Director who made Arnie a star turns camera on Kerry

[kskiska]

Pumping Iron was the film that helped transform Arnold Schwarzenegger from just another middle European body builder into a celebrity, film star and ultimately the governor of California. Now its director is hoping to repeat the trick with John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential candidate. Tour of Duty, directed by George Butler, will draw on the bestselling book of the same name by Douglas Brinkley.

The film, like the book, will follow the trajectory of Mr Kerry's life, from his time with the navy in Vietnam, where he commanded a boat on the Mekong Delta, to his conversion to the cause of the peace movement and his subsequent political career.

But it is the documentary's possible political impact that will be of most interest. The film is to be released in September, midway between the Democratic convention in July and the presidential vote in November. The Republican convention is set for early September in New York.

"John Kerry has had the most interesting life of anyone in the presidential arena since Theodore Roosevelt," Butler told the film industry paper Variety.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1201383,00.html

[w4rma]

1. Interesting. (nt)

[truthisfreedom]

2. good idea.

[DAGDA56]

3. So as a documentary...

...nobody actually "plays" Kerry...can you imagine trying to do the same, using archive footage, with B*?

[Enraged_Ape]

4. Would make a great double feature with Fahrenheit 911!

Bring all your Democratic and Republican friends!

[Judi Lynn]

5. A flock of decent pro-Dem. films on the way, according to the article!

This summer's movies should be REALLY interesting for well-balanced people, and infuriating for Republicans.

Tour of Duty is one of several films that promise to make cinema-going a tricky task for George Bush this year.

The summer blockbuster is expected to be The Day After Tomorrow, a natural disaster movie with global warming as its starting point. President Bush is known to be sceptical about the existence of global warming.

Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's follow up to the Oscar-winning Bowling For Columbine, is to be released in September. With the tagline "The temperature where freedom burns", the documentary examines the aftermath of September 11 2001, and is expected to allege that the Bush administration exploited the attacks for its own ends. The film comes in the wake of the commission into the anti-terrorism policy of the administration immediately before the attack.

Another hard-hitting, if more traditional, political film also due for an autumn release comes from the veteran director John Sayles. His Silver City stars Chris Cooper as the bumbling son of an ultra-conservative political dynasty. His lack of political ability does not seem to hinder his campaign to be elected governor of Colorado, until the discovery of a body threatens to derail his campaign and tarnish the name of his family and the special interest groups behind him.
(snip)

[JI7]

6. i think this guy is a friend of John Kerry's

so i expect he will work hard to make the film something good.

[0rganism]

7. If only he could make a bush Vietnam war documentary too!

Wouldn't that make the perfect double feature?