Julianne Moore is Sarah Palin in Game Change, Jay Roach and Danny Strong’s drama about the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign
Julianne Moore (not Tina Fey?) as Sarah Palin, the bespectacled creature from the far corners of the world that the Republican party unleashed during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. At that time, Palin’s Bridge to Nowhere almost took her to the vice-presidency of the United States; now four-time Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore brings her to life in HBO’s upcoming Game Change.
A dramatization of the 2008 campaign, Game Change stars Moore as Palin, Ed Harris as John McCain, Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt, McCain’s senior campaign strategist; Ron Livingston as Mark Wallace, another top McCain advisor; and Melissa Farman as Dancing with the Stars contestant Bristol Palin. No word yet on who’ll play Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and their advisors.
Handling the proceedings is Jay Roach, the director of HBO’s 2008 drama Recount – about the 2000 US presidential election that exposed for all the see the undemocratic workings the world’s self-proclaimed paragon of democratic values – and of the all-star lowbrow comedy Meet the Fockers.
Recount screenwriter Danny Strong adapted John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s bestseller.
Screened at Cannes, Keith Allen’s documentary Unlawful Killing takes conspiratorial approach to Princess Diana’s death
Screened at Cannes on Friday, Keith Allen’s documentary about the British royal family, Unlawful Killing, will likely fail to find the popular reception accorded to The Queen, The King’s Speech, and Will and Kate’s wedding.
After all, the self-proclaimed “antidote to The King’s Speech,” is a documentary that, as per The Associated Press, “claims Britain’s royals are racist ‘gangsters in tiaras’ and Prince Philip is a womanizing psychopath.” In other words, you won’t find any royals protecting deer, rallying the masses to fight Nazis, or saying “I do.”
Three years in the making, the Mohamed Al Fayed-financed Unlawful Killing asserts that Princess Diana and Al Fayed’s son Dodi were killed by the British secret service. According to Al Fayed, the British political establishment (that includes the royals) were horrified that Diana was romantically involved with a Muslim. Diana herself believed that her husband, Prince Charles, was planning her “accidental” death in a car crash.
An official inquest held ten years after the 1997 deadly crash inside a Paris tunnel reached the conclusion that there was no conspiracy or cover-up. Diana’s driver, Henri Paul, who also died in the crash, was blamed for being drunk; also to blame were the pursuing paparazzi. No one was ever brought to trial.
Best known for his work in front of the camera (e.g., Shallow Grave, The Others), Allen says he “didn’t want to make a sensationalist film,” though some may disagree: Unlawful Killing shows a post-crash picture of Diana inside the Mercedes that, as per the film’s press release, has never before been published anywhere.
Ironically, Unlawful Killing may be banned in the United Kingdom for legal reasons. The film’s lawyers recommended 87 cuts that Allen refused to make.
Locomotive Distribution is handling worldwide sales efforts for Unlawful Killing.
Anti-gay bigotry, child abuse, and abusive cops among controversial topics in Onir’s omnibus drama I Am
“Why can’t the guy get AIDS from a popular Bollywood actress?”
According to 41-year-old Indian filmmaker Onir – as quoted in The Guardian – that’s what one potential backer asked him when he tried to raise funds for his 2005 AIDS drama My Brother … Nikhil, which features Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, and A Passage to India leading man Victor Banerjee.
Things didn’t get any easier when Onir sought financial backing for the omnibus feature I Am, a compilation of four short films about controversial topics inspired by real-life stories: Gay rights, child abuse, police harassment, and a single woman’s search for a sperm donor.
Released in Indian cinemas last April 28, I Am got made only thanks to donations made by way of … Facebook. Those donors reportedly provided one-third of the film’s $675,000 budget.
I Am is spoken in Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Kashmiri.
“Julianne Moore Is Sarah Palin, Diana Death Conspiracy Documentary” notes
Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin image via People Magazine.
*last modified in January 2026.
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