Disney blocks next Michael Moore film

[DGMacphee]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1102246.htm

Not only do they make shitty films but they block projects that look decent.

[LGM]

Is till haven't seen Bowling for Columbine.. Now is it really a documentary.. I could never gather if it was a mockumentary or documentary..

Is this new Farenheit one the same? Couldn't be arsed to read the whole thing, but I saw Moore refer to it as a "comedy"..

Meh.. Looks good nontheless.

[DGMacphee]

It is a documentary, though with a satirical edge.

It won an Oscar two years ago for Best Doco, where Moore made his famous (or infamous, depending on your view) "fictitious president" speech.

Some also criticised Moore for manipulating statistics for the film's benefit (But then again, a lot of documentaries do anyway).

Fahrenheit 911 is as a satirical documentary (thus the "Comedy" tag that Moore places upon it).

Interestingly, I also found this on today's IMDB:

In what some TV columnists were depicting as a battle that could signal a parting of the ways between Disney and Miramax, Harvey Weinstein is butting heads with Michael Eisner over Eisner's decision not to distribute Michael Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 911. The Moore documentary links President Bush with Arab oil moguls, some of whom, Moore alleges, are supporting Osama bin Laden. The film is scheduled to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in two weeks. In a statement, Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said: "We're discussing the issue with Disney. We're looking at all of our options and look forward to resolving this amicably." However, Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, told today's (Wednesday) New York Times that Eisner asked him not to try to sell the film to Miramax because "there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation [in Florida, where the president's brother Jeb is governor] and that's why he didn't want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn't want a Disney company involved."

I hope those tax incentives help, Eisner, cause you're going to be REALLY up shite creek once Miramax and Pixar leave.

Also in related news, Pixar's Steve Job and John Lasseter were placed at #1 of Premiere magazine's top 100 most influential people in Hollywood.

[Queen Kara]

I love Disney , but they do some dumb things sometimes.

[Kweepa]

It was either very stupid of him (after being warned) or very clever (big publicity) to take Disney's money to make the film. I can't decide.

[Las Naranjas]

I highly doubt it, but it's potentially very clever for Disney to attempt to block it, then aquiesce. Look what happened to Stupid White Men.

[DGMacphee]

Despite whether it was Disney's money or not, Miramax approved the decision.

All he needed was a distributor for a delicate project, and Miramax have been known to take such projects.

But Disney has power to overule such production decisions.

Is it all a publicity stunt? Who knows?

There's still the Jeb Bush connection.

And remember, the film had a release date of September 2004, which is a couple of months shy of the US elections.

[shbaz]

Seeing as how half the country is either Dem or Rep, I can understand a company making that decision. It'd be shitty for Disney if all Republicans stopped using their products (however unlikely/small that may be).

[Las Naranjas]

Considering voter turnouts, saying half half is a tad excessive. Split it three ways by 25% of Rep. and Dem. and a staggering landslide of 50% for apathy.

[remixor]

Considering voter turnouts, saying half half is a tad excessive. Split it three ways by 25% of Rep. and Dem. and a staggering landslide of 50% for apathy.

I could be reading your post wrong, but I think is what shbaz was saying.  He said half the country is either Rep. or Dem., so if the two parties have equal representation that would mean 25% of the country is Rep. and 25% is Dem., which looks be be the same as what you're suggesting.

[Las Naranjas]

Yeah, on revision [remixing] I think you're correct. Sorry baz.

[Samuli]

Yay! Liberty of speech! That's the greatest thing in the USA! I just can't help myself loving the self-cencorship of those hippocrats. Remember the tv show that was about to broadcast the names of the soldiers died in Iraq? The tv network banned it in some major cities (according to Conan O'Brien show, not a joke though).

Look what happened to Stupid White Men.

I've got that book and man, was I ever happy not to live in the USA after reading that..

I've also seen Bowling for Columbine, and frankly, I don't think he has made anything up for the film. I think all the sources are awailable incase you want to check it out.

I wonder if the presidential election will be as dirty as last year, as described in Stupid White Men...

[Ali]

I've also seen Bowling for Columbine, and frankly, I don't think he has made anything up for the film. I think all the sources are awailable incase you want to check it out.

No , I don't think he makes anything up, but his sources are questionable. I don' think he spend enough time. checking his figures - or presenting them in a useful way.

He lists the number of annual gun deaths in Britain, France, Canada and a number of other countries then compares the numbers to the USA's yearly grand total. It's much higher, but the US is a much bigger country than any he compares it to, so the statistics aren't in the least bit useful.

I see the point of his arguments, but I wish he would make them better. By making the errors he seems to make, he just gives his enemies ammunition.

And Disney don't want to release his film in an election year? In the name of fairness and freedom? Can't they see the contradiction there?

shbazjinkens:
Exactly, the only way to allow the public to take part in a democracy is to give them ALL the information available. Without truth there cannot be democracy. Filtering out certain material because it's partisan is a non-partisan action because it favours the status quo, and this favours the liars that run the world.

[shbaz]

And Disney don't want to release his film in an election year? In the name of fairness and freedom? Can't they see the contradiction there?

It's not about fairness and freedom, it's about being non-partisan. They aren't making any kind of statement by not releasing it, they're trying to avoid making any kind of statement.

[Peter Thomas]

On the whole, I like Michael Moore, and I hope this film DOES end up getting released, though I was less than overjoyed with the Columbine movie. It was good, but sections of it were (as a documentry-maker says [I forget his name]) "a showcase for Moore's ego". Parts of it were questionable.

But I appreciate that it's impossible to do an entirely objective documentary, and moore was deliberately giving his spin on it.

I hope 911 goes forward. Even if it's manipulative. I just find the whole topic really interesting, and he is fantastic at putting forward controversial slants on things.

[Barcik]

And Disney don't want to release his film in an election year? In the name of fairness and freedom? Can't they see the contradiction there?

It's not about fairness and freedom, it's about being non-partisan. They aren't making any kind of statement by not releasing it, they're trying to avoid making any kind of statement.

It's not even about that. It's all about not losing (even more) money.

[DGMacphee]

There's a little light at the end of the bumhole. Check out this from imdb:

Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, which released the controversial Oscar-winning The Fog of War, told today's (Thursday) San Francisco Chronicle that he expects to see Moore's picture at Cannes and that he might be interested in distributing it "if Miramax pitches it to us and it's anything like The Fog of War." Likewise a Lions Gate spokesman told the Toronto Star that his company would also consider releasing the film, adding: "We tend not to be frightened off the controversial projects." Ironically, the title of Moore's film derives from the 1953 Ray Bradbury sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451 about a society that burns controversial books, forcing a group of dissidents to memorize the classics in order to preserve them. The ads for Fahrenheit 9/11 bear the tagline: "The Temperature Where Freedom Burns."

I'm also very interested in seeing The Fog of War, which opens here shortly.

[remixor]

I'm also very interested in seeing The Fog of War, which opens here shortly.

I saw it last year; it was incredibly fascinating.  It actually left me more conflicted about what I think of McNamara (and people in similar situations) rather than clearing anything up, but it offered some amazing perspectives.

[DGMacphee]

It makes me wonder if, in a decade or two, someone will make a film about Rumsfeld.

[YOke]

...or maybe a "Nixon" about Bush. *shudders*