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Culturegasm: Does Morgan Spurlock have the ultimate exclusive? Osama bin Laden?
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CommentAuthorJohn Smith
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007 edited
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22115291/
Did Morgan Spurlock find Osama bin Laden?
MSNBC News Services
updated 1:59 p.m. ET, Wed., Dec. 5, 2007
Rumors are flying that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame may have done what the United States government has failed to do for the last six years — find Osama bin Laden.
The speculation first began at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where Spurlock showed a select group of potential buyers 15 minutes of footage from his new documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" The film follows Spurlock through the Middle East in his search for the elusive leader of al-Qaida. According to Slashfilm.com, The Weinstein Co. quickly snapped up the picture after seeing the clips.
Adding to the belief, Daniel Marracino, the film's director of photography, is quoted in Variety, saying of the movie, "We've definitely got the Holy Grail."
Whether this is just a genius publicity ploy or if Spurlock actually found bin Laden has yet to be revealed, but the answer should come next year, when the documentary is slated to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. -
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I do quite believe that I would piss myself with laughter should he turn out to have, in actual fact, found bin Laden.
Wouldn't it be ironic if they released that to public theatres, say, one week after a Republican was elected president? -
That would be utterly fantastic in so many ways. So, of course, it'll turn out to be false. The world just isn't that kind.
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CommentAuthorhemlock_martini
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
He may have also discovered why Bin Laden is rumored to be seven feet tall--it turns out it's a side effect for eating nothing but McDonalds' for TWO straight months. -
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Damn, I'd had my money on Google Earth finding bin Laden. (Unless Cheney had him blurred out, too)
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CommentAuthorjoe.distort
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007 edited
i would only care about this if he screened the film at the anti-RNC protests next august, destroying any hope of 4 years of a guliani/mccain/bloomberg neocon regime where everything remotely "objectionable" would be pushed under the rug to make the mostly non-caring middle class feel safe.
and the only irony of showing ths AFTER the election would be the fact that most people are too fucking stupid to see that both parties only have the interests of the rich in mind. ie:bin laden himself and the oil companies. -
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CommentAuthorCat Vincent
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with. Especially in light with the rumours that have been around since late '01 that bin Laden is dead... -
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This is clearly a publicity stunt, and I wouldn't label it 'genius'.
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@Cat Vincent
Oh, if he found irrefutable proof that bin Laden was dead, and that the US Government knew it and the Bush administration hushed it up, I think I would have an orgasm. It would be the death knell of the Republican party. Nobody would ever trust them again, nobody. And the Weinsteins are waaaay to shrewd to wait until after the election to show this. -
- CommentAuthorharchangel
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007 edited
I heard the Weinstien's dropped 25 mil to pick this up.
there has to be a good reason. -
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CommentAuthorCat Vincent
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
@AlexaDickman:
Fingers crossed for that result! -
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CommentAuthorgraphicartistx
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007 edited
Agreed. We all-okay, most of us- want the Republicans to be stomped out. Get some Libertarians in there, dammit! -
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I thought "Super Size Me" was really well-made, so I can't wait to see this because of that alone. The thought of it finally destroying the reign of neo-cons does sweeten the pot, though.
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Isn't Bin Laden on dialysis, too? I don't give a shit either way (there are plenty of psychos more worth "catching"), but I always thought it was odd that the whole world couldn't find one absurdly tall guy carting a freakin' refrigerator-sized dialysis machine around.
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CommentAuthorwarrenellis
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
Yeah, that's what's bugging me. The Weinsteins spending 25 mill on this? That's got to be bullshit and part of the scam. -
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CommentAuthorJohn Smith
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
From Wikipedia:
Spurlock has stated on his blog that his next film will premier at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, although he did not say what the film was about. It has since been reported that this film is titled Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and may contain an interview with Bin Laden himself.
We'll know soon enough.
What about a phoner? Or perhaps Spurlock submitted questions and Bin Laden recorded an audio or video tape response. I just simply can't fathom that Spurlock would be able to put out the feelers in the right places and not attract attention from intelligence forces who, if he actually physically interviewed bin Laden, wouldn't swoop in for the kill.
Or maybe Spurlock knows someone who knows someone and didn't actually have to work hard for it. Anyway, it's a great rumor, I say it's the Weinsteins. -
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He sucker-punched McDonalds and they remained standing. This won't have any effect on Bush, or anyone else for that matter. The Marlboro Man was never trumped by the Cigarette Smoking Man, Smokey the Bear has fewer ads than Camel Joe.
Bullshit and scams aside, the U.S. audience isn't interested in being educated. They just want a good show.
<a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=189441326">-Z</a> -
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CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
- CommentTimeDec 6th 2007
I dunno, this doesn't smell right to me. First off, what would Osama gain by going through with the interview? Why not just release another VHS to Al Jazeera or a similar network if he had something else to say? Second, no matter how good an investigative journalist this dude may be, what exactly did he do that the CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc. didn't think of? I'm not saying its impossible - the intelligence community has fucked up a-plenty many times before - just that the odds seem a little stacked.
I really hope it turns out the guy is dead. I don't think I could stand a trial, especially not after the Saddam fiasco. -
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what exactly did he do that the CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc. didn't think of?
There's a couple of ways it could be plausibly done. Offering him a platform is appealing enough. Don't forget that the interview doesn't have to be face to face.
If I were going to pull off something like this, the way I'd do it would be to offer either a camera, or the cash to buy a camera that wouldn't potentially have a tracking device in it, and a sheet of questions, to twenty or thirty people who seem like they might be reasonable leads. Consider them all written off if they don't pan out which some definitely won't, then give an address where a tape could be sent to.
That way there'd be no direct contact, the bait is the trouble it would cause the US administration, and if it doesn't work, meh - it'd only cost about fifty grand, which, when compared to the $25m dropped is nothing.
It'd be worth trying, even if nothing came of it. So I'd peg this as a maybe. However, seeing as no direct claims are being made, seeding rumours is simple enough to do. -
There was a bit on one of the blogs at the NYT website this morning about this (looking for the link now). The basic thrust was that this is studio hype. The "Holy Grail" comment was taken out of context from a discussion with the DOP about the cinematography.
“We’ve definitely got the Holy Grail,” avers Spurlock’s New York-based director of photography on the project, Daniel Marracino. “Visually, this film is just going to be gorgeous.”
here's the link now
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