AnInconvenientTruth Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's one thing to disagree with somebody. It's another to censor them. That's the central problem with the United Kingdom's decision to condemn The Great Global Warming Swindle, a documentary by Martin Durkin arguing exactly what its title implies.

A response to the global warming awareness popularized by An Inconvenient Truth, Durkin's film was considered disingenuous from the perspective of British broadcast regulator Ofek, which ruled that Channel 4 violated the country's boundaries of impartiality when it broadcast the movie last year. Apparently, Durkin manipulated his subjects in order make them verify his questionable stance that global warming was a conspiracy.

Now, I find it hard to buy into any movie that puts its ugly one-sided argument right in the title, but there's something to be said for freedom of speech in this case. What's the U.K. doing with these nonsensical impartiality laws? Since when do documentaries have to remain objective and avoid agendas? Even your average PBS program takes a side. The ruling suggests a totalitarian mindset where art is subjected to a group think mentality, and that's scary. What if The Dark Knight were banned for condoning torture? Maybe that's an extreme comparison, so try this one: What does Ofcom think about Michael Moore?

From global warming to toasting a presidential candidate? Davis Guggenheim, who won an Academy Award for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, is reportedly working on a film about Senator Barack Obama that will be shown during the Democratic National Convention in late August, according to The Huffington Post.

Guggenheim was seen accompanying Obama during his visit to Butte, Montana, on Friday afternoon. Guggenheim said only that he was traveling with his son and doing some interviews, though a tipster told a reporter the film shoot was on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the convention. An Obama staff member later told the New York Post that "elements of what [Guggenheim] is shooting may be used," but declined to be more specific.

The Huff Post article says that Davis Guggenheim's father, Charles Guggenheim, chronicled John F. Kennedy, though IMDb shows that Charles Guggenheim won an Academy Award for Robert Kennedy: Remembered, a live action short subject that was compiled from footage that Guggenheim had shot over the years.

An Inconvenient Truth didn't move me as it did many others, but it would be interesting to see if Guggenheim could make something that would liven up the convention broadcast. No word on whether Senator John McCain has recruited any Academy Award-winning documentary filmmakers, though Variety described him as "a major movie freak" back in January 2007; he picked John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate as his favorite political film.

Turning movies into Broadway musicals may still be a hot trend (the latest to hit the stage to mixed reviews is Saved!), but the idea of turning movies into operas is gaining heat. Just two weeks ago, we heard about an operatic adaptation of the global-warming doc An Inconvenient Truth. And today The New York Times reports that the New York City Opera has commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen to create an opera version of Brokeback Mountain. Of course, the production won't necessarily have anything to do with Ang Lee's Oscar-winning 2005 film. The Times notes the commission is for an opera based on Annie Proulx's original short story.

So, we may not get to see Jack Twist sing the line "I wish I knew how to quit you." But the plot of the story is pretty much the same as the movie, and therefore fans of the latter will likely find the opera just as appealing. Such a melodramatic tale, about the romantic relationship between two young married men, should feel right and appropriate for the highly emotional medium. It may seem a bit silly to imagine an opera featuring costumes consisting of plaid button-downs and cowboy hats, though. What do you think? Are you interested in seeing Brokeback Mountain: The Opera? And are there any other movies you'd like to see get the opera treatment?

The New York City Opera plans to premiere Brokeback Mountain in 2013.

[via Vulture blog]

Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn't reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy's Milan opera house, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the erstwhile vice president enforces in the film, although one imagines they'll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It's not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that's for sure: The way it's assembled in the film, Gore's lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made -- but that singular charm doesn't necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a massive stage spectacle.

It's too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it's hard to envision anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I can see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner's Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant "Give us Gore" from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge ... but maybe that's pushing it.

David Letterman: Voice of a generation. National treasure. Documentarian? Yes, the man who almost single-handedly shaped my sense of humor when I was a teenager is backing a documentary about five young people running for office in their communities. Cameras will follow them around through Election Day, five weeks from now.

As reported in Variety, the film (as yet untitled) is being funded by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants. The candidates, all 18 except for one 20-year-old, are running for city council or mayor in their various communities; SlashFilm has more details on who they are and where they live, if you're curious.

Despite Letterman's involvement, the film is not expected to be a comedy, nor is it meant to mock the subjects. On the contrary, Letterman said in a statement that he admires them: "When I was their age I was still delivering papers on a paper route, and I wasn't even very good at that."

The film has some serious liberal street cred. It's being directed by Michael Moore's former assistant Jason Pollock and produced by Lawrence Bender, who also produced An Inconvenient Truth (and, somewhat less relevantly, most of Quentin Tarantino's films).

Worldwide Pants was initially set up specifically for Letterman's talk show back in the NBC days. Since then, always acting under Letterman's direction, it has produced TV shows such as "Ed," "Everybody Loves Raymond," and "The Bonnie Hunt Show." The company has only made one theatrical feature so far, the cult hit Strangers with Candy, in 2005.

[via SlashFilm.]

Good ol' Al Gore has some such a very long way. After being Bill Clinton's Vice President, he "lost" to George Dubya Bush in his own Presidential bid and slipped off the radar. Who would have ever imagined that a few years later, he'd make waves with a Power Point presentation-turned-super-popular documentary called An Inconvenient Truth, win an Emmy, and Oscar, and now, the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes folks, The Age reports that his Nobel nomination came through with a co-win that he shares with IPCC chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri.

He is, of course, "deeply honored" to win the $1.5 million prize, and will be giving his share to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which is a non-profit organization he founded last year. Gore says: "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

Not everyone agrees, and Australian Age includes a rather amusing run-down of their own country's political responses. Prime Minister, John Howard refused to watch the documentary and wouldn't take policy advice from films. Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said: "There are three places I do not go for advice on climate change," and proceeded to list the Labor Party of Australia, the movies, and "unsuccessful candidates for the US presidency." Obviously, not everyone shares their opinion, and it's pretty impressive to see continued recognition coming from one small film. So, how long will it take for the next round of presidential hopeful buzz to fade, or will this actually convince him to try again?

In a spaceship, in an underwater vessel or in an Arctic or Antarctic station, some of the best science fiction takes place in an isolated setting. More precisely, such locations are the convention of the narrower genre of sci-fi horror, in which remote environments combined with tight, claustrophobic spaces are perfect for the unleashing of our worst fears. This is, of course, obvious to any viewer, who recognizes these are places difficult or impossible to escape or be rescued from. But more importantly these settings allow for psychological conflicts that parallel, heighten or even overshadow the genre's typical conflicts with aliens, sentient computers or supernatural beings.

Take Larry Fessenden's latest film, The Last Winter, which is set in an Arctic station and follows all the rules of the sci-fi horror genre, while almost completely leaving out the physical conflict. Yes, it features a supernatural threat, but it doesn't need one, because the film works so brilliantly as simply a psychological mood piece. In most of these kinds of films, the creature or villain is the pay-off for the audience that seeks some sort of spectacle, or at least some material baddie to make for a cinematically appropriate, externally battled climax. In The Last Winter however, the spectacle actually falls flat because it consists of disappointingly horrible special effects.

I don't mean to sound cynical, but I'm not surprised that the new environmental documentary The 11th Hour timed the release of a new trailer with the recent Live Earth festivities to capitalize on a little free press. The official MySpace page has the theatrical trailer, with an introduction by DiCaprio himself. The 11th Hour was produced by DiCaprio, and he also narrates. Directed by Leila Conners Petersen, the film's 'manifesto' is to "explore how we've arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth's ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course". There is also an official site up and running with plenty of educational resources as well as some extra info on the various talking heads that appear in the film. There is a pretty wide spectrum; from Professor Stephen Hawking, to Ray Anderson, an interior furnishings mogul who has become one of the best examples of how industry and environmentalism can peaceably co-exist.

This is probably a pet project for DiCaprio, who has been pretty involved in a variety of environmental causes over the years, and has been a vocal supporter of Power Point presenter extraordinaire, Al Gore. To be honest, the trailer alone has already scared the bejesus out of me -- and strangely enough, it almost looks like a big-budget action picture -- with the added bonus of emotionally scarring images of penguins overrun by trash heaps and shameful footage of Hurricane Katrina victims. While this doesn't exactly seem like a fun night at the movies, it's the kind of film you almost feel guilty about not watching. The 11th Hour is slated to hit theaters on August 17.

If this summer movie season shows us anything, it's that Hollywood has gone sequel-crazy. These greedy studio executives keep demanding more explosions, more superheroes, more Power Point presentations about global warming! Wait...what was that last one? Yes folks, An Inconvenient Truth Part 2 is on the way. It doesn't mention whether former presidential candidate (and, many would argue, rightful winner) Al Gore will be involved again, but I would imagine he'd have to be. According to the Truth's director, Davis Guggenheim, "I'm meeting with Paramount next week to talk about a sequel to Inconvenient Truth. Too early to talk about details." Considering the extremely low-key nature of the original, it was churned out in a mere five months, and that quick turnaround could mean we'll see the sequel in time for the 2008 presidential election.

Guggenheim had been largely a television director before An Inconvenient Truth hit it big. He was behind the camera for episodes of great shows like Deadwood and The Shield. He branches out again for his new movie Gracie, which opens on June 1st. It's a scripted film, stars Dermot Mulroney and Elizabeth Shue, and is about a teenage girl who fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer. Don't know if it will be as powerful a soccer film as the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Ladybugs, but we shall see. Truth won the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award earlier this year, and also picked up a win for Melissa Etheridge's incredibly average theme song. I thought the movie was very informative and entertaining enough, but I could have gone for a lot less scenes of Al Gore walking around to lame narration. There's still a lot to learn about the environment and where the world is headed, I'd be up for a sequel. I can hear the trailer now: "An Inconvenient Truth 2. The truth...just got a lot more inconvenient."

Who knew that the laughable disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow would be one of the most influential blockbusters of the decade? Sure, this might not have been the case were it not for the success of An Inconvenient Truth, but nonetheless, we are about to see a bunch more eco-disaster pics. I already alerted you about Otherworld, which features demons that are unleashed against humanity because of global warming. Now, producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis have announced their adaptation of Frank Schätzing's German novel The Swarm, which features aliens that are unleashed against humanity because of global warming. The De Laurentiises will partner with German producers Ica and Michael Souvignier and Till Grönemeyer, who have been linked to the project for awhile now.

Unlike most alien invasion movies, the aliens of The Swarm come from the bottom of the ocean. And unlike the underwater dwellers of The Abyss, these aliens are ticked off by pollution rather than nuclear weapons. Besides having to compete with the similar-sounding Otherworld, The Swarm will also have to follow in the footsteps of the badly titled eco-disaster movie from M. Night Shyamalan, The Happening, which features nature unleashed against humanity because of global warming. One thing The Swarm has going for it is Oscar-winning screenwriter Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs), who will hopefully keep the movie from being as silly as the rest. The latest report on the adaptation doesn't mention anything about Uma Thurman, who last year was said to have bought the rights to Schätzing's book with the Souvigniers.