YouTube Will Donate To Slain Journalist’s Foundation After Its ‘Viper Club’ Film Is Met With Controversy

YouTube will donate $40,000 and half of its proceeds from the theatrical run of Viper Club to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation after claims from Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, that the film uses her life story without her permission.

In the film, which is the first YouTube-produced picture to get a theatrical run, Susan Sarandon plays an emergency room nurse whose son, Andy (Julian Morris), is abducted by Islamic extremists while reporting in Syria, and is killed despite his mother’s efforts to save him. Like Sarandon’s character, Diane is a nurse, and James was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. He was later killed on camera.

When Diane’s objections surfaced last month, Maryam Keshavarz, the film’s director, said that James’ story was one of the inspirations for Viper Club, but that it was not directly based upon Diane and James’ lives, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Along with the donation, YouTube has also re-edited key parts of the film. In one of Viper Club’s most significant departures from Diane and James’ real lives, Sarandon’s character taps a network of journalists to help raise ransom money to free her son. Diane said it was “dangerous” to show journalists engaging in ransom-raising and bringing money into tumultuous foreign countries.

“In consultation with Diane and the board of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, we have chosen to adjust the film to better reflect the everyday realities for conflict journalists, their families and the incredible risks they undertake to tell important stories from some of the most dangerous places in the world,” YouTube told The Hollywood Reporter.

“They all were truly engaging and very concerned that the film not put anybody at risk,” Foley said of YouTube. “I just feel much better about the film and am very grateful that they were willing to listen. They were very cooperative, which was very helpful — healing, if you will.”

When Viper Club opens in theaters this Friday, it will include a dedication to James, as well as three other fellow journalists who have been kidnapped in the line of duty: Peter Kassig, Luke Somers, and Steven Sotloff.