‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ finds distributor
The controversial film will hit theaters on June 25
Updated: 10:52 a.m. ET June 02, 2004
LOS ANGELES - Film director Michael Moore’s anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” will hit U.S. theaters June 25 after backers Bob and Harvey Weinstein struck distribution deals for the controversial, Cannes festival award-winning film, the parties said Tuesday.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and IFC Films, major players in the arena for independent movies, will release Moore’s movie to theaters, and cable television network Showtime will handle the sale of rights for pay-TV.
“Fahrenheit 9/11” caused a firestorm of publicity in May after the Walt Disney Co. refused to allow its Miramax Films unit, which is run by the Weinstein brothers, to release the movie to theaters claiming it was too politically charged.
“Fahrenheit 9/11,” which won the coveted Palm d’Or, the top prize at last month’s prestigious Cannes film festival, looks at America’s reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
And it attempts to link President Bush and his family to powerful Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden.
“I think, for a large segment of the population, it is going to be a must-see film,” said Jon Feltheimer, Lions Gate chief executive. “Forget the controversy, if you look at the body of Michael Moore’s work. It’s really good filmmaking.”
IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring echoed much of Feltheimer’s sentiment and said his company has a mission of being a place where independent filmmakers can come to get their voices heard by a wide audience.
“This film will cause debate, but that is also what this country is founded on,” Sehring said.
Moore's voice
Moore won the U.S. film industry’s top honor, the Oscar, for 2002 documentary “Bowling for Columbine” about gun use, and at the ceremony that is watched by millions of television viewers he launched into a speech against the war in Iraq.
He has said he is no fan of President Bush and wanted “Fahrenheit 9/11” to be released ahead of the November presidential election so that it might influence the outcome.
“Everybody knows who I am and where I stand. Oh no, I’m not trying to pretend I’m being even-handed with Bush,” he told Reuters in May when the controversy erupted.
In a statement announcing the distribution deal, Moore seemed to take a swipe at Disney, thanking Lions Gate and IFC for “bringing good family entertainment” to audiences.
Neither the Weinsteins nor Moore were available to comment, a spokesman said.
Last week the Weinsteins cut a deal with Disney to buy back the film rights for the cost of the film, estimated at $6 million.
Sources near the early dealmaking said the Weinsteins were seeking agreements under which they retained ownership of the film and the distribution partners helped fund film prints and marketing then shared in box office receipts.
Both Feltheimer and Sehring declined to comment on the financial details.
The new distribution partners did say that they already had significant interest from theater chains wanting to show the film and who were not shying away from the controversy.
Sehring said they had originally wanted to release “Fahrenheit 9/11” on July 2 in about 500 theaters, but moved it up on the calendar. He said the number of theaters showing it had yet to be determined.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Fahrenheit 9/11 coming 6/25
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5137420/
HAYWORTH: And we welcome you back to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. I‘m Congressman J.D. Hayworth, filling in for Joe tonight.
Filmmaker Michael Moore has just released the trailer for his new Bush-bashing movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It‘s on his Web site now and will be in theaters tomorrow.
Here‘s a sneak peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “FAHRENHEIT 9/11”)
NARRATOR: ... of power to the streets of smalltown America, to the front lines.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.
(LAUGHTER)
NARRATOR: Comes the true story that will make your temperature rise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYWORTH: So, is it a documentary or a political hit piece? It depends on what side of the movie aisle you‘re sitting on.
I‘m back now with Christopher Hitchens. And joining us is MSNBC analyst Flavia Colgan.
Christopher, what do you think, documentary, mockumentary, political hit piece?
HITCHENS: Here‘s a guy—you could just see it in the trailer—who takes a George Bush joke, not a terrifically funny one, dead literally, says, here‘s the president telling his people they‘re the elite. And how funny is that? How ironic and beautiful is that?
Later on, he suggests that a lot of Saudis were allowed to leave the country in a sinister manner. And I wrote columns about this myself at the time, saying how on earth were these guys allowed to leave the country on planes? And I certainly think that the president should have mentioned the word Saudi and the word terrorist somewhere in the same sentence somewhere in his life.
But Mr. Moore is suggesting that that proves collusion. And this is, as you may or may not know, a favorite thing among the anti-war people:
Bush knew 9/11 was coming. He took advantage of it.
Obviously, the evidence, even as presented by Moore, proves that‘s not true, because, if he knew it was coming, he wouldn‘t have them trapped in the country and have to fire them out. But, yes, the impression stays. The mud stays. And Moore will try anything once. He‘s a complete cynic. He‘s an absolutely cold fish. He doesn‘t care himself about any of these things, but he‘ll try anything that works for him.
HAYWORTH: Flavia, the presidency is a job that is rife with criticism, and now we‘re the political season. In terms of political atmospherics—and you‘ve been involved in campaigns—do you welcome the theatrical release of “Fahrenheit 9/11”? Does it supplement, in your view, the Bush-bashing books that seem to come out weekly, if not monthly?
FLAVIA COLGAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I guess I somewhat disagree with the whole premise of this. Just because you don‘t agree with Bush‘s policies doesn‘t mean you hate him. And it‘s not unpatriotic to criticize him.
I would suggest that a lot of things that Bush and his administration have done is unpatriotic. Sending our troops in there, as Michael Moore point out in this movie, without the right equipment, with being undermanned, without a real plan for peace, that‘s just as unpatriotic.
Look, Michael Moore is a provocateur. There‘s no question. Is he a promoter? Absolutely. I don‘t really know if this is a true documentary. It doesn‘t pose itself to be a front-line documentary. And editing is always the highest form of commentary. But I think it‘s enormously important some of the things that he shows in this film, first of all, Bush and his lack of gravitas, and how lightly he takes this issue, a lot of these situations, is enormously important.
And as Christopher pointed out, and it reminds me of Mondale‘s quote that you can‘t quote Reagan verbatim because then you‘ll be accused of mudslinging. And he points out a lot of the civilian deaths that are happening in Iraq that don‘t make their way over here, except for the wedding bomb story, even though there‘s been thousands of claims against the CPA over there.
And he points to the amputees, the many injuries that have happened. The people coming back from Iraq, they may be dead, but they‘re changed for life, either having lost a limb or the emotional damage that they‘ve suffered. And, look, if people don‘t like this movie, they don‘t have to go see it. But I don‘t want someone else telling me what movies I can see or not.
People are dying in Iraq every day.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Nobody is suggesting that.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: After that long burst, who on earth is threatening you with that?
COLGAN: “The New York Daily News.” “The New York Daily News” just reported last week that there are tons of Republicans trying to lobby the FCC that they should shut this down. Apparently, they want to distract them from Janet Jackson‘s boob for a moment so they can silence free speech.
HITCHENS: I‘ve said it before and you‘re going to make me say it again. The chance of living in a world where you won‘t have to see Michael Moore movies is just so slim. Don‘t be self-pitying about it on top of that long rant you just gave.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: His stuff is going to be distributed, don‘t you worry. And lots of very simple-minded people will also think that it was a big sacrifice and big bravery on their part to go see it. Don‘t you worry about any of that.
HAYWORTH: Let‘s get back to the trailer.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Hold on a second, Flavia. We‘ll give you a chance to talk more about this.
COLGAN: And that‘s he is a dissident, they‘ll say that, too.
HAYWORTH: Thanks, Christopher.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Let‘s take a look at some more of this, as “Fahrenheit 9/11” claims the administration let bin Laden‘s family escape the U.S. after 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “FAHRENHEIT 9/11”)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can make people do anything if they‘re afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FAA has taken the action to close all of the airports in the United States.
MICHAEL MOORE, DIRECTOR: All commercial and airline traffic was grounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we had some airplanes authorized at the highest levels of government to pick up Osama bin Laden‘s family members and transport them out of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYWORTH: But Richard Clarke—yes, that Richard Clarke—told the 9/11 Commission it was not the president‘s decision. The FBI made the call and told Richard Clarke, no one on the plane was worth detaining. It‘s interesting to hear the charges.
Christopher, you talked about writing about this earlier.
HITCHENS: I wrote about it several time. I don‘t believe the FBI claim. How could they have known in that amount of time that these people, that number of people weren‘t worth detaining?
I saw the smarmy figure of Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, whose credit, I‘m glad to say is pretty much destroyed in Washington now, smirking to Larry King how easily he had arranged private planes to round these people up and take them out of the country. I couldn‘t move at that time. I was stuck in Seattle. These people had much too much influence before then, and so did the FBI and CIA, who were covering for them.
The CIA, the late Mr. Tenet, I‘m glad to see he‘s gone, could only get
· John Walker Lindh was the only American who was inside the Taliban and al Qaeda. But the Saudis got anything they want in Washington. This is a disgrace. The fact that Richard Clarke doesn‘t know anything about it doesn‘t surprise me. He doesn‘t know anything else about anything else either.
HAYWORTH: Flavia, here‘s some criticism from Christopher Hitchens. Again, criticism is legitimate. Disagreements are legitimate. They predicate society. But, in the wake of the FBI denials, the wake of facts, at least the perceptions being otherwise, does this make the documentary more of a mockumentary?
COLGAN: Well, first of all, I think this is done in Michael Moore style. It‘s more impressionistic.
HITCHENS: Innuendo.
COLGAN: And I think the viewer can take their own opinion. Innuendo, whatever.
But I think Christopher has certainly researched this a lot. And
there is a deep stench in terms of our relationship with Saudi. I would
still love to see the tons of pages that were blacked out of the 9/11
report in terms of our relationship with the Saudi government and what they
may or may not have done in terms of funding terrorists. But we won‘t
because of Bush and a lot of his buddies‘ relationships over there. And I
think it‘s clear
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: But the Saudis were completely against removing the Saddam Hussein regime. Bush went against what the Saudi lobby wanted in this case. It was one way of punishing the Saudis and reminding them that we knew what they were up to and they were going to lose their client state in Iraq.
So the innuendo that Moore doesn‘t mind leaving people with, that if you worry about this, you should be against the war in Iraq, it‘s exactly the other way around. By the way, Moore is not that smart, but he‘s smart enough to know this. He‘s just playing to a certain gallery of people who are paranoid about the war and who have the view of Bush that the extreme right used to have about Roosevelt, that he fixed all this up in advance.
This is criminal irresponsibility at a time like this. We‘re not kidding around here. This is serious stuff, OK?
HAYWORTH: And it is serious. And it is to be continued.
Thank you, Christopher Hitchens and Flavia Colgan. We appreciate the time. We‘ll get you back, Flavia.
HAYWORTH: And we welcome you back to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. I‘m Congressman J.D. Hayworth, filling in for Joe tonight.
Filmmaker Michael Moore has just released the trailer for his new Bush-bashing movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It‘s on his Web site now and will be in theaters tomorrow.
Here‘s a sneak peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “FAHRENHEIT 9/11”)
NARRATOR: ... of power to the streets of smalltown America, to the front lines.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.
(LAUGHTER)
NARRATOR: Comes the true story that will make your temperature rise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYWORTH: So, is it a documentary or a political hit piece? It depends on what side of the movie aisle you‘re sitting on.
I‘m back now with Christopher Hitchens. And joining us is MSNBC analyst Flavia Colgan.
Christopher, what do you think, documentary, mockumentary, political hit piece?
HITCHENS: Here‘s a guy—you could just see it in the trailer—who takes a George Bush joke, not a terrifically funny one, dead literally, says, here‘s the president telling his people they‘re the elite. And how funny is that? How ironic and beautiful is that?
Later on, he suggests that a lot of Saudis were allowed to leave the country in a sinister manner. And I wrote columns about this myself at the time, saying how on earth were these guys allowed to leave the country on planes? And I certainly think that the president should have mentioned the word Saudi and the word terrorist somewhere in the same sentence somewhere in his life.
But Mr. Moore is suggesting that that proves collusion. And this is, as you may or may not know, a favorite thing among the anti-war people:
Bush knew 9/11 was coming. He took advantage of it.
Obviously, the evidence, even as presented by Moore, proves that‘s not true, because, if he knew it was coming, he wouldn‘t have them trapped in the country and have to fire them out. But, yes, the impression stays. The mud stays. And Moore will try anything once. He‘s a complete cynic. He‘s an absolutely cold fish. He doesn‘t care himself about any of these things, but he‘ll try anything that works for him.
HAYWORTH: Flavia, the presidency is a job that is rife with criticism, and now we‘re the political season. In terms of political atmospherics—and you‘ve been involved in campaigns—do you welcome the theatrical release of “Fahrenheit 9/11”? Does it supplement, in your view, the Bush-bashing books that seem to come out weekly, if not monthly?
FLAVIA COLGAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I guess I somewhat disagree with the whole premise of this. Just because you don‘t agree with Bush‘s policies doesn‘t mean you hate him. And it‘s not unpatriotic to criticize him.
I would suggest that a lot of things that Bush and his administration have done is unpatriotic. Sending our troops in there, as Michael Moore point out in this movie, without the right equipment, with being undermanned, without a real plan for peace, that‘s just as unpatriotic.
Look, Michael Moore is a provocateur. There‘s no question. Is he a promoter? Absolutely. I don‘t really know if this is a true documentary. It doesn‘t pose itself to be a front-line documentary. And editing is always the highest form of commentary. But I think it‘s enormously important some of the things that he shows in this film, first of all, Bush and his lack of gravitas, and how lightly he takes this issue, a lot of these situations, is enormously important.
And as Christopher pointed out, and it reminds me of Mondale‘s quote that you can‘t quote Reagan verbatim because then you‘ll be accused of mudslinging. And he points out a lot of the civilian deaths that are happening in Iraq that don‘t make their way over here, except for the wedding bomb story, even though there‘s been thousands of claims against the CPA over there.
And he points to the amputees, the many injuries that have happened. The people coming back from Iraq, they may be dead, but they‘re changed for life, either having lost a limb or the emotional damage that they‘ve suffered. And, look, if people don‘t like this movie, they don‘t have to go see it. But I don‘t want someone else telling me what movies I can see or not.
People are dying in Iraq every day.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Nobody is suggesting that.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: After that long burst, who on earth is threatening you with that?
COLGAN: “The New York Daily News.” “The New York Daily News” just reported last week that there are tons of Republicans trying to lobby the FCC that they should shut this down. Apparently, they want to distract them from Janet Jackson‘s boob for a moment so they can silence free speech.
HITCHENS: I‘ve said it before and you‘re going to make me say it again. The chance of living in a world where you won‘t have to see Michael Moore movies is just so slim. Don‘t be self-pitying about it on top of that long rant you just gave.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: His stuff is going to be distributed, don‘t you worry. And lots of very simple-minded people will also think that it was a big sacrifice and big bravery on their part to go see it. Don‘t you worry about any of that.
HAYWORTH: Let‘s get back to the trailer.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Hold on a second, Flavia. We‘ll give you a chance to talk more about this.
COLGAN: And that‘s he is a dissident, they‘ll say that, too.
HAYWORTH: Thanks, Christopher.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYWORTH: Let‘s take a look at some more of this, as “Fahrenheit 9/11” claims the administration let bin Laden‘s family escape the U.S. after 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “FAHRENHEIT 9/11”)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can make people do anything if they‘re afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FAA has taken the action to close all of the airports in the United States.
MICHAEL MOORE, DIRECTOR: All commercial and airline traffic was grounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we had some airplanes authorized at the highest levels of government to pick up Osama bin Laden‘s family members and transport them out of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYWORTH: But Richard Clarke—yes, that Richard Clarke—told the 9/11 Commission it was not the president‘s decision. The FBI made the call and told Richard Clarke, no one on the plane was worth detaining. It‘s interesting to hear the charges.
Christopher, you talked about writing about this earlier.
HITCHENS: I wrote about it several time. I don‘t believe the FBI claim. How could they have known in that amount of time that these people, that number of people weren‘t worth detaining?
I saw the smarmy figure of Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, whose credit, I‘m glad to say is pretty much destroyed in Washington now, smirking to Larry King how easily he had arranged private planes to round these people up and take them out of the country. I couldn‘t move at that time. I was stuck in Seattle. These people had much too much influence before then, and so did the FBI and CIA, who were covering for them.
The CIA, the late Mr. Tenet, I‘m glad to see he‘s gone, could only get
· John Walker Lindh was the only American who was inside the Taliban and al Qaeda. But the Saudis got anything they want in Washington. This is a disgrace. The fact that Richard Clarke doesn‘t know anything about it doesn‘t surprise me. He doesn‘t know anything else about anything else either.
HAYWORTH: Flavia, here‘s some criticism from Christopher Hitchens. Again, criticism is legitimate. Disagreements are legitimate. They predicate society. But, in the wake of the FBI denials, the wake of facts, at least the perceptions being otherwise, does this make the documentary more of a mockumentary?
COLGAN: Well, first of all, I think this is done in Michael Moore style. It‘s more impressionistic.
HITCHENS: Innuendo.
COLGAN: And I think the viewer can take their own opinion. Innuendo, whatever.
But I think Christopher has certainly researched this a lot. And
there is a deep stench in terms of our relationship with Saudi. I would
still love to see the tons of pages that were blacked out of the 9/11
report in terms of our relationship with the Saudi government and what they
may or may not have done in terms of funding terrorists. But we won‘t
because of Bush and a lot of his buddies‘ relationships over there. And I
think it‘s clear
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHENS: But the Saudis were completely against removing the Saddam Hussein regime. Bush went against what the Saudi lobby wanted in this case. It was one way of punishing the Saudis and reminding them that we knew what they were up to and they were going to lose their client state in Iraq.
So the innuendo that Moore doesn‘t mind leaving people with, that if you worry about this, you should be against the war in Iraq, it‘s exactly the other way around. By the way, Moore is not that smart, but he‘s smart enough to know this. He‘s just playing to a certain gallery of people who are paranoid about the war and who have the view of Bush that the extreme right used to have about Roosevelt, that he fixed all this up in advance.
This is criminal irresponsibility at a time like this. We‘re not kidding around here. This is serious stuff, OK?
HAYWORTH: And it is serious. And it is to be continued.
Thank you, Christopher Hitchens and Flavia Colgan. We appreciate the time. We‘ll get you back, Flavia.
-
lukpac
- Top Dog and Sellout
- Posts: 4592
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
- Location: Madison, WI
- Contact:
Matt wrote:Blame Clinton? That is another argument entirely.
What do you mean? Are you saying it is ok? Plenty has said by the right about how 9/11 was all Clinton's fault, yet it happened under Bush's watch, and there were clearly things he could have done but didn't that possibly could have helped (strengthening cockpit doors, for example).
Is half of what Moore says over the top and/or stretching the truth. You bet. That doesn't mean he's necessarily wrong, though.
I find it somewhat interesting that when people attack Moore it's often along the lines of "he really was never working class, he's just another elite liberal". Is there some inherent problem is being elite? The Bushes are certainly elite. The beloved Reagan was elite. Wasn't Clinton attacked for being somewhat of a "country boy"?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
-
lukpac
- Top Dog and Sellout
- Posts: 4592
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
- Location: Madison, WI
- Contact:
BTW, as for Gore being in office, we'll never know. We don't know how Gore would have handled things prior to 9/11. We don't know if there would have been a 9/11. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gore doesn't have the same Saudi connections as the Bushes.
And even if everything was the same, it's quite possible Moore would have made a similar film, as he probably would be more of a Nader backer these days. Of course, Bush actually getting into office changed that somewhat.
And even if everything was the same, it's quite possible Moore would have made a similar film, as he probably would be more of a Nader backer these days. Of course, Bush actually getting into office changed that somewhat.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD