Another documentary turned into a star-studded movie -
all part of Hollywood’s campaign to save you from documentaries.
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of Our Brand is Crisis...
Man on Wire became The Walk. Batkid Begins will soon be a movie starring Julia Roberts.
And Our Brand Is Crisis was first a documentary back in 2006! But while it’s well-known
that Sandra Bullock’s part was originally written for a man, and that Billy Bob Thornton
is obviously playing famous political strategist James Carville as her competition - did you
know that the original documentary focused on Carville’s team?! It was led by Jeremy
Rosner, the role Bullock ultimately landed, and documentary filmmaker Rachel Boynton had
eye-popping access as the political consulting firm of Greenberg, Carville and Shrum helped
a fat cat become the President of Bolivia. Now in real life, things did not go well for
Bolivia’s new president or Bolivia itself, which Boynton made clear in her documentary.
But will the glossy Hollywood version where Jeremy Rosner is now Bullock’s Jane Bodine
- and directed by a man - also be willing to end on such a dark note? Producers George
Clooney and Grant Heslov have a spotty track record with history, eager to roll up their
sleeves and dig in yet, for example, allow Ben Affleck to play real life Latino CIA agent
Tony Mendez. Plus their last political campaign movie, The Ides of March, which featured Clooney
himself, didn’t exactly get a lot of votes at the multiplex. In contrast, Bullock is
on quite the roll right now, with The Proposal, The Blind Side, The Heat, Gravity and Minions
- surely she doesn’t want to even hint at going back to the days of All About Steve,
Premonition and Miss Congeniality 2. In fact, she’s so worried about it that, disillusioned
by the female roles she was being offered, she was the one who asked if any producers
had a male role they’d be willing to flip. Her Gravity co-star raised his hand, and here
we are. And as actresses become increasingly vocal about the lack of good roles - or salaries
- being offered them, one would think they’d like to do as Bullock has done here - and
as Angelina Jolie did with Salt. But remember ladies, guys make bad movies too. We never
did get Salt 2, and so far the critical response for Our Brand is Crisis has been, well, maybe
Warner Bros should call in their own outside consulting firm. Because while it’s great
to see the lead role gender flipped, it led to the gender of the director being flipped
as well, and maybe both changes might just be for show while the actual heart - and teeth
- of the original true story are gone...