MUMBAI: George Clooney’s Smoke House production company and Warner Bros Pictures are planning to team up to remake Rachel Boynton’s political documentary Our Brand is Crisis, as a dark comedy, says www.Hollywood.tv founder Sheeraz Hasan.
The original documentary was a behind-the-scenes look at the 2002 Bolivian presidential election when Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (aka Goni) hired the Ragin’ Cajun James Carville’s Washington, D C based consulting firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to help him get him elected president.
Quoting Variety magazine, Hasan says Goni didn’t have a chance with the Bolivian people because in their view he was too closely aligned with US interests, initially. So Goni had Carvell, who had won the White House for former president Bill Clinton, fly in with his team, who were great at using focus groups, sloganeering and smear tactics. Although Goni won by a narrow margin, Bolivia descended into crisis under his leadership and he was ultimately forced to resign.
Adapting the story for the big screen will be Peter Straughan, who wrote Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution, a feel good comedy following one dysfunctional family’s journey from 1968 East Midlands to freezing East Germany and back again.
The film will be released in August of this year in the UK.