At about 3:15 this morning, Michael Moore sent out a message to his mailing list entitled “Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film…” At about the same time, the New York Times was publishing Jim Rutenberg’s “Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush.”
Nice timing, Mike. I mean, your new film, Fahrenheit 911 makes its debut at the Cannes Film Festival next week and all. And shucks, this is just like when HarperCollins tried to censor your book, Stupid White Men. Gosh, why is the corporate media always picking on you?
Except that Rutenberg’s piece in the New York Times makes it clear that Moore—or at least his agent, almost certainly knew that Disney would block the film’s distribution a year ago:
“‘We advised both the agent and Miramax in May of 2003 that the film would not be distributed by Miramax,’ said Zenia Mucha, a [Disney] company spokeswoman, referring to Mr. Moore’s agent. ‘That decision stands.’”
This is a carefully coiffed publicity prank, plain and simple, and I can’t believe that Disney is collectively stupid enough to follow in the footfalls of HarperCollins. Except those footfalls lead all the way to the bank.
Disney won’t let its Miramax subsidiary distribute the film in the United States, even though Miramax paid Moore’s production costs for the film (estimated to be somewhere around US$6 million - pocket change by Hollywood studio standards). So Miramax will have to split distribution revenues with a third party. Poor pitiful babies, Moore’s last film, Bowling for Columbine, which likely cost a similar amount to produce, grossed more than US$50 million at the box office alone.
Corporate Media America may not like Michael Moore, but they sure don’t mind riding him to the bank. Just so long as it doesn’t interfere with their larger interests:
“Mr. Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor.
“‘Michael Eisner asked me not to sell this movie to Harvey Weinstein; that doesn’t mean I listened to him,’ Mr. Emanuel said. ‘He definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that’s why he didn’t want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn’t want a Disney company involved.’”
If Moore comes back from Cannes with an award for Fahrenheit 911, bet the farm that all parties involved will oh-so-quietly kiss and make up, endangered tax breaks be damned. This whole show is choreographed with the delicacy of a professional rasslin’ match.
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