Filmmaker defends plan for Jaycee Dugard movie

The family of Jaycee Lee Dugard has attacked as "exploitative, hurtful and breathtakingly unkind" the plan by a low-budget horror film director to make a film about the 18 years she was held captive by Phillip Garrido.

Dugard was abducted by Garrido at the age of 11 (above right) and only released this August after spending the intervening years hidden on his back-lot in Antioch, California, during which time she had two children by her abductor.

Now filmmaker Shane Ryan (above left), whose previous works have such titles as Amateur Porn Star Killer, Warning!!! Pedophile Released and Sex Kids Party aka The More the Better, has announced his intention to bring Dugard's story to the big screen.

Ryan's Alter Ego Cinema company will begin production next month on Abducted Girl: An American Sex Slave, and the director has pledged to address the relationship that developed between Dugard, now 29, and Garrido. "We want to capture how sad this story is, but also how interesting. We're trying to figure out a way to do that so it's not exploitative," Ryan told Sacramento TV station CBS13.

The 24-year-old director's promise not to exploit Dugard seems to be at odds with his admission that his previous movies have traded off the shock value of their titles. "We've learned in marketing that some of those quotes work for some people," he said.

The suggestion by a Sacramento attorney that Dugard's case remains sub judice while Garrido awaits trial on rape and kidnap charges appears to be no deterrent to Ryan, whose Alter Ego website boasts the testimonial: "He's definitely A SICK FUCK TO WATCH OUT FOR, which I say with true appreciation" - Creature Corner."

His response to the lawyer is that the film was already in pre-production before Jaycee was even discovered and that it will "explore the idea of what it would be like for an 11-year-old to be kidnapped and live in captivity for the next 18 years."

He concluded defiantly: "It IS NOT about Jaycee, it IS NOT porn, we ARE NOT making a penny off of this film."