Imagine that - that's a real shocker.
Posted on 04/20/2008 8:37:23 AM PDT by blam
Anger as Hugo Chavez gives film star £9m
By Charlie Devereux in Caracas
Last Updated: 1:20am BST 20/04/2008
For years Venezuela's struggling film industry has eagerly welcomed visiting Western stars keen to show their solidarity with the country's radical president Hugo Chávez.
Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn and Harry Belafonte are among those who have trooped to Caracas to witness first hand the country's Bolivarian revolution and Mr Chávez's crusades against globalisation and American imperialism.
But Venezuela's hard-pressed film makers are no longer quite so enthusiastic about these glamourous "sandalistas".
Last week the country's national assembly agreed to pay the second tranche of a £9 million grant to help make a Hollywood star's latest film - a sum that Venezuelan directors complain matches the entire state budget for domestic films over the past five years.
That the payments have been channelled through a new, state-owned studio has angered them even more.
La Villa del Cine was set up by Mr Chávez to nurture homegrown talent and provide a counterweight to what he has labelled the "dictatorship" of Hollywood.
Now it is subsidising a new film, being made by the Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover, telling the story of Toussaint Louverture, who led Haiti's slave revolt in 1791.
Claudia Nazoa, the president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Feature Film Producers, said: "What worries us is this trend for neo-colonisation by international figures who come to talk of their support for Chávez's government - and leave with money for their projects."
Toussaint, which will star Don Cheadle, Angela Bassett, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Mos Def, has been dogged by problems.
La Villa del Cine announced its intention to work with Mr Glover on the project almost a year ago, and half of the funds were approved and transferred last October, but the film remains in pre-production.
Mr Glover's production company, Louverture Films, said he was unavailable for comment.
Last week, La Villa del Cine said in a statement that filming would begin in the second half of this year, on Venezuelan soil. According to the statement, the studio expects to recoup its costs and secure a large profit from distribution.
But on Friday Venezuela's National Association of Cinematic Authors sent an open letter to the studio, saying there were still issues that needed clarification.
Iván Zambrano, the president of the association, said that the head of La Villa del Cine, Lorena Almarza, argued that Mr Glover's film fell under a new "international" category which warranted more investment.
But Mr Zambrano said he still had questions about how the government money invested in the film will be spent.
"They say that the artists will be 30 per cent Venezuelan and 70 per cent foreign," he said.
"We want to know how this co-production will work and whether [the money that the government is investing] will include paying the artists. If you have Hollywood actors charging Hollywood salaries, then the budget will go on just two or three actors."
La Villa del Cine has also shouldered its fair share of criticism.
Some Venezuelan filmmakers complain that it will only produce films that fall in line with Mr Chávez's socialist revolution, an accusation that La Villa del Cine denies.
"Last year we received various different proposals and of the ones which won commissions, none was linked with politics," said Oscar Murat, a project co-ordinator at La Villa del Cine.
Whores chasing movie financing......
I was about to say...Danny, we know what you are. At this point, we’re just haggling over the price.
I do have to ask: When Kevin Spacey met Hugo Chavez, was it the high point of his day?
(Kevin’s, that is. I’m already traumatized by Kevin’s shower scene from “American Beauty”. Hugo reenacting it? I REALLY don’t need that image in my head.)
telling the story of Toussaint Louverture, who led Haiti’s slave revolt in 1791...
LOL! Yeah, hows that working out for you?
Danny Glover...the guy is a class one LOSER...
Danny Glover Salary:
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) $7,000,000
Gone Fishin’ (1997) $2,000,000
But hey! It’s not about politics!...right?
I was willing to overlook Kevin Spacey’s ‘other’ problem as I like his acting.
However this does it. He’s on my sh## list.
I’ve got a feeling that gone fishing will be considered a classic next to this piece of trash.
Hugo giving away the country’s money. They need to send in special forces and end his days on earth.
Glover: International Ho
Birds of a feather flock together.
Je suis trop vieux pour cette merde!
Yeah, good luck with that. It already sounds like a stinker, that's why they can't get any financing from Hollyweird.
Imagine that - that's a real shocker.
I would not hold my breath for an honest portrayal of L’Overture from the likes of Danny Glover....geez.
it went downhill fast from Toussaint
Unless Glover et al register as agents/lobbyists for a foreign government, they will be in clear violation of the law, if he so much as talks with any US government official.
Oh good!
I think he was paid too little.
Never the less, they should have paid him in barrels oil and parked them in his front/back yard and on the roof of his house.
Danny and Jimmy have got to go on a speaking tour together.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.