Adi Shankar has had to deal with a lot of challenges in his career, but it’s doubtful that he ever thought he’d have to make an announcement about reshooting one of his biggest projects because someone was indicted on charges of child pornography.
As much of a bummer as this is, I’m still really happy to see Shankar is moving forward, and extremely impressed that he’s bankrolling the reshoots himself. Between the work he’s done on his bootleg universe, as well as films ranging from The Grey and Dredd, to dark comedies like The Voices starring Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds, I’ve been excited about this series (almost as much as I’ve been excited about his upcoming Castlevania animated series). A lesser professional would have just shelved the project.
Dear Fellow Human,
“Adi Shankar’s Gods and Secrets” will be moving forward without Mark Salling. He has been cut from the mini-series, I will personally be paying for the reshoots, and I hope that Mark finds inner peace. Furthermore, a percentage of profits from the project will go to a charity for abused children. Hopefully some good will come of all of this and I pray that when the dust has settled, the hyper-connectivity of the information age that has brought to light the transgressions of several public figures, will also force us to look within our society to identify and eliminate the root cause of the rape culture we exist in.
The innocence of our planet’s children is something that must be protected at all costs. As entertainers, our role is to be the “conscience of humanity,” striving to make the world better for future generations. Sadly, we live in a country where statistically at least 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, 80,000 children are reportedly sexually abused every year, and at least 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18. Even more troubling, exponentially more cases go unreported as in most situations, authority figures are ill equipped to help. Every two minutes, an American is sexually assaulted.
The aforementioned statistics are nauseating, reminiscent of a third world country, and until very recently, kept out of the limelight. Child abuse is a cultural cancer whose tentacles penetrate far deeper than a single celebrity caught with illicit images on his computer, just as date rape is a is a far more prominent issue than the repeated transgressions of one mediocre entertainer from the 1970’s. Child abuse is a democratic disease existing across socioeconomic lines affecting every walk of life. It affects all of us, and more importantly, its existence needs to cece to exist. Period.
Yours,
Adi Shankar