Conservative commentators in the US have already begun lining up to denounce Team America: World Police, the comedy due this autumn from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, writes Hugh Linehan.
The movie about a terrorist-fighting squad, filmed using one-third-scale puppets, is being criticised as yet another attack on President Bush by Hollywood liberals. But among those who may be shown in a less-than-flattering light are Ben Affleck and Michael Moore. "We only went after people who at least invited it," said Stone.
Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge posted a story under the headline "Paramount Puppet Movie to Mock Terror War." The article quoted a "senior Bush adviser" condemning the film as "unconscionable" for making fun of terrorism.
Less than a week after the Drudge Report item appeared, the Wall Street Journal reported that Move America Forward, a conservative group whose website features criticism of Fahrenheit 9/11, was also attacking Team America sight unseen. The group's chairman, Howard Kaloogian, was quoted as saying it would be "inconceivable" for film-makers to have spoofed the Nazis during the second World War.
"That's totally ridiculous and absolutely, historically wrong," said Stone, pointing out that wartime Bugs Bunny cartoons showed Bugs battling the Germans and Japanese. "It's what everybody did."
Fahrenheit hits home in 11/04
Michael Moore has confirmed that Fahrenheit 9/11 will receive its DVD and video release in the US four weeks before the presidential election, a time frame the director has favoured since May's Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, a recent LA Times poll showed that, despite the fact that it has taken almost $120 million at the US box office, few undecided voters and almost no avowed Bush supporters have seen Moore's film.
Tinseltown Bushies lie low
Not every Hollywood star supports John Kerry. The September edition of Details magazine outed such luminaries as Adam Sandler, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Simpson, Shannen Doherty and Mandy Moore as silent supporters of George W. Bush who don't join the campaign trail and make their political views known, unlike loud and proud Democrats Whoopi Goldberg and Barbra Streisand. However, Moore has angrily denied she supports Bush. Her publicist tells American website Pagesix.Com, "Mandy is not, nor has she ever been, a Republican." Mandy Moore is 20.
More kids TV raided
Following on from the travesty that was Thunderbirds, classic British TV of the 1960s will be plundered again with the release next February of The Magic Roundabout, a feature-length, computer-animated version of the 1960s children's show, which was written by French author Serge Danot and adapted by Eric (father of Emma) Thompson.
Sir Ian McKellen will be strapping on the springs to provide the voice of Zebedee, the eccentric, spring-loaded hero. He'll be joined by Jim Broadbent as Brian the Snail, Joanna Lumley as Ermintrude the cow, Bill Nighy as Dylan and Ray Winstone as Soldier Sam.
Worryingly, Robbie Williams will provide the voice of Dougal the dog, while Kylie Minogue is spectacularly miscast as Florence.
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