Joey McFarland producer of Emancipation has expressed regret after coming under fire for bringing a picture of “Whipped Peter,” an imprisoned man who served as the inspiration for the movie, to the Los Angeles premiere.

In a statement published on his Instagram profile on Sunday afternoon, McFarland said, “I wholeheartedly apologize to everyone I have offended by bringing a photograph of Peter to the ‘Emancipation’ premiere”. “My intent was to honor this remarkable man and to remind the general public that his image not only brought about change in 1863 but still resonates and promotes change today.”

Who is Joey McFarland?

Joey McFarland is an American film producer and the creator of McFarland Entertainment, a business that develops and produces material for both cinema and television. He was born on April 30, 1972 n Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to being a producer, he served as Red Granite Pictures’ vice chairman.

Career

In 2010, McFarland co-founded Red Granite Pictures with Riza Aziz. McFarland was included in Variety’s list of the Top 10 Producers to Watch in 2011. 

Friends with Kids, a romantic comedy, was McFarland’s first work for Red Granite. Friends with Kids, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt, also features Chris O’Dowd, Jon Hamm, Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Adam Scott.

The dramatic thriller Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana, and Forest Whitaker and directed by Scott Cooper, was the next project for McFarland in 2012.

McFarland also produced The Wolf of Wall Street. The Wolf of Wall Street is based on Jordan Belfort’s best-selling novel of the same name. The book was adapted into a screenplay by Terence Winter.  

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Leonardo DiCaprio won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy for his role in the box office hit The Wolf of Wall Street. It also received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture, for which McFarland was nominated.

Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, and Alexandre Aja feature in the supernatural thriller Horns, which McFarland finished filming in 2013. 

McFarland contributed as a producer on the Pete and Bobby Farrelly-helmed sequel Dumb and Dumber To. He was also the executive producer of the film Daddy’s Home directed by Sean Anders and John Morris.

McFarland produced the movie Papillon which was based on the best-selling autobiography written by the French prisoner Henri Charrière.  It had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in September. 

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He also founded McFarland Entertainment in 2018, an independent production business that works in both cinema and television.

In 2019, he got associated with a controversy. McFarland consented to voluntarily turn up to the US authorities a number of luxury items that were allegedly purchased with funds from the Malaysian 1MDB state fund.