"Fahrenheit 9/11"

[petpiranha]

As I've mentioned on the mts website, I'm really looking forward to the new Michael Moore film / documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11".
I'm sure the contraversy won't do it any harm!

Here's the latest from The Washington Post:


"Moore says 9/11 faces exile"

By DESSON THOMSON
The Washington Post


CANNES, France - Filmmaker Michael Moore, director of the politically charged Fahrenheit 9/11, whose July 4 release has been blocked by Walt Disney, publicly lamented Sunday that time is running out for him to show the film in time for the presidential election.


He also suggested that fear of provoking the White House is scaring off any potential new distributors.


The film, which is in competition for the prestigious Golden Palm award here, makes strong contentions about President Bush’s links to powerful families in Saudi Arabia, including that of Osama bin Laden, and also criticizes the President’s decision to go to war in Iraq.


Although the movie has been sold to markets around the world, its fate in America remains uncertain. Disney, which owns the film through its specialty division, Miramax Film Corp., blocked the film’s intended release for July 4.


Speaking at a public round-table here, convened by Variety, Moore took issue with recent Disney statements that the studio had dropped the film a year ago.


Disney money was flowing to the film until recently, he said. The decision to stop the film’s July release, he continued, was made in late April when a “low-level executive” saw it and reported misgivings to Disney chief executive Michael Eisner. Miramax owners Bob and Harvey Weinstein are currently negotiating with Disney to buy the rights and release the picture independently or through a third party.


Reached by phone Saturday, Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said Miramax “looks forward to an amicable resolution. We’re grateful that Walt Disney is offering Bob and Harvey the chance to buy the film.”


Should those talks fail, Moore is hoping that other distributors will step in. But his insistence that any present or future distributor must release it on July 4 or, failing that, before the election, has scared off some potential distributors, he said.


Moore took issue with media reports that he was engineering this purported imbroglio for free publicity.


“No filmmaker wants to hear, six weeks before its release, that their distributor is not going to release their movie,” he said.


He pointed out that when Disney balked in previous years over releasing two controversial movies -- Kids and Dogma -- the Weinsteins bought the rights for each and released them independently. Both movies, he said, underperformed at the box office.


Moore scoffed at Eisner’s contention that the film was dropped to avoid controversy in a political year, pointing out that the company continues to support such politically conservative figures as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson through some of its media outlets.


Moore also claimed that an unnamed individual with ties to the Republican Party had intimidated Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions, which had agreed to distribute the movie before Miramax took over. Icon subsequently backed out, so Harvey Weinstein stepped in and took over. When Disney blocked the release, Moore found himself without a summer date, or even a distribution deal in the United States, he said.


Worldwide rights for the film have been sold through other distributors almost everywhere except Hong Kong and Taiwan, Moore said. “So everyone else in the world can see this movie except Americans.”


Although he said he was reserving further comments about the Disney matter while negotiations continue, Moore warmed to the task of excoriating President Bush about the war in Iraq, frequently amusing a packed audience of American and European entertainment media.

Moore referred to himself as “a patriotic American who believes in the actual, real principles” of what the United States stands for, including the idea that “you do not invade another country until they’re attacking you.”

(The Washington Post)

[Kenny]

Haha. I like the bit when the Disney guys points to his support of "politically conservative" people as evidence that this is not politically motivated - eh?!

[petpiranha]

"Anti-Bush film tops Cannes awards"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...lm/3739325.stm

Moore wants Americans to see the film before the presidential election
Director Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has won the prestigious Palme d'Or best film award at the Cannes festival.
It was the first documentary to win the top prize since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World in 1956.

The film received a 15-minute standing ovation when it was screened on Monday.

Fahrenheit 9/11 explores the Iraq war and alleges connections between President George W Bush and top Saudi families, including the Bin Ladens.

The documentary uses Moore's customary satirical style to accuse Mr Bush of stealing the presidential election in 2000, ignoring terrorism warnings before 11 September 2001 and fuelling fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the war in Iraq.

'Overwhelmed'

"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this," Moore said in his acceptance speech.


"I want to make sure if I do nothing else for the rest of this year that those who died in Iraq have not died in vain."

Thanking the jury headed by cult director Quentin Tarantino, he added: "You will ensure that the American people will see this movie...You have put a huge light on this."

Among other awards at Cannes:


The film Old Boy, by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, won the Grand Prize

Jury Prizes went to Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's film Tropical Malady and to actress Irma P. Hall for her part in The Ladykillers

French film-maker Tony Gatlif won the director's award for his film Exiles

Yagira Yuuya, a 14-year-old Japanese boy, was named best actor for his role in the film Nobody Knows

The best actress award went to Maggie Cheung from Hong Kong for her performance in the film Clean

Keren Yedaya's Or won the Golden Camera award for best film by a first-time director.

Positive

Michael Moore's film was originally set to be released in the US through Disney subsidiary Miramax, before Disney blocked it. It is now expected to be released through a third party.

The critical reaction to the film has generally been positive, with praise coming from The Washington Post, Time Magazine and British newspapers including the Independent and the Telegraph.

However, others have been more critical of the film. The Hollywood Reporter said Moore was "pioneering a reality film as an election device."


And trade paper Variety described it as "rather less incendiary than expected" and said it was "a blatant cinematic 2004 campaign pamphlet".

Fahrenheit 9/11 was competing against 18 other films for the Palme d'Or.

[petpiranha]

Latest info on the distro situation taken from
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040602a.php

"Looks like Michael Moore has got his wish with his Cannes award-winning documentary "Fahrenheit 911" not only finalising a US theatrical release, but a damn quick one at that.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the film has found not one but three distribution entities eager to share in the movie's theatrical release. The film is set to launch theatrically June 25th (ys in just three weeks time) through a complicated distribution apparatus that will see Bob and Harvey Weinstein's newly formed Fellowship Adventure Group join forces with Lions Gate Films and IFC Films.

Showtime is taking pay-TV rights to "Fahrenheit" through its output deal with Lions Gate. The film's home entertainment rights have not yet been sewn up, though one source close to the film said that they could land with Universal Home Video. It's expected to be rushed out onto video shelves around October, a month before the US federal election.

Although plans have not yet been finalized - and summer screens can be hard to come by -"Fahrenheit" is expected to roll out on about 1,000 screens, sources said. The studios all declined comment on how the film's fees will be split.

The film will roll out in international territories including Australia, the UK & in July."

[Poison#X]

yus what a man

[petpiranha]

Something else you may not have heard about:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040601a.php

The IMDb reports that Michael Moore filmed an interview with slain American businessman Nicholas Berg in Arlington, VA last December in which Berg discussed his concern for his safety before going to Iraq. Moore confirmed that he had shot the interview for his award-winning documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" but said he would not make it public. He did send a copy of the interview to the family. Berg's brother David complimented Moore for handling the situation with "dignity, respect and discipline". He told the Associated Press: "Michael Moore has really been a total class act with this whole thing. ... He could have sold this to the media or stuck it in his movie".

[petpiranha]

"Fahrenheit 9/11" gets industry "thumbs up"
================================
taken from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040609/325/evjjh.html
By Arthur Spiegelman

Director Michael Moore's controversial anti-Iraq war film "Fahrenheit 9/11" has won a standing ovation from an audience of film industry professionals attending its West Coast debut at Academy Award headquarters.

After an audience of more than 600 people in the theatre of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cheered, whistled and laughed their way through the two-hour film on Tuesday night, they jumped to their feet to give Moore a standing ovation as he took the stage.

Clearly buoyed by the reception, Moore, whose film is scathingly critical and mocking of President George W. Bush, declared: "There has been a shift in this country. ... The average American is finally beginning to figure it out. We were duped (into invading Iraq)."

"I hope this country will be back in our hands in a short period of time," he added.

Republicans have denounced the film as unfair.

"Fahrenheit 9/11," with its strong attack on a U.S. president who is highly unpopular in Europe, won the top prize at the recent Cannes Film Festival, but it was refused distribution by the Walt Disney, whose Miramax film unit made the movie.

Disney chief Michael Eisner said the company did not want to distribute a highly partisan film in the middle of a presidential election year. He sold the rights to the film back to Miramax heads Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who formed a consortium to distribute the film and have it in theatres on June 25.

The dispute led to a spate of stories of bad blood between the embattled Eisner and the Weinsteins, including a recent one in The New York Times that speculated that Eisner was seeking a buyer for the prestigious Miramax unit.

Weinstein alluded to that controversy when he introduced the film and joked that he and his brother were taking out a classified ad saying: "Two executives looking for company to run. Resumes on request." He added, "If any of you know anything, we will be outside waiting."

Moore won an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary, "Bowling for Columbine," about the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and the ease with which one can buy a gun in the United States.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Moore predicted "Fahrenheit 9/11" will do three times as well as his Columbine movie, which earned a record amount for a documentary film, $21.5 million (11.8 million pounds).

Moore told Reuters afterward that "Fahrenheit" would open in between 500 and 1,000 theatres on June 25, an amazingly high number for a documentary.