Still Eggplant

The first trailer for this movie is now online. Go check it out! Looks quite good. Loved the book — even if the writing wasn’t first rate.

I have been following with interest the progress of a film production company, Participant Productions, that was founded by Jeff Skoll. Skoll got his money from eBay like his fellow philanthropist Omidyar. Skoll set up the Skoll Foundation. But he also has been developing this under-the-radar film production company out of Hollywood. It’s goals really are to advance political films with messages that promote progressive causes. And he’s had some success with North Country, Good Night and Good Luck, and Syrianna all being films this group has produced. I’ve been curious why there’s been no press on the fact that this one company has backed all three films. In fact, even when Entertainment Weekly did a story about how there’s an uptick in political films (and mentioned all three of these films), it did not mention Participant.

But today I just read an article in the New York Times that talks about this. I thought you all might find it interesting. Me, I think there’s a lot there about how films carry subtle messages about what is important or not. Even seemingly innocuous movies like Robots can carry a powerful Nurturant Parent frame. Then there are movies like Man of Fire which have an equally powerful but opposite Strict Father frame. I find it interesting how there’s now a production company (well that would be two since there’s conservative counterpart) that is trying to exploit the power of mass media.

I am looking forward to going to see this movie because it’s one of those BIG, IMPORTANT MOVIES. Seriously, it’s a movie in an old, new genre which is a politically motivated movie that hopes to also become a box office hit. It cost $50M to make. And that’s some serious bucks there. I hope it is good and actually does well as I would really like to see more good movies that have something to say. And that’s despite my sometimes near manic dessire to see fluff.