Spielberg’s LINCOLN To Come Out After The Election To Avoid Fox News Derp
Steven Spielberg talked to the Orlando Sentinel about his about-to-shoot movie Lincoln, and while he confirmed stuff we already know (it’s only about the last four months of Lincoln’s life, it’s a drama not a Civil War battle movie), what was interesting was his discussion of the release date.
“The movie will be purposely coming out AFTER next year’s election. I didn’t want it to become political fodder.”
I get that to an extent - the GOP will seize on being the party of Lincoln, after all, and Spielberg is a lefty who won’t want to give Rick Perry any ammunition - but I also like when movies become vitally enmeshed in the cultural and political debates of the day. It’s exciting when movies aren’t just things to see in theaters but are things that live with us in our discourse, that impact the way we see current events and that take on new meanings because of the situations of the day.
That only means the film will come in December, of course - I can’t imagine that this isn’t Oscar bait, and holding it until the first quarter of 2013 makes zero sense at all when it comes to awards. So I would expect the early festival buzz/marketing for the movie to still wind up the Fox News Derp Machine, where they try to pretend that the values of Lincoln are still the values of the GOP.
