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In this, the last part of our two-part interview (part one is here), Kennedys Executive Producer Joel Surnow talks at length about how his personal politics were the only reason the left attacked the miniseries. Worse still, Surnow’s conservatism is apparently the only reason the History Channel’s board was willing to lose a ton of money in dumping it. Everyone’s seen the miniseries by now, and no one I’m aware of has been able to point to a single thing that could qualify it as anything close to a smear job or even problematic to the the History Channel brand. And Surnow’s not the only one this is happening to. As an example of a systemic problem in the entertainment business, Surnow mentions Paul Greengrass, who recently lost his backing for a Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic after the King family successfully put pressure on Universal.

What I’ve always called the “blacklist” — though never in the original sense of the word — Surnow calls “political correctness taken to extremes,” which is also a very good description. Greengrass, after all, is no Republican but some have reported that his MLK script didn’t shy away from the shadier aspects of King’s personal life. For reasons we can all sympathize with, King’s family didn’t want that realized on-screen, but it’s still the kind of special treatment Cheney, Palin, and Margaret Thatcher are unlikely to receive in upcoming films about them. It’s also a new kind of self-imposed Production Code, this time with a list of left-wing sacred cows.

As promised, we talk a little bit about “24,”  and I would’ve loved to have talked more about that, along with a few other shows Surnow’s been involved with, specifically ”The Equalizer” – and one of my all-time favorites, “Nowhere Man,” but there are only so many hours in the day.

My thanks to Joel Surnow for his time and for fighting the good fight. The business of show is hard enough without being a rethuglican.

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The Paul Greengrass version of events preceding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King  (aka The Shaky-Cam Version) is on the ropes…. 

Screen Rant:

Universal has officially dropped Paul Greengrass’ latest docudrama, Memphis, which was gearing up to begin production this summer – in order to reach theaters by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend of 2012.

Uncertainty about the project being ready in time for a January 2012 release is the official explanation for Universal’s decision to neither finance or distribute Memphis, a historical drama that will examine the days in Dr. King’s life preceding his assassination in 1968.

Deadline is reporting that it’s heard whisperings about the King estate not approving of Memphis and threatening to make its criticisms public if Universal moved forward with the project. Similar rumors popped up last fall when the currently defunct Selma, from director Lee Daniels (Precious), failed to get off the ground as well, and there’s been speculation that the King family is holding out for DreamWorks’ long-gestating MLK biopic to arrive first.

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UPDATE: AP confirms: “Green Zone”  opens to a dismal $14.5 million.

The moral of the story? If you’re going to trash America and the troops, use Smurfs.

The Wrap:

Universal’s “Green Zone” became the latest Iraq War-themed movie to fall down the box office rabbit hole, debuting to just $5 million in the U.S. and Canada Friday, according to studio estimates. …

 “Green Zone” could find little traction, getting out to a pace that will give it less than $15 million for its premiere weekend.

That would be even less than the modest pre-release expectations for the $100 million film, which reteams star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who worked on the Universal’s last two “Jason Bourne” franchise installments. The film was put into production during the co-chair term of Marc Shmuger and David Linde. (more…)

The poetic irony of the delayed release of the shaky-cammed Hollywood temper tantrum known as “Green Zone” couldn’t be sweeter. Yes, the very same week our Iraqi allies held a historic election that ended up much more successful than we could have ever hoped, our own Hollywood swoops in with a piece of cinematic sour grapes in the frantic, desperate hope of rewriting the history of a war they were so eager for us to lose.    

After making the last two “Bourne” films together, director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon have teamed up again in an un-thrilling attempt to transfer that same success to the streets of Baghdad. But this time within a very real and recent historical event, the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In a vacuum where history doesn’t exist, the film’s absurd premise would still undermine itself. But Greengrass isn’t working in a vacuum. Unfortunately for him, we all know the truth and this truth reduces his story to a strained, poorly contrived, episodic, Hollywood Hills fever dream that no amount of suspended disbelief can overcome.

Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a good soldier in charge of an army team on the search for WMD four weeks after shock and awe. Baghdad is in chaos as the newly liberated Iraqis loot the city and scattered snipers take potshots at anyone wearing the American flag. Miller risks his own life and those of his men based on intelligence that’s supposed to reveal the location of Saddam’s WMD facilities. And this is the third time they’ve come up empty.  Frustrated and angry, Miller starts to ask questions and demand answers about the source of the intel. Naturally, his commanding officers aren’t interested in answering those questions or even facing the possibility the weapons might not be found. That would upset the Bush administration’s narrative of the New Iraq. (more…)

The lead for this story might be Matt Damon’s heartbroken disappointment over Obama’s inability to strip away our health care as the millionaire actor holds on to his, but the news about “Green Zone” — which hits theatres March 12th — is the more interesting part:

It’s hard to think of a movie that’d play better in the Obama White House screening room than Matt Damon’s new Iraq War thriller, “Green Zone,” in which the Oscar-winner adroitly portrays a soldier fighting to expose the Bush administration’s weapons of mass destruction deception. …

Damon … vouches that “the people who worked on ‘Green Zone’ come from all across the political spectrum.”

His character, Roy Miller, is based on real-life Army chief warrant officer, Richard (Monty) Gonzales, whose Mobile Exploitation Team was charged with finding the WMDs during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“Monty was a Republican – he’d voted for Bush,” Damon told us at Nobu 57 after the movie’s Cinema Society premiere. “He went to Iraq with the absolute conviction he was going to find the WMDs.”

Makes sense. After child-raping directors, Hollywood’s favorite hero is The Disillusioned Republican. (more…)

Nobody liked this movie when it was called “Body of Lies.” 

This is the most revealing trailer yet and thankfully we’re given a heads up as to what the story might really be about. Hollywood will look for cover with the excuse that “Green Zone” is based on a true story, but we all know which “true stories” Leftist Hollywood cherry picks in order to fulfill the demands of an anti-American narrative. For example, the true story of 100,000-plus Americans risking their lives to liberate and protect from terrorists people they’ve  never met is one “true story” we’ll see in hell first.

Everything you’d expect from director Paul Greengrass and Damon is here, including that goddamn shaky-cam (it’s not saying the Lord’s name in vain if you mean it). Damon’s character is the protagonist and he’s there to do good but it’s not the terrorists who are the antagonists getting in his way … no, it’s The United States of America personified by the Greg Kinnear character. (more…)

Why would a company interested in making money (so they say) make yet another film trashing the Iraq War? By my count (narratives and documentaries), 13 have already flopped miserably and yet Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass team up for number 14, this one a big-budget studio critique of a war that successfully liberated 25 million innocent people.

Companies truly interested in making a profit don’t behave this way, which is why there’s never been a New Coke 2, much less a New Coke 14. And yet, Universal doubles down on more anti-Americanism using the fig-leaf of “based on a true story” to hide their malicious intentions which — to anyone paying attention — are always exposed by which “true stories” they choose to drop in theaters all over the world.

Here’s the New Yorker description of the book “Green Zone” is based on: (more…)

“Who is watching the Watchmen?” Just about everyone…or so it seems.

The brand new film adaptation of the classic graphic comic Watchmen is a hit of monstrous proportions on its opening weekend, but not everyone loves it. In fact, not only is there a prominent character named Rohrschach (played by Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley), the film itself is serving as a Rohrschach Test for critics, fanboys and the broader public.

The Zack Snyder-directed $120M epic started with $4.5M in Thursday midnight business which is outstanding. There was no way for Watchmen to approach the $18.5M midnight start for lat summer’s The Dark Knight. First off, it is March and not the middle of summer blockbuster season. Kids have school. People are working. These are not the lazy days of July when it is easier for many to see a movie at midnight on Thursday, and hit the office late on Friday. The other factor is the movie’s rating. This is an R-rated movie, not PG-13 like The Dark Knight. (more…)

Watchmen (Warner Bros) has followed a long and winding road, passing through the hands of some remarkable directors like Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King), Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) and Paul Greengrass (United 93), before landing in the lap of the mastermind behind 2004’s stunning re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead and 2007’s March blockbuster 300. From the moment that the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s $120M comic book adaptation made its debut at midnight screenings of The Dark Knight in July, this has been a sure-fire mega-hit. Now, the big screen version of the 1986 graphic novel will be unleashed on Friday.

WATCHMEN writer Alan Moore has reportedly placed a curse on the movie

The original comic was written by Alan Moore and the lead artist was Dave Gibbons. The collaborators have radically different views of Snyder’s film adaptation.The latter has publicly expressed confidence in Snyder. Gibbons reveals to Wired magazine that at one point Joel Silver owned the film rights to Watchmen and that the producer was insistent that Arnold Schwarzenegger should play Dr. Manhattan. (That would have potentially been an unintentional disaster movie.)

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