Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn has come under fire for allegedly killing a pig for his new Netflix series. The Danish-born filmmaker first broke onto the scene in Hollywood with his 2008 film Bronson, starring Tom Hardy as the dangerous criminal known as Charles Bronson, who gained notoriety as the most violent prisoner in Britain. Refn is also known for his various collaborations with Ryan Gosling, including Drive in 2011 and Only God Forgives in 2013.

For an independent film made for only $15 million, Drive has garnered a reputation way beyond its means. The movie was a huge hit at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to be a commercial success, grossing $81 million at the worldwide box office. Drive follows Gosling as a reserved Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. After growing fond of his neighbor (Carey Mulligan), he offers to get her husband (Oscar Issac) out of massive debt by staging a million-dollar heist, which ends up going horribly wrong and risking the lives of everyone involved. The film also stars Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and Albert Brooks.

Now, Nicolas Winding Refn is under fire after allegedly killing a pig during the production of his unnamed Danish Netflix series, according to a press release from PETA. A whistleblower informed the animal rights organization of the alleged incident and the group subsequently sent a letter to Netflix's co-CEO Reed Hastings asking for the specific scene to be cut from the show. Police are currently investigating as Danish Animal Welfare Law prohibits animals from suffering significant discomfort on film sets. Read PETA's statement on the matter below:

Killing a sentient being and exploiting that death for the sake of entertainment is unacceptable and may be illegal. No animal should suffer or die for human entertainment, and PETA is calling on Netflix to leave on the cutting room floor any footage that might glorify this pig’s needless, senseless slaughter.


While Refn's films, especially Drive, have depicted graphic and gruesome violence in past, most would agree that actually harming animals for the sake of entertainment is unacceptable. Part of the appeal of moviemaking is that it is supposed to be make-believe and showing an actual death on-screen goes against that ideal. In the US, movies often receive a "No Animals Were Harmed" disclaimer to assure audiences that all the proper precautions were taken.

Excluding accidental moments such as when Leonardo DiCaprio cut his hand while filming Django Unchained and famously continued on with the scene, a take which made it into the movie, it should never be a filmmaker or performer's objective to purposefully inflict harm or serious injury on humans or animals in order to enhance a scene. Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn does not have a history of harming animals in his past film and TV productions, but it remains to be seen what comes of these recent allegations.