Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer
A French-Polish national, Roman Polanski has been living in France — which doesn't extradite its citizens — since the late '70s. He has also visited Switzerland numerous times in the last three decades, unmolested by either Swiss or American authorities, and even bought a house there several years ago.
Some have asserted that Marina Zenovich's 2009 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which called into question the ethics and efficacy of the Los Angeles judicial system, triggered the LA district attorney’s office's decision to demand Polanski's arrest and extradition.
As reported in The Washington Post, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand "issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the Swiss decision," while writer Bernard-Henri Levy, a Polanski friend who helped organize a petition drive to free the director, "told reporters in Paris that he was 'crazy with joy.'"
Among the personalities of the world of film, literature, and the arts that signed various petitions demanding Polanski's release were Jeanne Moreau, Adrien Brody, Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar, Isabelle Huppert, Victoria Abril, Woody Allen, Fanny Ardant, Martin Scorsese, Fatih Akin, Jacques Perrin, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sylvia Kristel, Tilda Swinton, Ariel Dorfman, Stephen Frears, Xavier Dolan, Wong Kar Wai, Joel Coen, Monica Bellucci, Mike Nichols, and hundreds of others.
The Best Director Academy Award winner (for The Pianist) is married to actress/singer Emmanuelle Seigner (Frantic, The Ninth Gate, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), with whom he has two children.
He had been under house arrest at his Swiss chalet in Gstaad since December. Earlier this year, he won the Best Director prize at the Berlin Film Festival for the thriller The Ghost Writer, which Summit Entertainment released in the United States to widespread critical acclaim and middling business.
Worldwide, The Ghost Writer has collected $52m, according to Box Office Mojo. It did solid business in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
Photo: The Ghost Writer (Guy Farrandis / Summit Entertainment)