Participants from Newtown, Connecticut, wearing the green and white colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School where 26 children and adults were killed in a mass shooting in December, sit in the front rows during the March on Washington for Gun Control on the National Mall in Washington, January 26, 2013.
Less than two months after the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a director is hoping to film a made-for-TV movie related to the shooting just 20 miles away from Newtown in Ridgefield, Conn.
According to the movie’s Indiegogo fundraising page, the film, titled Illness, is about a “thirteen-year-old boy with a terrible mental illness, and the ever-growing fear of his parents after they learn about the shooting in Newtown in December 2012.”
Bucari insists that the movie isn’t about Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old gunman who killed 20 children, seven adults and finally himself in Newtown on Dec. 14. According to NBC Connecticut, a comment from producers was posted on the film’s Facebook page after it began to receive media attention:
(PHOTOS: The Story Behind the Iconic Photograph from Sandy Hook)
“Dear friends, after yesterday’s report about the film, I would like to clarify one very important point. We are not doing a movie about what happened in Newtown and will never do so. We are doing a non-profit film about mental illness. Our objective is to help families with kids struggling with mental illness. I thank you again for all your support.”
The page was not accessible Tuesday, and appears to have been deleted.
Though Bucari maintains the film is solely about mental illness, he told News 12 Connecticut that he chose Ridgefield because it had the same look and feel as the community rocked by the tragedy. He didn’t want to film in Newtown, he said, because it would upset residents.
As it turns out, the project has still outraged members of both communities. Ridgefield officials told Newtown Patch that they would not approve its filming, and that they were never contacted for permission. Ridgefield film commissioner Allison Stockel said she received 25 phone calls from community members upset with the project.
“If it’s about Newtown,” Stockel said, “People here don’t want a film on this, now or ever.”
MORE: Trying to Make Sense of Tragedy: Why the Sandy Hook Shooting Is So Painful for All of Us