How Do You Sell 'Death of a President'?
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, USA Today(Oct. 26) - How does a movie studio entice people to go to a movie that sounds like it's committing treason?
That's the challenge facing Newmarket Films' new 'Death of a President,' a fictional documentary about what could happen if President Bush were assassinated.Simply joking about killing a sitting president is a quick way to get a visit from the Secret Service. Could the theme make potential moviegoers skittish?
"It's not a crime to see the movie," jokes Richard Abramowitz, marketing director for Newmarket, which also released the controversial 'The Passion of the Christ.' "The film does not promote violence on any level. It no more advocates for assassination of the president than 'Silence of the Lambs' advocates for cannibalism."
'Death of a President,' from British director and co-writer Gabriel Range, has raised hackles ever since it premiered in September at the Toronto Film Festival.
Some large theater chains balked at featuring it, and the film will open Friday in about 100 theaters, mostly art houses. CNN and Fox News refused to run ads for the movie.
"There's a provocative element to it, particularly in synopsis," Abramowitz says. "A one-sentence logline makes the film sound more incendiary than it is."
The film starts with the faux assassination in 2007 and features fictional Secret Service agents, speechwriters, investigators and journalists discussing the events and their repercussions.
One of the suspects has ties to Syria, which leads the newly inaugurated President Cheney to threaten military force.
Range, who has made similar theoretical films about the "collapse" of Britain's transportation and banking systems, says he used Bush instead of a fictional substitute because the story would have been powerless without the trappings of current events. Range, who has made similar theoretical films about the "collapse" of Britain's transportation and banking systems, says he used Bush instead of a fictional substitute because the story would have been powerless without the trappings of current events.
I CAN DREAM CAN'T I
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, USA Today(Oct. 26) - How does a movie studio entice people to go to a movie that sounds like it's committing treason?
That's the challenge facing Newmarket Films' new 'Death of a President,' a fictional documentary about what could happen if President Bush were assassinated.Simply joking about killing a sitting president is a quick way to get a visit from the Secret Service. Could the theme make potential moviegoers skittish?
"It's not a crime to see the movie," jokes Richard Abramowitz, marketing director for Newmarket, which also released the controversial 'The Passion of the Christ.' "The film does not promote violence on any level. It no more advocates for assassination of the president than 'Silence of the Lambs' advocates for cannibalism."
'Death of a President,' from British director and co-writer Gabriel Range, has raised hackles ever since it premiered in September at the Toronto Film Festival.
Some large theater chains balked at featuring it, and the film will open Friday in about 100 theaters, mostly art houses. CNN and Fox News refused to run ads for the movie.
"There's a provocative element to it, particularly in synopsis," Abramowitz says. "A one-sentence logline makes the film sound more incendiary than it is."
The film starts with the faux assassination in 2007 and features fictional Secret Service agents, speechwriters, investigators and journalists discussing the events and their repercussions.
One of the suspects has ties to Syria, which leads the newly inaugurated President Cheney to threaten military force.
Range, who has made similar theoretical films about the "collapse" of Britain's transportation and banking systems, says he used Bush instead of a fictional substitute because the story would have been powerless without the trappings of current events. Range, who has made similar theoretical films about the "collapse" of Britain's transportation and banking systems, says he used Bush instead of a fictional substitute because the story would have been powerless without the trappings of current events.
I CAN DREAM CAN'T I
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