Buscemi brings 'Interview,' based on film by slain director van Gogh, to Berlin festival

American actor and director Steve Buscemi brought his film "Interview," based on a movie by slain Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, to the Berlin film festival on Wednesday, but insisted it was not intended as a political statement.

Photo: Buscemi brings 'Interview,' based on film by slain director van Gogh, to Berlin festival

"Interview" is the first of three English-language remakes, each by different directors, of a Dutch-language trilogy by van Gogh.

Buscemi both directed "Interview" and plays the lead role as a fading war reporter forced to interview a soap star, played by Sienna Miller, after having an argument with his editor.

He said he was not intending to make a political statement by doing the remake, which festival organizers said van Gogh had initially intended to do himself. In 2004, however,van Gogh was stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street by an Dutch-born Islamic radical of Moroccan ancestry angered by how the director had depicted Islam in his film "Submission."

"I don't make political statements," Buscemi told reporters. "I understand it is an 'hommage' to Theo, but I couldn't have made this film if I didn't like his work."

Buscemi also dismissed a question about reports that he had received death threats, reports AP.

"I did not get any death threats during the making of this film, before the film or after the film," Buscemi said.