<font size=4>New film challenges 'Fahrenheit 9/11'
'Celsius 41.11' set to open Sept. 28
<font size=3>By ELAINE DUTKA (Hat tip to KLP)
Los Angeles Times
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September 17. 2004 8:11AM
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A conservative grassroots group and a leading Hollywood Republican are teaming up to deliver a rejoinder to Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's controversial documentary about President Bush.
Made over several weeks on a $900,000 budget, Celsius 41.11 is set to premiere Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C. The title of the movie alludes to the temperature at which the brain deteriorates from heat - in this case, from Moore's left-wing rhetoric, said writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, one of Hollywood's most vocal Republicans.
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"You tell enough lies, and the brain starts to die,"<font color=black> he said Wednesday.
The film intersperses footage contrasting Bush's and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's positions on a variety of issues, with interviews from personalities including Republican actor-politician Fred Thompson, journalists Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer, film critic Michael Medved and terrorism expert Mansour Ijaz.
Financial backing for Celsius 41.11 came from Citizens United, an activist group that claims more than 100,000 politically conservative members nationwide. Negotiations are under way to line up a distributor for a national release, said the group's president, Dave Bossie.
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"With only six weeks, start to finish, we don't expect to hit a home run, like Moore,"<font color=black> Bossie said. <font color=green>"But we're hoping for a solid single that will educate people and influence the political debate."<font color=black>
Moore, whose Fahrenheit has taken in $118.3 million domestically to become it the highest-grossing documentary ever, could not be reached for comment.
Bossie said he came up with the idea for a Republican counterpoint to Fahrenheit in July and immediately thought of writer-producer Chetwynd.
Chetwynd and his frequent partner, Ted Steinberg, produced and wrote the documentary, which will have a running time of 80 to 90 minutes. It was directed by Kevin Knoblock, the writer-producer of A&E's Biography Special: Oscar. <font color=green>"What was getting to me was Michael Moore's almost preternatural obsession with getting rid of Bush,"<font color=black> Chetwynd said.
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"We set out to analyze the cause of this deep-seated hatred, the contention that Bush stole Florida, used the Patriot Act to rob people of their civil rights, misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction,"<font color=black> he said. <font color=green>"We're also examining the 'anybody but Bush' rationale, comparing the policies of Bush and Kerry, shining a spotlight on the 'anybody' they found. Rather than doing a hit piece like Moore, we're taking the high road - to the extent that anyone can in this election." <font color=black>
Chetwynd previously wrote DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, a Showtime special that depicted Bush's response to the terrorist attacks. <font size=3>
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