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Sarah Palin talks with people as she walks in for the premiere of “The Undefeated,” the new documentary on the meteoric rise of Palin, in Pella, Iowa, on June 28. AP PHOTO
Palin documentary to be shown uncut BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK
Creating a stir
Los Angeles Times
Of course, politicians on both the right and left have often been subject to hateful speech and worse: President Barack Obama has been the target of racist language and threats from various quarters, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was the victim of actual violence in Arizona. But Bannon said he believes Palin has been a singular target of hatemongers. The filmmaker said his alternative version would be released to television via on-demand platforms and a deal with DirecTV. Bannon said he aimed to make a movie that didn’t wade into ideological questions. He said he wanted a film that shows how a woman worked her way to the top of the political heap, but one that also subverts assumptions about her politics. “In the popular imagination, Gov. Palin is a lightweight who’s an ideologue, and the reality is so different,” Bannon said. “This is a woman who’s the kind of political leader we need today because she builds a coalition,” Bannon said, citing, among other things, her support of energy legislation in Alaska that angered large oil companies. Palin created a stir at the recent premiere in Iowa when she said in an interview that Hollywood is “full of hate.” Although Bannon said Hollywood was a secondary focus of his film, he believes that when it comes to Palin, the entertainment business ignores performers who cross the line of civility.
LOS ANGELES — “The Undefeated,” Stephen Bannon’s documentary about the emergence of Sarah Palin on the national political scene, aims to show what the filmmaker calls a “pop-culture beatdown” of the former Alaska governor. Although the film has been tagged with only a PG-13 rating for “brief strong language” by the Motion Picture Association of America, Bannon said he has created an explicit cut of the film that demonstrates that beat-down in more graphic terms. “I took out all sorts of violence and masked the vulgarity for the theatrical release because I wanted families to be able to see the film,” Bannon said in a recent interview. In the cut that will be shown starting Friday in AMC movie theaters, including Oklahoma City’s Quail Springs Mall 24, Madonna, Louis C.K. and Pamela Anderson are among those shown in public appearances to be using epithets about the former vice presidential candidate. Bannon said the new cut would feature things including “crucifixions, lynching and suicides,” but declined to say who was behind these comments or where they appeared, saying only vaguely that they came from “Facebook and Twitter.” “People think Tina Fey is the worst of what’s out there, and they have no idea,” he said, referring to the actress’ impersonations of Palin on “Saturday Night Live.”
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‘Pooh’ craves sweet spot between old and new BY DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES — When the filmmakers of “Winnie the Pooh” were tasked by the Walt Disney Co. with creating a new story about the honey-loving bear two years ago, they had no interest in computer-generating Pooh and his friends. They also wanted no part in projecting Pooh’s latest Hundred Acre Wood adventure in three dimensions or upgrading his classic bound storybook to a tablet computer. Instead, directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall sought to faithfully return Pooh to his handdrawn origins for a feature film reminiscent of the 1960s’ Pooh shorts, while also appealing to kids who’ve grown up with the action of “Toy Story” and “Cars.” “After we watched the first ‘Pooh’ films, we felt strongly those characters would still be funny,” said Hall. “The pacing was our challenge. We knew the pacing in those old films would not work, but we couldn’t crank it up to the level of today’s films because it would break ‘Winnie the Pooh.’ We had to find a line and walk it. That took the most work.” “Winnie the Pooh,” debuting in the U.S. on Friday, will be the first time the Hundred Acre Wood residents of A.A. Milne’s beloved books have marched into theaters since 2005’s “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie.” In recent
Animated characters, from left, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Tigger, Piglet (top), Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Rabbit are shown in a scene from “Winnie the Pooh.” DISNEY PHOTO
years, Pooh and pals have strayed away from their storybook roots, appearing in direct-to-DVD movies and as puppets and computer-generated characters in Disney Channel series. “When a character has been around for as many incarnations as Pooh, you sometimes don’t realize when you drift away from the source material that made it resonate in the first place,” said voice actor Tom Kenny, who plays control freak Rabbit. “In the same way that I think
it’s smart to reboot 007 or Batman, that’s basically what they did with Pooh.” Jim Cummings, who has portrayed Pooh for more than 25 years in films, TV shows and video games, returns as the voice of Pooh and Tigger, as does Travis Oates as Piglet. New actors take on the other roles, including talk show host Craig Ferguson as know-it-all Owl and Pixar and Sesame Street animator Bud Luckey as lovably dismal donkey Eeyore. John Cleese narrates.
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011
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