Death of a President, the fictional documentary by British director/creator Gabriel Range, is set to be released in the United States.  One of the most talked-about movies from the Toronto Film Festival has sold the distribution rights to Newmarket Films.  This will not be the first provocative film the company has handled, Mel Gibson used Newmarket to distribute The Passion of the Christ.

Nemarket reportedly paid $1 million for Death of a President and is expected to release the film in the US in the coming months.  The movie is set around events that eventually culminate in the assassination of President George W Bush.  Maybe a good holiday movie?

The film was shot as if it were a TV documentary, although, obviously the events are fictional.  Range used film stock from three visits President Bush made to Chicago.  The movie opens with demonstrations in Chicago against Bush as he visits the city in 2007.  As the US President is leaving a hotel after giving a speech, he is shot by a sniper.

In an interview Range explained audience reaction, “The reaction of the general public was very good.

“People didn’t know what to expect. Our film has a very striking premise but it is not sensational or gratuitous. I hope people will see it as a balanced film and compelling drama. It is an oblique look at the ways the United States has changed since 9/11. We use the lens of the future to explain the past.”

“We portrayed the horror of assassination. … I don’t think anyone would get the idea of assassinating Bush from this film,” Range said.  

Hollywood legend Kevin Costner, on the other hand, was negatively affected by the assassination film.

He says, “It’s awfully hard if you’re his children, his wife, his mother, his dad; there’s a certain thing we can’t lose as human beings, which is empathy for maybe the hardest job in the world.

“Whether we think it’s being performed right or not we can’t, like, wish…or think that’s even cute.”

Ever the patriot, Costner.  Well, I suppose he has played enough of the American hero roles…

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