An Italian film showing Jesus Christ drinking Coca-Cola sparked such strong protest from the soft-drinks giant that it blocked the film's Easter weekend premiere, the film makers said.
The film "7 km from Jerusalem" is about an Italian advertising executive who is soul searching after losing his job and marriage. He flies to Jerusalem, where he runs into Jesus.
According to local press reports, he offers the returned Christ a can of Coca-Cola and, seeing Jesus drinking the beverage, thinks: "What a testimonial!"
Apparently Coca-Cola disagreed.
"The multinational's Italian unit sent a legal letter forcing the elimination of the scene in which Jesus drinks the well-known beverage," the producers said on the film's Web site, http://blog.7kmdagerusalemme.it
Italian media reported that the company felt that the use of its brand was unacceptable and could get the company a bad image.
The director, Claudio Malaponti, said that if further talks were unsuccessful, the scene would indeed be cut.
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