Risking Wrath
To me, Gregg Kinnear signing to play President John F. Kennedy in an allegedly right-wing-friendly History Channel miniseries called The Kennedys means one of two things.
One, Kinnear isn’t all that worried about liberal Hollywood establishment types frowning at this decision, which some are certain to do. Or two, he really needs the work and is willing to risk offending those (like Robert Greenwald and former Kennedy confidante Theodore Sorenson) who’ve sounded alarms about the tone and political leanings of the forthcoming epic.
Rabid conservative Joel Surnow is exec producing The Kennedys. The screenplay has been written by Steve Kronish while Jon Cassar will direct. Kronish and Cassar are alums of the right-wing-minded 24, which Surnow co-created. A History Channel spokesperson told Daily Variety‘s Michael Schneider that that the mini’s script “is currently being annotated and vetted by History’s resident historians.”
Katie Holmes is also on-board, presumably hired to play Jackie Kennedy. Barry Pepper and Tom Wilkinson will also costar.
Update: Yesterday afternoon (4.28) L.A. Times columnist/blogger Patrick Goldstein claimed to have read “the scripts” (he doesn’t say how many) and concluded that they’re “pretty impressive, and certainly well within the bounds of propriety, especially considering the reams of conspiratorial, often sleazy revisionist histories that have been written about JFK’s womanizing and the Kennedy family dysfunction. The casting of Kinnear as JFK also makes it hard to believe that Surnow is doing a hatchet job, since if Kinnear is anything, judging from most of his roles, he is the epitome of someone who represents middle-American decency and idealism.”
Tom Wilkinson is all right.
Wilkinson, indeed, is fine; I presume he’ll be Lyndon Johnson and Pepper will be Robert F. Kennedy?
Casting aside, I’m not sure I could be compelled to watch another (or what feels like another) JFK biopic. Even if it’s meant to be a less reverent version of history (as I assume this will be), I just don’t care.
That said, is this the first History Channel feature?
I don’t know how anyone who has watched 24 could call Joel Surnow a rabid conservative, or the show right-wing minded. Even if he claims it, he’s full of shit. Almost every season the true villain on that show is revealed to be an American, often a shady businessman or a contractor.
Thanks for the Kinnear tip. I was always suspect of him, and I’m not just saying that now. A lot of people said he was good in stuff like “Autofocus” and “The Matador” but I always knew there was something not quite right about his political leanings.
This confirms everything.
Not so sure about Barry Pepper, either. Better keep an eye on him.
Barry Pepper is hot off that CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame flick with Winona Ryder. Both of them are great actors and probably too good to be doing schmaltzy TV movies, but I’d be hard-pressed to think of a duo less likely to be making such a thing.
Next Sunday, maybe CBS can present Cole Hauser and Tara Reid in the frontier-era romance LOVE WALKS IN.
Forget this and the other mini Tom Hanks is planning on the assassination, I wanna see Aronofsky make his Kennedy picture. There’s an over-saturation of Kennedy projects in the works and Aronofsky’s should be at the forefront due to his involvement alone.
To be fair to Kinnear, he played a right-wing cypher bad guy in Green Zone so he’s balancing out his projects.
He could also be thinking that playing John Kennedy is one hell of a role.
Greg Kinnear is the whitest man in Hollywood. If they cast Chris O’Donnell as Bobby (GOOD CASTING) that’ll be the whitest duo in Hollywood history on screen at one time.
Burma: Agreed. Even as the show has descended into predictability for plot twists, it’s best when it chews over the cost of extremism on either side of the political spectrum.
Kinnear is going to need a major wig on his head in order to pull off JFK.
Crabtree, do you have a program where you can just plug in the name of an actor and have it create one of your sarcastic posts like the one above?
You sound like a broken record. At least when Jeffrey posts these stories he’s attempting to give some context each time.
I wish I could help Travis Crabtree keep an eye on my fellow Canadian ,Barry Pepper, but I know nothing about his politics. He is now shooting the “True Grit” remake. I did see a domestic tv documentary some time ago on Pepper shooting the 2003 Canadian film, “The Snow Walker” directed by actor-writer Charles Martin Smith, an American who now lives in British Columbia, Pepper’s native province. It was based on a story by Farley Mowat, a very outspoken liberal character. who also wrote “Never Cry Wolf.”
Greg Kinnear owns, and it’s really nice to see him doing well for himself in his eclectic movie roles.
Having said that, I really do miss his daily hosting gigs on Talk Soup and Later.
Just how underrated was he? Smoothest, smartest, most pleasant guy to EVER host his own show in the godawful 1:35-2:05 AM Insomniac/Meth-head Time Slot.
My Late Night High School Viewing Routine Circa 1995:
Stern 11PM – 11:30PM/Midnight (E!) : I’d skip the Letterman monologue and stay tuned if there appeared to be a surplus of hotties and/or midgets on the 2nd show
Letterman 11:35PM – 12:35AM (CBS) : Not nearly the ’80s comedy ingenue he once was, but he was still usually worth catching.
Conan 12:35PM – 1:35AM (NBC) : Still with Richter. A lot of people will tell you the show peaked later, but I actually preferred . Can’t miss TV.
Later 1:35AM – 2:05AM (NBC)
My Late Night Viewing Schedule Circa 2010:
Movie (Usually DVD) 9:00PM – 11:00/11:30PM
Daily Show (Not really a big fan, just usually on while checking HE) 11:00/11:30PM – 11:35PM
11:35PM – 11:40PM Bored with Letterman’s Monologue. He really needs to retire.
11:40:00PM – 11:40:02PM Switch accidentally to Leno while channel-surfing. Hate him.
11:40:02PM – Midnight Sportscenter. Not technically a talk show, but I usually find it much more entertaining.
Midnight – 12:01AM Charlie Rose. Not a filmmaker or entertainer of note on? Switch.
12:01AM – 12:06AM Kimmel. How exactly did this guy EVER manage to get his own show? Did he even do stand-up before becoming a TV personality? Based on his monologue delivery, all signs seem to point to “no.”
12:06AM – 12:10AM Fetish porn. Yes, I’m horny (and also quick).
12:12AM Bed. Also getting old.
Fucking hell…
This could just be a Bay State thing – I dunno if the rest of the country exists under as much constant Kennedy allusion – but will I *ever* get a Kennedy movie that isn’t some sort of hagiography OR takedown?
Y’know what I’d like to see? A Kennedy movie that plays out like the non-action parts of Iron Man: “See this guy? This guy RULES! He nails movie stars and models, he’s rich as hell, he’s a badass war hero AND he gets to be President! You think you know cool? Bullshit! Cool is making a sandwich with Marilyn Monroe and the priciest call girl in D.C. within arm’s-reach of a button that blows up the world!”
JFK: You Wanna Be This Guy. THAT would be a movie.
Citizen, it is interesting to think of the alternate universe where Kinnear is neck deep in these Late Night wars. Also you’re underrating Kimmel, he’s coming into his own.
Citizen…. that’s some 90′s memories there…. I almost forgot that Stern’s E! show was an integral part of my late night viewing.
lazarus…. yeah, I know I sound like a broken record… in fact, I’m tired of posting that same snarky jive…. but I’m afraid I’m going to just keep on doing it as long as Wells keeps acting like some kind of reformist, Year Zero Khmeran intent on smoking out, banishing and imprisoning Hollywood types who don’t happen to vote for the same people he votes for.
It’s all quite tiresome you see.
Has Wells ever described a liberal as “rabid?”
Travis: You’re such a good little soldier. God knows what would happen to the national conservative movement (not to mention OUR WHOLE COUNTRY), without their little Hans Brinkers plugging all the the dykes. Do you get a dollar for each one of us you save, or just a warm, fuzzy feeling inside?
Kinnear was pretty damn brilliant doing Talk Soup back in the day.
Never woulda thunk he’d have Bob Crane in his repertoire.
And no one comments on the Katie Holmes casting.
It’s almost stunt casting. Wow. Daring choice.
Kinnear is one of the awesomest dudes in the history of the world, Auto Focus was LIFE-CHANGINGLY brilliant, and his run on Talk Soup was second only to Kilborn as the best hosting in late-night history.
What ever happened to Kilborn? That dude must have pissed off somebody royally. Guy was one of my IDOLS.
Lex – his wikipedia page has a quote that he elected not to re-sign after his contract was up.
I wonder if he felt like he could get a show that he actually owned, instead of one that Letterman owned…
Maybe, but you don’t go from hosting a NETWORK TELEVISION SHOW to absolute obscurity for almost a decade. Are there any conspiracy theories about Kilby’s unfortunate scarcity?
Like, I seriously cannot tell you how much I worshipped that guy, then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, just gone.
Wilkinson is playing Joe Sr. A friend of mine is publishing a Joe Sr. bio next year, so I imagine he’s thrilled that this miniseries will increase his sales.
Going back to a MUCH earlier comment, Burma, I think that 24 can be rabidly conservative in other ways. All of the times that the show gets frustrated with Due Process in favor of “tactics that work,” and how Jack is always teaching some boyscout, by the books government official or agent that the law may be all well and good, but in the real world you can’t live by ideals.
And if you remember the film that came out prior to last season, the only liberal character was a pacifict pussy who ends up hiding in a basement with the children…. quite a bit of that sort of thing.
Villains/masterminds are oftentimes ultimately Americans, but even that seems to carry an exception-to-the-rule caveat to it.
Private militaries are good, just not when they form a cabal of revolutionaries who then develop bioweapons.
Torture is bad, but almost always necessary.
I think at the end of the day it’s a show that, while created by people with strong right wing politics, tries to reach out to as broad an audience as possible in doing that. I mean, I’m fiercely liberal and LOVE the show. It wants liberals and conservatives alike to look at the story and go, “wow, what a tough decision to make.” Which is oftentimes goodhearted, patriotic stuff full of unlikely everyday heroes, etc, etc.
But then when the conclusion to that decision is something like “I guess his rights SHOULD have been suspended” or “thank God for the Patriot Act,” I roll my eyes a little bit.
Lex, I always heard that Kilborn, as funny and as charming as he was on air, in real life was a douche (wasn’t the whole joke of his character on Wedding Crashers that he was playing a version of himself?). So I’d guess he burned a lot of bridges playing primadonna, or that it at least played a part in it.
Hip Hop Homey: not that I recall.
I guess it’s high praise– there are no conservatives, only rabid conservatives. I wonder what non-rabid conservatives would look like? My guess is, for this blog’s author they’re all dead, i.e. Goldwater, Buckley the Elder, perhaps even the now-rehabilitated Reagan etc. Of course, they were all “rabid” in their day, but now they’re useful tools to hammer the obviously rabid conservatives of today (even if they’re not rabid, nor particularly conservative).
Why would anyone care about offending rabid liberal Robert Greenwald? Is Hollywood some dark fascist state where the thought-police condemn people while they stroke their cats?
Is it true Eloi Manning was banned?
Lex, Kilborn was genial, and his smoothness seemed genuine, but he was really not funny. It was an interesting vibe to have in late night, but it didn’t fit. Also I think we can trace the roots of your irrational Stewart hatred to your Kilborn love. I will concede Kilborn was alright on THE DAILy SHOW.
The “bad accent” potential in this project is off the charts. Both JFK and Jackie O had very particular voices that will be tough for the actors to capture.
12:06AM – 12:10AM Fetish porn.
Must be a pretty specific fetish to fit in that 4 minute slot. Any hints?
RE: The MovieBob’s JFK: You Wanna Be This Guy. I can see Matt Stone and Trey Parker doing this with Puppets! Now that would be awsome.
Kilborn is a smug fratboy and not remotely funny. He’s not in the same area code as Letterman/Conan types.
Raygo – A gentleman doesn’t tell tales, however if your handle on here was only slightly more feminine — or even mysteriously androgynous — you’d probably have me squealing quicker and louder than Ned Beatty on a backwoods canoe trip. And no, that wasn’t the hint, either!!
Kilborn’s an interesting case. My (foggy) understanding was he did quit The Late Late Show in hopes of starting his own production company, which would possibly even branch out into film. He would presumably have a presence both in front of and behind the cameras. I’m not sure exactly what happened there — or if something still is developing, albeit verrry slowly — but it does appear that his apparent lack of social graces and poor reputation eventually hindered his social networking abilities.
I never thought he was hysterical — and I had a hard time grasping his slightly schizo personality — but he was interesting to watch. Definitely had a different aura than most of the other late-night dudes. And I do agree with Lex in preferring him to Jon Stewart as an absolutely perfect fit for The Daily Show (I’m pretty sure we might be the only two in the entire world, though).
No, I’m with you guys on that as well.
Kilborn was ideal on SPORTSCENTER, he never should have moved on. I remember his voice during the intros as a kid.
I’d say the same for Olbermann, btw.
Kinear’s underrated.
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