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No More Docs for Michael Moore, He's Working on Two Features

by Alex Billington
August 2, 2009
Source: The Detroit News

Oh the times, they are a-changin'! The Detroit News recently interviewed filmmaker Michael Moore for the Traverse City Film Festival and got a very interesting scoop out of him. When talking about his next upcoming documentary, titled Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore revealed: "While I've been making this film I've been thinking that maybe this will be my last documentary... Or maybe for a while." Really? This is good news for haters of Michael Moore, but what is he going to do instead? "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."

Before we get any further, let me remind you that even though Moore got his start with documentaries directing Roger & Me in 1989, he also wrote and directed the cult comedy classic Canadian Bacon starring John Candy. So he does actually have some experience with regular features. But why end with Capitalism: A Love Story? "I thought, why don't I just go for it and go right to the source of the problem -- an economic system that is unfair, it's unjust and it's not democratic. And now we've learned it doesn't work," he says. "This issue informs all my other movies. I started thinking if I can only make one more movie -- I started thinking this of course during the Bush years -- what would that movie be? And this is the movie."

So once he finishes up Capitalism: A Love Story, which is currently due out in theaters on September 23rd, he'll probably start working on these two other projects he's got in the works. To be honest, I'm actually kind of excited to see him take a break from documentaries, not because I love Canadian Bacon, but just because it'd be good to see him work on some fictional features. I'm actually a fan of his documentaries (yea I know, whatever) but wouldn't mind seeing him stretch his legs elsewhere. As far as I know, this is the first we've heard that he's not making any more docs, and there's no more info on his two other projects. Thoughts?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Chris H.

As HUGE of a hater I am of his "documentaries", for those of you who have read my comments on previous posts on Moore's activities, I think he'd be great at making movies designed for entertainment. I enjoyed Canadian Bacon quite a bit and his "documentaries" show he knows how to really grab the attention of the audience. Though I hate all that he has done by passing BS as fact, I may become a big fan of the Michael Moore who makes normal movies.
Xerxex

as a Doc director...meh. But perhaps as a Director of actual movies, then perhaps I'll refrain from punching a kitten.
Cufford

Just pointing out that your post title says:"No More Docs for Michael Moore" yet the same blog post quotes him as saying "...or maybe for a while." So what is it? 1) He stated he's done with Documentaries, as the title of your post says... or 2) as he actually said, he's not planning on doing any more right away. You call this journalism? I didn't think so!
harrison

yay but he never really was a doc film maker, id throw those movies in the drama category, all works of fiction with real people and places mixed in, but im with #1, as much as i hate moore for his crapshows i enjoyed canadian bacon
Al

i never knew he made documentaries. i always saw his films as science fiction.
Caitie

I despise Micheal Moore haters. His documentaries are amazing and I think the people that do hate him are just closed minded and unwilling to except the truth. I have not seen Canadian Bacon yet but I'll have too eventually. I have faith in him to give us more then just docs. But I hope after a while he will return to them. And even if your a Bush lover who was not able to handle the truth in Fahrenheit 9/11, you have to admit that he made some great points in Bowling For Columbine.
Al

#6, but....Bowling For Columbine was worse than Fahrenheit.
Chris H

#6, if you actually did any real research on the "facts" he presents, like I did after being suckered into his lies, you'd find out there really is no truth to virtually anything he says. Instead of despising Moore haters, why not open your mind and find out for yourself what the truth really is. That's what I did. I wanted to find the truth to shove it into the faces of Moore-haters... only to discover that Moore had been feeding me nothing but bags of horse poo... and I was paying money for it.
http://thenickb-log.blogspot.com/ nitroslick

I'm with you, Alex. I'm a fan of Michael Moore's documentaries, but would love to see him tackle a few features though. I hope his new one isn't his last, but maybe taking a break might do him some good...
cutie pie johnson

#6????? I'm a Democrat and Bush hater and think Moore is nothing but a propagandist and liar so what category are you going to thrown me in? All you have to do is just a little bit of research and you'll find out that his so called documentary's are nothing more than fiction for sheep like yourself to blindly follow. wake up!
Zac

I'm liberterian, so I very much disagree w/ all that Michael Moore does. Someone should make a Mock-u-mentary called Bowling for Michael Moore. Try to confront Michael Moore and politely ask for your money back for his DVD's. Make up the fact that they killed many, many ppl that viewed them and only HE is responsible, not the actual individuals that bought them.
Xerxex

I like Bush as a person, he looks fun. Politics...meh.
dan

at #6 : i hate MM because his only "talent" is to capitalize on the tradgedies in the world. if he does decide to do feature films, we'll see that this guy is just a "hack" who doesn't know the first thing about making a real movie.
Caitie

Okay since so many of you are going off on me about how he lies can you please just cite your sources and tell me exactly what he lies about. I'm not just trying to be sarcastic but it would be helpful if you were more specific about your research to me. Thanks.
http://bustedkeys.com Busted Keys

with the editing skills Michael Moore has to put a good spin on the documentaries, it would seem natural for him to be able to tell good stories through features. he does put a perspective on things and i appreciate that in his work. but the borderline misinformation is what bothers me.
The Rogue

I'm with Caitie on this one. While I certainly keep obvious bias in mind whenever I watch his doc's, I do enjoy them. I would like to see the results of some of this fact checking rather than just saying "All you have to do is just a little bit of research and you'll find out that his so called documentary's are nothing more than fiction". This gives me nothing to go on. I know there are some down sides he doesn't report, and he's definitely left leaning. Blatant lies though, that I'd like to see.
Robbie

I'm looking forward to his mystery-project.
history repeats

michael moore is a good man. he tackles issues everybody thinks are taboo. he goes after the meat. gun control, political corruption, health insurance and now wall street. there are alot of ways to make money he chose one that exposes the true evil in our lives. you might not agree with him, but thats probably because you live inside the box!
history repeats

all you people talking about his spin: his spin is basically the cherry on top. the meat is the FACTS that he reports. he might have a politician saying something out of context, but look up the real issues. the fact that the bin laden family was rushed out of the country after 9/11, nobody knew that! he shed light on it. there are many issues he brings to the fore front. he has a little fun, but he doesnt lie.
Fed Up With Hollywood

Michael Moore is such a pathetic piece of crap. I say we take off and nuke Michael Moore from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
Luke

Moore's been making films based on fiction for years! What's different?
Rory Partalis

There was a counter movie to Fahrenheit 9/11 called Celsius 41.11 and to be fair to the Michael Moore haters, I watched that as well and it was the crappiest thing I've ever had to sit through. It was nothing but personal attacks and sob stories and very little along the lines of rebuttals to the facts in Fahrenheit 9/11. In case you never did your homework, Michael Moore began to cite all of his sources for his movies on his website and would post and counter all the attacks being tossed around too. Here are the arguments against and his response to Sicko (a must watch for the current health care debate) - http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/checkup/ Here's the same for Fahrenheit 9/11 - http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/f911reader/index.php?id=16 And here's one for Bowling for Columbine - http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/wackoattacko/ In my opinion these documentaries are more factual than most news because of the intense scrutiny they are put up against and the openness of his sources. They also do something that is lost today, called investigative journalism. But back to the content of this article - I hope he still tackles some tough topics with his feature films, but would love another comedy classic like Canadian Bacon.
Al

the Matt Stone interview in Bowling for Columbine is a good example of Moore using editing to make people believe things that aren't true. The cut to that south park esq animation wasn't made by Stone, and it was obvious that Moore tried to make you belief Stone was implying the KKK are in the NRA. thats one example of Moores editing techniques.
Violet

Ummmmm no #23 the cartoon in Bowling for Columbine that you are referring to was never linked to South Park. There was a section where Matt Stone was interviewed & South Park showed for a second. But the 2nd cartoon that you are talking about was never linked to South Park, never (e.g. KKK, NRA in that cartoon). It was a cartoon, and maybe if you were just watching the film instead of seeing the film you would have picked up on that. What is wrong with you people? Talk Michael Moore for what he's worth. He makes a lot of good points, and Bowling for Columbine is one of my favorite documentaries of all-time. He makes valid points about gun control in the U.S. and our idea of "slums" v other civilized countries. The facts regarding us aiding those in other countries who then turned around and attacked us is 100% true. These things are all true. If you read up on current events, and paid attention you would know these things. The U.S. trained their own enemies. Fact. I was a political science major at a very well know University and these facts were known to me before I ever watched his films. Stop hating...just don't watch his stuff if you don't like it.