does plan to eventually bring the film back to the service.
01:03In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, an HBO spokesperson said in part,
01:06Gone with the Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.
01:14These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia's values, so when we return the film to HBO Max,
01:20it will return with the discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions.
01:25Released in 1939, the four-hour long Gone with the Wind takes place in the American South on a plantation outside Atlanta in the aftermath of the Civil War
01:34and tells the love story of Southern aristocrats Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, starring Vivian Lee and Clark Gable.
01:40Both the book and film feature black characters who are former slaves who seem content and loyal to their former owners even after the abolition of slavery in the South.
01:49For more updates to this story, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.
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