Posted on 05/05/2004 11:02:22 PM PDT by Pikamax
By JIM RUTENBERG and LAURA M. HOLSON
Published: May 6, 2004
ASHINGTON, May 5 — Michael Moore took to television on Wednesday to denounce the Walt Disney Company's refusal to allow its Miramax division to distribute his new documentary criticizing President Bush, stoking a controversy that Hollywood executives expect to lure new distribution partners to the project and, eventually, audiences.
As Mr. Moore sat for interviews with ABC News, CNN, "Entertainment Tonight" and elsewhere to discuss his film, "Fahrenheit 911," some Democrats in Washington said Disney was quashing dissent. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey called for hearings into `the pattern of politically based corporate censorship of the news media and the entertainment industry."
Disney responded to the brouhaha by questioning Mr. Moore's protests about his film, which is harshly critical of Mr. Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Executives said it was made clear to Miramax last May, when it became the principal investor in the film, that Disney would not let it be the distributor.
"Mr. Moore has had and continues to have every opportunity to either find another distributor or distribute the film himself," a spokeswoman for Disney, Zenia Mucha, said in a statement.
Mr. Moore said he was upset that Miramax would not be the distributor, adding that it was listed as producer and distributor in his contract.
"No filmmaker looks forward to this kind of fight," he said. "You want your film distributed in the way you were told it was going to be distributed."
Disney has a contractual agreement with the principals of Miramax, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, that lets it block the division from distributing films under certain circumstances like an NC-17 rating. The dispute between Disney and the Weinsteins centers on whether "Fahrenheit 911" falls into specified categories.
In Hollywood, film executives said they believed that Mr. Moore's outcry would help raise interest in the film, in ways similar to how Mel Gibson dealt with 20th Century Fox's decision not to distribute "The Passion of the Christ" in theaters.
"The similarity is that the controversy over the movie will produce value at the box office," said Bruce Berman, who runs Village Roadshow Pictures, which helped finance "The Matrix" movies. "Not only will it galvanize people who liked `Bowling for Columbine,' but it puts the movie on `Hardball' and other cable news channels, out of nonentertainment news venues. There's no bad news here for Mr. Weinstein or Mr. Moore."
Sensing that Disney would not budge — board members at two-day retreat last week agreed with the chief executive of Disney, Michael J. Eisner, that another company should distribute the film, a person who talked to several board members said — representatives for Mr. Moore have in recent days sought to find a new distributor.
Robert Friedman, vice chairman of the Paramount motion picture group, said representatives for Mr. Moore left a message on Friday asking whether its executives would be interested in seeing the movie. Mr. Friedman said the Paramount summer schedule was too busy for the movie, which has to be released by Sept. 1 to be considered in the documentary category for the Oscars next year.
Yesterday, Democrats on Capitol Hill sought to draw even more attention to the dispute. Representatives Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, publicly condemned Disney's position.
Behind the scenes, seasoned political hands helped guide the principals. Miramax has retained Howard Wolfson as a public relations consultant for the film. Mr. Wolfson is a former top strategist for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, and a partner in the Glover Park Group, a firm in Washington and New York that includes several high-ranking officials from the Bill Clinton White House.
On the public relations front, Disney has Ms. Mucha, a former top adviser to Gov. George E. Pataki and Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, Republicans of New York.
An executive associated with "Fahrenheit 911" said Miramax had retained the Glover Park Group because its partners were experienced at political sparring and because the contents of the film would create plenty of that.
"The attacks on this film will mainly be of a political nature," the executive said.
A spokesman for Mr. Bush's re-electino campaign, Terry Holt, said the campaign was not worried about fallout from the film.
"The Hollywood political bias is well known, and it's going to be a surprise to no one that Michael Moore opposes the president's re-election," Mr. Holt said.
Mr. Moore said Democrats could be disappointed because the film would take on their party members, too.
"The film is not political for Democrats," he said. "This is not an anti-Bush diatribe. It is, I hope, a skillfully made film that documents our time."
That Mr. Eisner and Harvey Weinstein are at odds is nothing new. But creative differences have for the most part taken a backseat to financial ones since Disney bought Miramax in 1993. For example, Disney vetoed Miramax's desire to finance "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy, one of the biggest successes in Hollywood history for Time Warner's New Line studio, because it was too expensive.
Mr. Eisner said on CNBC on Wednesday that he believed that the film would easily find distribution and that he could "think of about 11 people who would love to have it."
Jim Rutenberg reported for this article from Washington and Laura M. Holson from Los Angeles.
Unless he knows deep inside it is nothing more than shallow political pandering, and an independent move would lead to fiscal loss.
BUMP for all the naysayers who denied that Disney DID finance this film. Variety reported it and there never was a retraction. There was a letter from some exec who denied it but a FReeper kept calling and finally got someone to admit their role in financing (through some other companies).
Wait a minute here. A senator wants to hold hearings to tell a business what it can and cannot support, and he's accusing Disney of "censorship"?
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