Michael Moore says ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ follow-up is not a sequel

With his follow-up to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore wants to examine America as an empire, study its standing since the Sept. 11 attacks and present revelations to surprise audiences as much as the first film did.

But he doesn’t want to make a sequel.

“To just say it’s a sequel is so wrong,” Moore told The Associated Press yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he met with potential international distributors for the film, due out in 2009.

The documentary announced this week at Cannes will be a broader chronicle than “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which took President Bush to task over the terrorist attacks and the Iraq war.

“It would be easier and safer to make a sequel, if that’s all it was, but this isn’t about Bush. We all know this. Regardless of who the president is come November, we have a big mess, a big, big mess to be cleaned up, and I don’t know whether it can be cleaned up,” Moore said. “The toxicity of the spill may be so great that there’s nothing we can do about it. If that’s the case, where are we now as America and as Americans?”

“Fahrenheit 9/11″ won the top prize at Cannes in 2004 and went on to top $100 million at the domestic box office, the only documentary to hit that mark.

Moore plans to keep details of the film to himself, saying he regretted talking too early about his health-care documentary “Sicko.” Health insurers were able to mobilize against him, which “made it impossible for me to get in anywhere” for interviews, he said.

The new film, which doesn’t yet have a title, is being financed by Overture Films, which is handling the U.S. release, and Paramount Vantage, which is overseeing international distribution. Read the rest of this entry

Michael Moore making ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ sequel

Paramount Vantage and Overture Films will co-finance and distribute Michael Moore’s follow-up to his 2004 Palme d’Or winner and global smash Fahrenheit 9/11.

Vantage will commence pre-sales here in what should become one of the hottest titles on the market and Overture will release in North America in a likely summer or autumn 2009 slot. Shooting in the US is expected to begin imminently.

Referring to Moore’s global reputation and the first film’s $225m worldwide gross, Vantage president Nick Meyer said Moore represented a “killer brand”, adding that the title would contain the words “Fahrenheit 9/11 ½.”

Moore’s two other theatrical hits include this year’s Oscar nominee Sicko and the 2003 Oscar winner Bowling For Columbine. Read the rest of this entry

‘The Visitor’ New Trailer

In The Visitor, the great Richard Jenkins stars as a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor named Walter Vale, whose life is change by a chance encounter in New York City.

In its best moments, the film is a celebration of the transformative power of music, as elderly, worn down Walter learns the drums from an energetic and likable illegal immigrant, and the trailer does its best to highlight that. It’s also a meditation on the issue of immigration, and though that’s only lightly touched on in the trailer.

Director: Thomas McCarthy
Writer: Thomas McCarthy
Studio: Overture Films
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman
Release: April 11, 2008