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Thursday, 31st January 2008

How soon is too soon?

Peter Hoskin 4:24pm

"Too soon!" went the outcry when the films United 93 and World Trade Center were released, some 5 years after the events they depicted.  Now - as Peter Bradshaw points out in today's Guardian - filmmakers aren't even waiting for the "dust to settle" on a news-story before moving-in with their cameras.  A production deal has already been inked for a Securitas heist movie, and a Madeline McCann film has been discussed.

There are positives and negatives to the approach.  We might welcome the immediate, first-hand qualities of a short time-lag film (for want of a better term).  Or we might prefer the perspective that a delayed film can bring to the table.  But there are other considerations.  Whether the film's exploitative; its cinematic worth; and, most importantly, the feelings of any connected to the real-life events - surely all these factors, and more, will bear on whether a film's "too soon". 

So what are Coffee Housers' opinions?  Have you ever thought a film was released too quickly after the event?  And how would you feel about, say, a Madeline McCann film being in cinemas next month?

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Max Kaye

January 31st, 2008 7:03pm Report this comment

The Madeline McCann film would feature a reprise of Javier Bardem's role in No Country for Old Men. Anton Chigurh looks just like the sketches of 'suspect'. Spooky.

Title: Home Alone. Oh, I guess that one's been taken....

Sick? You bet! Just like the notion of cashing in for the sake of 'generating awareness'.

THX1138

January 31st, 2008 10:55pm Report this comment

Paul Greengrass who made United 93 & Bloody Sunday is now shooting an Iraq Movie based on the Rajiv Chandrasekaran book Imperial Life in Emerald City with Matt Damon. About time a proper film maker had a go at the mess in Iraq.

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