Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Interview: Boisterous Morgan Spurlock on Latest Film ‘Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:57:38 -0700

CHICAGO – Morgan Spurlock wants to change the world. The creator and filmmaker who took on fast-food giant McDonald’s in his first film (“Super Size Me”) is now taking on the current global war on terror and the image of the most wanted terrorist in his new film “Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?”

Traveling to the “hot spots” in the Middle East including Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Spurlock talks both to the leaders and people of the regions.

Morgan Spurlock in his new documentary “Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?”.
Photo credit: Daniel Marracino, The Weinstein Company

Not only does he light-heartedly search for the elusive Bin Laden but he also tries to promote understanding about why a harmful byproduct like terrorism can emerge from religious and political movements.

HollywoodChicago.com recently interviewed Spurlock about the context of his documentary and also to get an idea of why he approached this particularly complex theme as a subject for a new movie.

“Movies are an incredibly inspiring medium. Movies do have the ability to transcend culture, transcend countries and transcend the barrier of language,” Spurlock said.

He added: “Hopefully through film you can get people to start to think about things in a way they normally wouldn’t. People look at films as an entertaining medium. For me, if you can entertain and get others to think at the same time, then you’re actually accomplishing something pretty great.”

Morgan Spurlock in his new documentary “Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?”.
Photo credit: Daniel Marracino, The Weinstein Company

The trademark in Spurlock’s method is humor. He establishes this early through an animated prologue that describes his impending fatherhood and then morphs into a video-game style that pits him against the evil image of Bin Laden.

“We were about six months into post-production when – in the middle of the night – I got the idea for the video-game look. I thought it just made sense because it was a typical ‘good versus evil’ video-game scenario you experience when playing,” Spurlock related.

“I also wanted a bridge from my generation to the younger generation as well. This style spoke to me. I hope it speaks to others,” Spurlock said. “We started working with Curious Pictures, which developed the popular game ‘Rock Band’. They helped make that video-game look a reality.”

“I wanted to give more voice to the moderates and the ordinary people who usually don’t get a platform. The more we empower those people, the less influence an extremist like Bin Laden has.”

~ Director Morgan Spurlock

In preparation for the trip to the Middle East, Spurlock went through language lessons, booster shots for potential disease and survival training.

“It messed with my head a bit when they started to talk about potential injuries as in: ‘What do you do when you’re shot in the neck?’ When you talk about things like that, it makes you realize you’re going into possible grave situations. It can get a little hairy,” Spurlock said.

And so it was. When going into militarized zones like the Gaza Strip and Afghanistan, there were several dangerous stops along the way. Through it all, though, Spurlock talked to the native people of the areas to get information and understanding about the grip that Bin Laden has put on the world.

“I wanted to give more voice to the moderates and the ordinary people who usually don’t get a platform,” he asserted. “The more we empower those people, the less influence an extremist like Bin Laden has.”

Morgan Spurlock in his new documentary “Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?”.
Photo credit: Daniel Marracino, The Weinstein Company

In mixing with the different countries, Spurlock exposed the control on thought and action that governments and religion have on people. In Saudi Arabia, two adult officials sat in on an interview with 18-year-olds and an orthodox section of Israel wanted him out and his cameras off.

“[The orthodox Israelis] are closed off to outsiders to begin with,” he recounted, “but there was one individual who came up to us and assured that the situation didn’t represent everyone. That one scene speaks volumes for the whole movie – that it’s a small group of radical people who will take aggression to another level.”

Morgan Spurlock in his new documentary “Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?”.
Photo credit: Daniel Marracino, The Weinstein Company

Spurlock chose not to debate politics and noted the extreme factions on both sides of one particular conflict.

“The bigger picture of what I wanted to do was paint a portrait of what people have to face on an everyday basis,” Spurlock said.

He added: “[I exposed] the people in Palestine who live within walls and have to go through multiple checkpoints just to get home to the everyday people in Israel who have to live under the threat of bombs – and even bombs shot from Gaza falling from the sky.”

It’s a valiant thesis as a movie and is another in a long string of rational “why can’t we just get along?” propositions. It’s also frustrating to realize we live in a world of Bin Ladens.

This has perpetuated the U.S. to wage war when the average citizens of the conflicted regions simply want peace for their children.

Spurlock dedicated his film of peace, love and understanding to his new, 16-month-old son. He concluded: “The goal for me was to try and create a forward-thinking movie – a movie that would ask the question: ‘Where do we go from here?’”

“Where in World is Osama Bin Laden?” opens on April 18, 2008. In Chicago, the film will show at AMC River East, Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema, Landmark’s Renaissance Place Cinema and Century 12 Evanston.

More From the Mind of Morgan Spurlock

On fellow documentary maker Michael Moore:

“The one thing about Michael – and people can say what they want about him – but whenever he makes a movie, he creates a topic that immediately becomes headlines on newspapers, magazine covers and broadcast news. To be able to generate a dialogue about a topic just from a movie is tremendous influence.”

On “Super Size Me” and its influence:

“The film caused a lot of people to look at their business practices. Even more important, McDonald’s eliminated super-sized options and came out with a lot of healthier menu items. What was really satisfying was how individuals wanted to change their diets.

I meet people every day who show me old pictures of themselves and say: ‘This used to be me. I lost 100 pounds because after seeing your film I changed the whole way I ate.’ It’s an amazing little film for what it did. I’m astounded by it every day.”

On whether he has eaten at McDonald’s since and if his son will ever go there:

“I haven’t been back to a McDonald’s since March 2, 2003 where we had a party for my final meal there. When my son – who is being raised in a vegan household – is ready for a real hamburger and a real milkshake, there are so many better places to take him to.”

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Final Poster Art Released For Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?’

HollywoodChicago.com — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:08:44 -0700

CHICAGO – Following up on our Feb. 25, 2008 report with poster art for The Weinstein Company’s new film “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” by Morgan Spurlock from “Super Size Me” fame, we have just been sent the final poster art for the new documentary, which opens on April 18, 2008.

Spurlock also produced “What Would Jesus Buy?”. In “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?,” he tours the Middle East to discuss the war on terror with Arabic people. The art for the film’s second poster can be found below. Click on the image for a full-size version. For purposes of comparison, we also have the first poster following the new art.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Official Poster Art Released For Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:29:18 -0700

CHICAGO – The publicist for The Weinstein Company’s new film “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” has sent us the project’s official poster art. The documentary, which is slated for release on April 18, 2008, comes from the mind of Morgan Spurlock from “Super Size Me” fame.

Spurlock also produced “What Would Jesus Buy?”. The new poster art can be found below. Click on the image for a full-size version.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

News You Need: ‘Enemies’ in Chicago, NBR Awards ‘Old Men,’ Filming ‘Freakonomics’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:35:30 -0700

Mann to Ambush Depp Outside the Biograph: Michael Mann and Johnny Depp have agreed to film “Public Enemies”. It’ll be a Chicago-based film about Depression-era gangsters set in 1933 to 1934.

Depp will play John Dillinger, according to Variety. The film is slated to start shooting in Chicago on March 10, 2008.

Michael Mann.
Photo credit: IMDb
Mann wrote the script based on the book by Bryan Burroughs. Depp recently backed out of Mira Nair’s “Shantaram” due to WGA strike-related script problems.

Since 2006’s “Miami Vice,” Mann has been jumping on and off abandoned projects. “Public Enemies” sounds close in tone and period to an untitled Hollywood noir written by John Logan that stars Leonardo DiCaprio. That project fell through due to a budget climbing in excess of $100 million.

Mann also was attached to “Empire” – a media-mogul drama again written by Logan (which its proposed star, Will Smith, recently compared to “Richard III”) – along with a former Martin Scorsese project entitled “Frankie Machine”. “Frankie Machine” was due to star Robert De Niro and be rewritten by Alex Tse (“Watchmen”).

Mann was possibly to step in and direct “Edwin A. Salt,” which is a CIA thriller to star Tom Cruise.

Its original director, Terry George (“Reservation Road,” “Hotel Rwanda”), recently dropped out due to script problems. Despite the strike, Mann also wouldn’t commit without a rewrite to the screenplay by Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium,” “Ultraviolet”).

Depp and Mann previously almost collaborated on an adaptation of “Death of a Dissident” about the assassinated former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Mann, who was born in Chicago, previously filmed “Thief” and “Manhunter” in the Windy City.

Then the NBR Woke Up: The National Board of Review (NBR) – annually the first film awards organization announcing its prizes – has named its best film of 2007: the Coen brothers’ “No Country For Old Men”. Other awards follow.

Javier Bardem in “No Country For Old Men”.
Photo credit: IMDb
Top 10 films (in alphabetical order): “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford,” “Atonement,” “The Bourne Ultumatum,” “Into the Wild,” “Juno,” “The Kite Runner,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Michael Clayton” and “Sweeney Todd”

Best actor: George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”

Best actress: Julie Christie, “Away From Her”

Best supporting actor: Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford”

Best supporting actress: Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”

Best adapted screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, “No Country For Old Men”

Best original screenplay: Diablo Cody, “Juno,” and Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”

Best director: Tim Burton, “Sweeney Todd”

In recent days, the NBR was rumored to have ousted influential member Annette Insdorf. She’s the head of the Columbia University film department and an acclaimed scholar on Francois Truffaut and Krzystof Kieslowski.

Documentarists to Get Their ‘Freak’ On: A who’s who of documentary filmmakers will each take on the non-fiction best-seller “Freakonomics,” according to Variety.

The film has enlisted Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp”), Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), Laura Poitras (“My Country My Country”), Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”) and Jehane Noujaim (“Control Room”) to each direct a documentary segment on chapters in the book.

The film will be produced by Chad Troutwin and Seth Gordon (“The King of Kong”). The controversial book, which is written by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Steven J. Dubner, is full of lateral thinking.

It uses pop culture and data to argue (among other things) that legalized abortion might lead to a lower crime rate or that beginning drug dealers on Chicago’s south side make less money than the starting counter wage at Burger King.

The authors also maintain a blog for further debate.

Spurlock has been the talk of movie blogs recently. Speculation spread that his next film, “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?,” actually contains an interview with bin Laden.

Morgan Spurlock.
Photo credit: Rebecca Sapp, WireImage.com
This sudden news was based on two things: first, a conveniently truncated Variety quote from June.

Most sites reported the film’s director of photography, Daniel Marracino, as saying: “We’ve definitely got the Holy Grail.” Still, the majority neglected to continue the quote: “Visually, this film is just going to be gorgeous.”

Secondly, there was a bidding war for the film at the Berlin Film Festival won by the Weinstein Company – last February. AICN alleges that the Weinstein Company spent $25 million on a 15-minute preview.

It took blogs from both The Guardian and the New York Times to debunk the rumor.

“Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” debuts at the Sundance Film Festival in Jan. 2008. “Freakonomics” plans to shoot in the beginning of January and hopes to be completed by the summer of 2008.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com