“The Fast and the Furious” director Rob Cohen has been accused of sexual assault.
According to a report in HuffPost published Saturday, Cohen allegedly sexually assaulted an unnamed victim — given the name Jane in the article to protect her anonymity — while she was unconscious. The reported assault occurred in 2015 after Cohen invited Jane to a business meeting in Manhattan to discuss collaborating on a TV pilot.
HuffPost writes that Jane began feeling “fuzzy” after having dinner with Cohen but still accompanied him to another bar because she “was excited about the career opportunity.” The next thing she remembered is waking up naked with Cohen’s “face in her crotch and his fingers inside her.”
HuffPost also reports that Jane sought treatment for sexual assault after her meeting with Cohen. Additionally, Two people close to Jane reportedly confirmed that she told them about the assault immediately after it happened.
Cohen’s lawyer Martin Singer responded to the accusations in a 13-page letter to HuffPost.
“The proposed Story is an outrageous defamatory hit piece, making extraordinarily offensive assertions that my client engaged in heinous sexual misconduct, criminal wrongdoing, and other inappropriate behavior, which are vehemently disputed and denied by my client,” Singer wrote. Singer also warned HuffPost about “publishing this Story in an effort to feed the ‘Me Too’ media frenzy with this salacious Story.”
Singer did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Earlier this year, Cohen faced similar charges from his daughter Valkyrie Weather who accused him of molesting her when she was a child. Weather also accused Cohen of taking her to visit sex workers in overseas shooting locations when she was a teen. Cohen has denied the allegations.
Cohen is best known for his work directing the first “Fast and the Furious” film in 2001. He also directed “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which was released in 2008.
-
There are two big takeaways in “Someone, Somewhere,” director Cédric Klapisch’s return to Paris after satisfying detours to New York (“Chinese Puzzle”) and eastern France (“Back to Burgundy”). The first, which makes for the better movie, is you can’t love someone until you’ve learned to love yourself. The second, which drags the movie down, is […]
-
Disney and Fox’s “Ad Astra” scaled international box office charts again, maintaining its lead for the second weekend in a row. The astronaut drama starring Brad Pitt amassed another $18 million from 50 foreign territories, easily placing first overseas among Hollywood offerings. After two weekends in theaters, “Ad Astra” has generated $53.5 million abroad and […]
-
“Abominable” towered over the box office this weekend as Universal and DreamWorks’ animated adventure debuted to $20.85 million in North America and $29.7 million worldwide. The PG movie benefitted as one of the few offerings at multiplexes catering to family crowds and marked the best opening of the year for an original animated film. It […]
-
As part of the unusual rollout of Kanye West’s forthcoming album “Jesus Is King” — which is apparently now being released sometime today — IMAX announced that it is releasing a companion film of the album, bearing the same name. It will be released exclusively in IMAX theatres around the world on Friday, October 25, […]
-
Cinema can find so many ways in. Alejandro Landes’ astonishing “Monos,” recently named Colombia’s official Oscar submission, seeps in through the skin like a sweet, druggy sickness — the kind that heightens and sharpens your dreams even as it scrambles them, making the brights brighter and the darks darker, while keeping you feverishly uncertain about […]
-
“This plays like a penny whistle jammed up an orangutan’s butt.” Lines like that come easy to English writer-director Chris Morris, whose satirical sensibility has made him one of “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci’s inner-circle collaborators and a bit of a controversy magnet in his own right. Remember “Four Lions,” the unapologetically offensive 2010 comedy about […]
-
SAN SEBASTIAN — In a surprise – it had hardly figured in Spanish critics’ prize predictions – “Pacified,” directed by Texan Paxton Winters, won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell, the festival’s top award, on Saturday night. A Brazilian produced movie turning on a troubled favela-set father-daughter relationship, it snagged best actor (Bukassa Kabengele) and cinematography (Laura […]
