Borat premiere turns to chaos

The world premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat movie turned to chaos last night when the film jammed, causing the screening to be abandoned.

The 1,000-strong Toronto Film Festival audience jeered and booed when the picture ground to a halt about half an hour into the screening.

Baron Cohen tried to quell their anger, emerging from the stalls in character and trying to entertain the crowd. He was then interviewed on stage by one of the organisers to try to kill time while the projector was fixed.

Director Larry Charles also took to the stage to address the audience, and at one point was joined by Michael Moore, who called out jokingly to an agent: ‘If this doesn't get fixed you're going to get fired, motherfucker.’

But after about an hour of chaos, it became evident that the film would have to be abandoned. As Borat, Baron Cohen told one festival organiser: ‘If you don't give these people money back, I crush you.’

Screening of the film, subtitled Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has been rescheduled for a new venue today.

Reporting the incident, influential Hollywood journal Variety said distributor Fox ‘had a damage control situation on its hands’.

And it said that when the rescheduled date was announced ‘many booed, raising question of what effect the disappointment of a thousand dedicated fans will have on a word-of-mouth picture’.

Before the fiasco, all was looking well. Up to 1,000 fans had filled the Toronto streets chanting ‘Bo-rat’ and waving Kazakh flags, while the character strode down the red carpet accompanied by a horse and cart and women dressed as peasants.

>> One blogger's report on the night
>> Borat's MySpace page

Published: 8 Sep 2006