Tokyo cinema drops Japan-set docu "The Cove"

Director Louie Psihoyos (2nd R) accepts an award with producer Fisher Stevens (L), producer Paula DuPre Pesman (R), as cast member Richard O'Barry holds up a sign after ''The Cove'' won best documentary feature during the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood March 7, 2010.

TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) - The first cinema due to show "The Cove" in Japan has bowed to pressure from right-wing protest groups and pulled the documentary from theaters.

A movie theater in Shibuya, central Tokyo, had planned to start showing the Oscar-winning, anti-dolphin-hunting film beginning June 26.

According to Unplugged, the distributor, Theater N, has been inundated with phone complaints. A small but vociferous nationalist group has been protesting at the distributor's office and outside the home of the president of the company.

The film exposes the sale and slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

"It's unfortunate that a few extremists scared one of the Tokyo venues from showing 'The Cove,' but I'm confident that the Japanese people will now be even more curious to know what these few people are trying so hard to hide. The extremists themselves are scared of the truth being known because what they are trying to hide cannot survive debate," director Louis Psihoyos said in a statement.

Unplugged says that at this time other cinemas nationwide still plan to show the documentary this summer.