Are you seeing little green men again???????
But folks of course you knew the movie was coming...shameful CBS
Elian: The Movie
Just in case you've been, say, in a coma for the past couple of months and have no idea who this Elian Gonzalez is, CBS is ready
to help you out.
Yes, Elian: The Movie is coming to the network this fall, possibly for November sweeps.
As explained by CBS President Leslie Moonves, the ripped-from-the-headlines project will tell the story of Elian's dramatic trip to
Florida (in which his mom and stepdad drowned in the Atlantic), the ugly custody fight between his dad and Miami relatives, the
greater political battle between Cuban expats and Castro, and the boy's ultimate fate. (That is presuming the 6-year-old boat
boy's case is resolved by the fall...if not, there's always February sweeps.)
The Elian story will be told in a two-part, four-hour TV-movie, Moonves says. "I thought it was a two-[hour movie] until about
three days ago," he explains. "But I keep seeing the story grow. There's another movie just in all the Janet Reno stuff." That "stuff"
is a reference to personal negotiations held by the U.S. attorney general.
Moonves says the movie would be based primarily on public records of what has transpired, but he said producers also have
secured rights to the story from "certain people in the family." (We're guessing the same Miami-based relatives who invited
cameras in to film the boy.)
The move by CBS comes as the media's role in the Gonzalez case is under fire. Several media
critics and children's welfare professionals have bashed the airing of Elian's videotaped plea to stay
in the U.S., as well as the interview ABC's Diane Sawyer conducted with the boy.
And while NBC, ABC and Fox have no plans to do Elian projects (the endless coverage of the
kid's every move, notwithstanding), CBS remains gung-ho. "We're going to do it as quickly as we
can," Moonves pledges. "It'll be a high-profile project for us."
No script has been written and no one's been cast yet.
As for the real Elian, he remains in Miami with his great-uncle and other relatives. On Friday, the Justice Department asked a
federal court to force the release of boy by his relatives, who earlier in the week ignored a Justice Department order to return
Elian to his father. |
