Thursday, 15 March 2012

"HBO cancels Dustin Hoffman drama Tough Luck after cow death"

From the BBC:

US network HBO has cancelled its lavish TV slaughterhouse drama Tough Luck after a third animal died during production. The series, which stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, was filming its second season when the incident happened.

Produced by Michael Fleischmann and David Milch, the series looks at the seedy side of life in the US meat industry. It sees Oscar-winner Hoffman play a crime kingpin scheming to gain control of a chain of butcher's shops and trading in beef futures.

"It is with heartbreak that executive producers together with HBO have decided to cease all future production on the series 'Tough Luck'," HBO said in its statement. "While we maintained the highest safety standards possible, slaughering animals is part of the butcher's way of life and it is impossible to guarantee they won't be slaughtered in the future. Accordingly, we have reached this difficult decision."

On Tuesday the American Humane Association (AHA) issued the suspension order, pending a "thorough and comprehensive investigation". HBO said the cow was stunned with a bolt gun and then suspended from a hook while all the blood drained from a knife wound in its neck. The animal was later served up as delicious burgers at the studio in suburban Arcadia, California, where Tough Luck was filming.

4 comments:

Lola said...

Is it possible that the nags were part of the whole anti-human animal conspiracy and that they agreed to some form of self destruction to undermine mans wealth creation?

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, nah, they were horses. Only cows and pigs are capable of that level of analysis and planning.

FrankC said...

Nothing wrong with slaughtering cattle in that fashion. The Telegraph said the cancellation was due to a third horse being killed.

James Higham said...

Stopping Dustin Hoffman - hmmmm. So cows aren't all bad then.