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Michael Moore plans film about ‘biggest swindle in American history’
Filmmaker Michael Moore is looking for “a few brave people who work on Wall Street.”
The muckraking director of films about the auto and health-care industries and America’s love of guns is now working on a movie about what he calls “the biggest swindle in American history.”
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“Your identity will be protected and you will decide to what extent you wish to participate in telling the greatest crime story ever told,” Moore says in an open letter posted last week on his website.
If the CEOs of Bank of America, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch think that members of Congress have been tough on them, they have no idea what awaits.
The 54-year-old filmmaker born in Flint, MI , the son of an auto assembly-line worker, made his reputation as a populist bomb thrower in Roger & Me, which documents his unsuccessful efforts to confront then-General Motors CEO Roger Smith about his management of what was then the world’s largest automaker.
He went on to demonize then-President George W. Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11 about what he described as the real reasons for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the greed of the American health-care industry in Sicko – films that became the highest-grossing documentaries of all time.
Moore claims to have heard from “a few brave people” for his new project already.
“Based on those who have contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know ‘the real deal,’” he wrote. “You have information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking you for a moment of courage, to be a hero.”
Moore’s project was announced at the Cannes Film Festival last May. It’s being financed by Overture and Paramount Vantage, a unit of Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures Corp. handling distribution outside North America, according to an Overture spokesman.
He has not divulged the title of the new film, but he asks people to email him at bailout@michaelmoore.com.
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This post is tagged with: , Entertainment, Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore, Overture, Paramount Vantage, Roger & Me, SickoRead related stories: Entertainment · Recent Stories
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Top Google exec funds online news startupFebruary 18, 2009 at 12:45pm
Some are billing it as a back-door way for Google to enter the news business.
Rudin loses in Oscar tug-of-war over Kate Winslet
Scott Rudin may be regretting his decision to abandon The Reader after yesterday’s Academy Award nominations, which put up the film for five awards, including best picture, best director and leading actress.
Rudin left the project after butting heads with fellow producer Harvey Weinstein about its release date.
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A specific conflict came up with actress Kate Winslet, who in addition to her lead role in The Reader starred in Revolutionary Road, directed by her husband, Sam Mendes. Because an actor is unable to be nominated in the same category for two different films, Rudin wanted Weinstein to delay The Reader’s release to avoid competition.
But Weinstein wouldn’t wait, and the film was completed in time for the 2008 Academy Awards.
Despite a press release from Rudin and Weinstein in September that read, “We are issuing this statement together to emphasize the fact that we are in complete agreement on the date we have chosen to release ‘The Reader,’” Rudin ultimately took his name off the list of producers.
As it turned out, Revolutionary Road ended up with only one nomination in a major category, for actor Michael Shannon’s supporting role.
Though Winslet won the Golden Globe for her role in Revolutionary Road, she did not receive an Oscar nomination for it. She has, however, been nominated for best leading actress in The Reader.
Despite numerous Oscar nominations in the course of his career, Weinstein told the New York Times, “I cried for the first time when I heard this one.”
He attributed his emotional response to the deaths of fellow producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom worked on The Reader, but died before it was released.
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This post is tagged with: Academy Awards, Anthony Minghella, Harvey Weinstein, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes, Scott Rudin, Stephen Daldry, Sydney Pollack, The ReaderRead related stories: Entertainment · Recent Stories0 Comments
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The geography of the Madoff scamFebruary 6, 2009 at 11:25am
We’ve departed today from our tradition of drawing a Muckety map to accompany each story, choosing to instead show a Google map illustrating the geographic reach of the Bernard Madoff debacle.
Mamma Mia’s a hit, no matter what the critics say
Greeted by mixed reviews, Mamma Mia! The Movie is getting its revenge – at the box office.
Released in July, the cinematic version of the long-running musical did well in the U.S., grossing $143.8 million to be the year’s 12th biggest earner.
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Meryl Streep“No one writes about that,” Meryl Streep, the movie’s star, told David Carr of The New York Times, as reported in his The Carpetbagger blog.
“It doesn’t get the press, partly because it is perceived as a woman’s movie, but Mamma Mia! has buried, and I mean buried, all the conventional blockbusters,” she continued.
And most of those blockbusters cost much more to make than “Mamma Mia!,” which came in at $52 million.
“I mean, the budget for that musical would have fit into the props budget for any Matrix film, or you know, Hellboy,” Streep told reporters at a studio briefing, as reported on the website collider.com.
When they do write about it, critics attribute the movie’s success to a variety of factors, including Streep’s ability to put people in the seats. “The Devil Wears Prada,” her 2006 summer movie, grossed $125 million and $327 million worldwide.
In addition to Streep, Mamma Mia!, now out in DVD, starred Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth, two solid draws.
The movie also had a built-in audience, those millions of people worldwide who had seen the theatrical production.
The musical featuring ABBA songs debuted in England in 1999 and has since been performed in many countries and many languages.
Phyllida Lloyd, who directed the stage version in England also directed the film version, her first movie. In another case of the rich getting richer, actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, were two of several executive producers of the film.
Though it received some positive reviews, the movie was blasted by some critical big guns.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times scolded Lloyd and writer Catherine Johnson for “rookie mistakes” such as cramming too many actors and singers into the film.
Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote that the movie would make a “useful contribution” to the debate over the legal definition of torture.
Brosnan, especially, seemed to Lane to be someone who had been dragged to an island against his will (the movie is set in Greece) and then forced to sing.
“There is no delicate way of putting this,” Lane wrote, “but anyone watching Brosnan in mid-delivery will conclude that he has recently suffered from a series of complex digestive problems, and that the camera has, with unfortunate timing, caught him at the exact moment when he is finally working them out. What has he done to deserve this?”
Critics never have to eat crow, but they should get ready for Mamma Mia 2.
Asked about rumors of a sequel in the works, Streep responded, “Now! Now! Now!”
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One Ponzi schemer eclipses anotherDecember 24, 2008 at 9:11am
What’s a Ponzi scheme got to do to get lasting respect? In October, Thomas J. Petters, a Minnesota businessman, was the talk of the business world for allegedly defrauding investors of $3 billion or more.
The Beatles license songs for new video game
Apple Corps Ltd. announced the Beatles’ first foray into video games in a deal which will allow fans to play along to the Fab Four’s entire canon from Meet The Beatles to Abbey Road.
The new game, said to be developed with input from surviving Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, is due to be released sometime next year.
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The game is being made by the creators of Rock Band, the best-selling video game that lets players live out their fantasies of rock stardom, playing guitar or drums to tracks by performers like the Grateful Dead, The Who and Jimmy Buffet.
Unlike previous editions of Rock Band, however, this one will exist as a Beatles game, rather than simply as a branded version of Rock Band. It was being described by executives as a “journey” through the band’s career, from its first album to its last.
“Every member of the Apple team – Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono Lennon have been part of the conversation, have seen demonstrations of the game, understand how it’s going to roll out, what you’re going to see on your screen, how the interactivity and the immersive experience will unfold and they will be involved along every step of the way creatively and musically, ” Apple Corps’ CEO Jeff Jones said in the statement.
Until now, McCartney and the other stakeholders in Apple Corps, the company established by the Beatles to oversee the band’s business interests, have not allowed the sale of their songs on digital music sites such as iTunes.
MTV Networks, which owns Harmonix, the developer of Rock Band, has been in negotiations on this deal for 17 months. Rock Band was released two years ago and has sold about 3.5 million copies since.
“The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that the Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence,” Ringo Starr said.
Activision, the owner of Guitar Hero, Rock Bands chief competitor, was also believed to have been wooing Apple.
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Investor Ron Baron on shifting sandsOctober 31, 2008 at 11:18am
Last year, investor Ron Baron paid $103 million for a 40-acre oceanfront estate in East Hampton. Now the view in the Hamptons is changing, in more ways than one.
Aaron Sorkin plans Facebook, the movie
More than 100 million people use Facebook, but until recently, Aaron Sorkin was not one of them.
Now Sorkin has a good reason to sign up. Sorkin plans to write the movie version of the popular networking site.
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Facebook was availabe first only to Harvard students, then expanded to accommodate all Ivy League students. Now, anyone can join the site.
Sorkin is best known for writing the films Charlie Wilson’s War and A Few Good Men, as well as the TV show The West Wing.
Before he begins the screenplay, Sorkin is sharpening his internet skills.
On a new Facebook group page, titled “Aaron Sorkin & The Facebook Movie,” Sorkin admits, “I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I’ve started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she’s been dead for 33 years.)”
Sorkin has not yet revealed whether the movie will address the controversy concerning the founding of Facebook.
In 2004, identical twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of the social networking site ConnectU, sued Facebook. They claimed that Zuckerberg, their Harvard classmate, stole the idea for Facebook after they had hired him to write code.
The lawsuit was settled in early 2008. It was decided that Facebook would acquire ConnectU, and the founders of ConnectU would receive an undisclosed sum of money and stock in Facebook.
After the ruling, the Winklevoss brothers protested that Microsoft’s October 2007 investment in Facebook proved the company’s value to be $15 billion, not $3-$4 billion, as had been claimed in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge James Ware ruled that the Winklevoss brothers weren’t allowed to file an appeal until the original settlement goes through.
In the meantime, the Winklevoss twins competed in the Bejing Olympics for the U.S., receiving sixth place in the men’s pairs rowing competition.
Sorkin has asked Facebook users to contribute their stories to aid him in writing the film. He promises, “I’ll try to get better at this as I get more practice.”
Martha Stewart’s daughter, Alexis, to roast Mom on new show
This fall, a new cable show called Whatever, Martha! will poke fun at old episodes of Living with Martha Stewart, which ran from 1991 to 2004.
The lead poker will be Martha’s own daughter, Alexis Stewart.
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Despite their connections to Stewart and her company, the co-hosts aren’t planning on going easy on the homemaking icon.
While her daughter told Martha Stewart she “wouldn’t be mean,” Alexis Stewart divulged to the New York Times that “nothing is off limits, including her mother’s clothes, fastidiousness and habit of mixing sexual innuendo with her household hints.”
Whatever, Martha! is expected to appeal to a younger audience. Martha Stewart’s previous attempt to boost the number of fans in their early 20s and 30s was not a success. The magazine Blueprint, geared for younger readers, was put out by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but lasted only a year before it folded. The last issue of Blueprint ran in January/February 2008.
Stewart and Koppelman Hutt currently co-host Whatever…with Alexis & Jennifer, a radio-show that runs on satellite radio provider Sirius. As co-hosts, their show’s website describes them as “having no shame, no edit button and no ability to be politically correct,” an attitude they plan on taking to their television show.
Whatever, Martha! debuts on cable channel, Fine Living, on Sept. 16th.
Nigel Lythgoe Leaves American Idol for New Venture
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Larry McMurtry’s enduring passion: buying books
Larry McMurtry’s latest book, titled simply Books, is a memoir of his many decades as a book dealer. One of his favorite activities, he writes, has always been buying books. Lots of books. His personal library at his home in Archer City, Texas, numbers 28,000 volumes and his bookstore there has nearly 400,000 volumes spread over several buildings.
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There might have been a time when criticism like that bothered McMurtry. Early on in his career he wore a t-shirt that read “a minor regional novelist,” referring to himself, or what he perceived critics thought of him.
But a Pulitzer Prize (for Lonesome Dove) and an Academy Award (screenwriter on Brokeback Mountain) pretty much eliminate any use of the word “minor” in reference to his nearly 50-year writing career.
McMurtry is happy to be working and still writing.
During an appearance in Dallas earlier this month with his Brokeback co-screenwriter, Diana Ossana, McMurtry was asked how their collaboration began.
McMurtry had a heart attack and bypass surgery in the early 1990s and afterward he just showed up at Ossana’s house, he said.
According to the Dallas Observer, which covered the event, Ossana then interrupted McMurtry.
“I thought he would just be there for three days, but he stayed three years,” she said. “He quit writing. But not only that, he stopped reading as well. He was one of those people who read seven newspapers a day and maybe 10 books a week. He just sat on the couch. He became an outline of himself.”
McMurtry refused to write without Ossana’s help, the Observer said.
“I was very badly wounded,” McMurtry said. “I didn’t even go into my bookshop for five years. And that’s a big deal for me.”
In Books, McMurtry talks briefly about his bout with depression.
McMurtry’s newest book is indeed a bit rambling and disorganized, but if you like rummaging in antiquarian bookstores, it is never dull.
He writes a little about his own writing and about his son, James, a singer-songwriter. (John Mellencamp produced James McMurtry’s first album.) But, mainly, Books is about buying books and selling books, an enduring passion for McMurtry.
In one short chapter, McMurtry writes about coming across a fat copy of The Whale, the British title for Moby-Dick, in a group of books he was trying to buy. The copy had been owned by a prominent British author and editor who was trying to shorten the Herman Melville classic to make it more salable.
“He began his editorial work by drawing a bold line through ‘Call me Ishmael,’” McMurtry writes of the British editor.
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