The film industry isn’t too eager to address terrorism on screen since the attacks of 9/11.
Oliver Stone delivered the painfully forthright “World Trade Center,” and the far superior “Flight 93″ offered a harrowing take on that tragic day. But too many filmmakers simply ignore the biggest threat to modern society.
Two films recently did just that, and they ended up going straight to DVD.
Is the industry afraid of what these films might tell us?
“Five Fingers” (set for a July 7 release) stars Laurence Fishburne, Ryan Phillippe and Colm Meaney (“Layer Cake”) and focuses on a terrorist who slices off his captive’s fingers one … by one.
“Incendiary,” which hit DVD stores last month, stars Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams in a story revolving around a London terrorist bombing.
Never heard of either film? Join the club.
Both feature “name” actors and compelling storylines. So why couldn’t either land a theatrical release in the U.S.?
WWTW could set off the conspiratorial alarms, but it’s most likely due to the same reason plenty of other high profile movies bypass theaters.
The industry is in flux, and only films that have a highly marketable gimmick (like being based on a Sid and Marty Kroft TV show from the ’70s) get into your local cineplex.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hollywood has lost its balls.
I’ve never heard of Five Fingers, but Incendiary got terrible reviews on its UK release, and I don’t think it did anything at the box office here either.
It’s easy to say some of the movies that go directly to DVD stink … and it’s often the case.
But “Land of the Lost” is pretty terrible, too … and it got rolled out in thousands of theaters.
Yes, that’s true. But my point is that there isn’t really any mystery about why Incendiary is going straight to DVD: as far as the distributors are concerned, it’s a proven flop.