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| Second 9/11 movie to focus on Flight 93 |
| 2005-08-17 |
| Universal is stepping up for a 9/11 movie, the second major studio film about the terrorist events. Studio and director Paul Greengrass have set an October start date for "Flight 93." U's $15 million film will be 90 minutes long and cover the flight in real time. It begins with the takeoff and hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 by terrorists, the discovery by passengers with cell phones that other hijacked planes had been steered into the World Trade Center towers, and the realization that their plane was being steered toward D.C. Pic culminates in the decision by passengers to sacrifice their lives to bring the plane down. Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. Greengrass last directed "The Bourne Supremacy," but "Flight 93" seems closer in style to his 2002 film "Bloody Sunday," a drama about an Irish civil-rights protest that ended in a massacre by British troops in 1972. "Flight 93" will be partly improvised with an ensemble cast, and Greengrass will use handheld cameras and other stylized techniques to give the film a gritty feel. Greengrass got the U deal with a 20-page treatment that begins with a stream of consciousness summation of the tragedy he feels "changed our lives forever." After noting that media, politicians, historians and religious leaders will try to find a context for the 9/11 tragedy as its fifth anniversary approaches next year, Greengrass makes the case for his film to do the same. I have no idea about this guy. Can we expect another far-left propaganda effort? Or will he play it straight. I am so disconnected from Hollyweird ever since I moved out of the PRC. A 40-day shoot is expected to begin Oct. 1. While there is no timetable for the film's release, one scenario would be to submit it to the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and release it shortly after. The sudden emergence of the picture creates an unforeseen race with Paramount Pictures, which is mounting a 9/11 feature on an entirely different event. And directed by Oliver Stone from an entirely different reality. Like U, Paramount hasn't finalized the difficult decision of when to release the film. Treading close to Sept. 11 might seem crass, and audiences might not want to be reminded of the tragedy if the film opens after Sept. 11, 2006. We certainly don't want to remember why we are at war. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. Abu Gharib. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #10 How 'bout this film that Paul Greengrass is currently directing (and is a co-writer of the screenplay). (from IMDB) They Marched Into Sunlight Plot Outline: On one day in October 1967, two events, the loss of 61 American soldiers in a Viet Cong ambush and a student protest against Dow Chemical, galvanize opposition to the Vietnam war on college campuses. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-08-17 19:20 |
| #9 [sigh] How stupid of Me to even compemplate that he might make this into a patriotic, or even neutral, movie. Still, consider that Oliver Stone is making the other movie... |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-08-17 15:53 |
#8 His "Omagh" -- about a 1998 Real IRA bombing in Omagh -- elicited a positive review on the World Socialist Website, which included this:The painful experiences dramatised in Omagh—the horror of the event, the stonewalling and cover-up by state officials—will clearly resonate with families who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York. Like Omagh residents, they, too, have watched with increasing horror at the unceasing subterfuge and lies from the Bush administration. Any bets we get a similar spin from the movie? On the other hand, he also made "The One That Got Away": |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-17 15:32 |
| #7 Greengrass will use handheld cameras and other stylized techniques to give the film a gritty feel. Also rendering the film unwatchable. Here's his IMDB page. In a (favorable!) comment on his movie "Bloody Sunday":
Another positive comment: Towards the end, the film does tend to skip realism a bit, as it seems to side with the demonstrators a tad too much, while showing off all English soldiers as cold blooded killers. On the whole though, a very watchable film. [8/10] Odds are it'll be more Hollywood crap. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-17 15:21 |
| #6 "2nd major studio fim" So what was the 1st??? |
| Posted by: RJB in JC MO 2005-08-17 14:51 |
| #5 Use the right word, damn it! 9/11 was an atrocity, not simply a tradgedy. |
| Posted by: Craig 2005-08-17 13:26 |
| #4 some of the passengers converting to Islam just before impact LOL!! They already told us.....it will be like a "a drama about an Irish civil-rights protest that ended in a massacre by British troops in 1972". Expect lots of pictures of brave Jihadi martyers, dead Iraqi children and orphans crying over the corpses of their parents - juxatposed against Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney clinking glasses at some gala affair - with the orchestra symbols clanging in time to the bombs going off. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-08-17 12:49 |
| #3 Nah - it will conclude by blaming it all on Karl Rove or Bush and Haliburton... If only we hadn't invaded Iraq it never would have happened (yes the LLL does suffer from a time warp....). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-08-17 12:40 |
| #2 I'd put my money on some of the passengers converting to Islam just before impact... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-08-17 12:26 |
| #1 ...You know, if this is done even REMOTELY close to right, the impact on the audiences would be at roughly the same level as that of 'The Passion'. But would anyone care to lay any bets that in the final script, one of the Jihadi will have a change of heart just before the end?.. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2005-08-17 12:23 |