Is there such a thing as a good overtly right-wing Hollywood movie? I mean the ones that seem to only exist to speak to their particular audience and shame another? I don't think so, and it's almost a guarantee that the "secret" pro-life Roe v. Wade film directed by Sofia Vergara's ex Nick Loeb (he of that whole frozen embryo debacle) and starring a bunch of anti-choice conservatives is going to be awful.
Former Fox News pundit and GOP congressional flameout Stacey Dash will star as Mildred Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard and the former president of the National Right to Life. Playing Supreme Court justices are a veritable who's who of conservative actors such as Jon Voight, John Schneider, and Robert Davi, along with Corbin Bernsen, William Forsythe, Steve Guttenberg, Wade Williams, and Richard Portnow. Loeb says to expect some surprising cameos from "controversial figures" in the news, too. Would anybody be surprised if Neil Gorsuch or Clarence Thomas does a walk-on? This has Ann Coulter or Dinesh D'Souza written all over it.
The film centers on the landmark Supreme Court case, but it takes a decidedly anti-abortion stance that has made production a headache. See, Roe v. Wade is incredibly popular and especially so right now when it's under greater threat than ever before. So people don't want to have anything to do with a movie that attacks the decision. That's forced Loeb to basically shoot the film in secret, even keeping aspects of its plot away from the people making the damn thing. Still, he's had stars walk out, even crew such as electricians leaving in disgust, and he was barred from shooting at Louisiana State University. They were protested at Tulane, even though Loeb is an alumni.
Some of the shooting was done here in Washington, DC, and when the location manager found out what the movie was, promptly sent an email quitting the project.
Also leaving the film was the actress who reportedly "begged" for the role of Norma McCorvey aka Jane Roe when she found out it was taking a pro-life perspective.
Did I mention the original director also quit on the first day of shooting? Yeah, that's how bad this is. It's the only reason why Loeb and Cathy Allyn are co-directing when they were meant to just co-produce and co-write the script.
So why is this movie happening at all? Loeb says his feud with Vergara over frozen embryos informed his outlook..
"I have my own pro-life issue going on with my fight over embryos, but no one has really told the whole truth about Roe v. Wade in a film. When I delved into this, I discovered conspiracy theories, fake news, made-up statistics and a whole lot of people involved who switched their positions from pro-choice to pro-life, including Norma.”
Loeb insists that despite losing some investors he has enough notable ones, although he won't say who they are. That's fine, they deserve their privacy. A January release date is being negotiated with distributors now, and we'll see where that goes and who it ends up with. They'll hope for the God's Not Dead marketing package, not the Atlas Shrugged one, I'm guessing.
I'm sure conservatives will look at this as an example of the stranglehold the "liberal elites" have over Hollywood, but that's not what this is. I don't see any "elite" anything working on this, and people are within their rights to not want to be part of it. Those who protest don't appear to have done so violently, they also just don't want to have anything to do with it. This strikes me as a broader example of the civility argument going through political circles right now.
I believe anything with Stacey Dash in it deserves some form of protest, and that goes double for Jon Voight. Not necessarily because they're conservative, but because they're both nuts. And they're bad at their jobs. [THR]
