Depending on where you fall on the political spectrum, the following will either be good or bad news- Director Michael Moore has announced that after his latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, is released this fall, he may be taking a vacation away from the genre to try his hand at fiction films.
While I’ve been making this film I’ve been thinking that maybe this will be my last documentary…I have been working on two screenplays over the last couple of years. One’s a comedy, one’s a mystery, and I really want to do this.
There’s no denying that the George W. Bush years have been good for the liberal Moore. The three documentaries he released during those eight years – Bowling For Columbine (2002), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and Sicko (2007) – are three of the top six grossing documentaries of all time according to boxofficemojo.com. Is he anticipating things are going to get better under the Obama administration? Perhaps. But perhaps he’s just a bit burned out on doing politically-themed work and is just craving a switch.
This won’t be Moore’s first break away from documentaries. In 1995 Moore directed the comedy Canadian Bacon, in which a United States President starts a faux-war with Canada to distract from an economy and approval ratings that are in deep decline. John Candy stars as a Niagra Falls sheriff who, with a few friends, launch their own invasion north across the border. Though, the film wasn’t greeted too warmly by the critics and failed at the box office, it isn’t without its charms. One particularly satirical scene involved Candy and friend’s van being pulled over by a Canadian motorcycle cop (played by a cameo-ing Dan Aykroyd) because the anti-Canadian slogans painted on the side of the van were not in both English and French.
Via Detroit News.
