Kristen Stewart is sounding the alarm over the threat of a global nuclear war by getting behind Paul Jay’s feature doc about Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, How to Stop a Nuclear War, which is now in production.
“We’ve grown so accustomed to the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, that it barely registers in our daily lives,” Stewart says in a fundraising video obtained by The Hollywood Reporter for the documentary, which is based on the book Doomsday Machine by the Vietnam-era whistleblower. “But when some new crisis or close call startles out of our slumber for just a brief moment, we truly grasp the insanity of living on a hair trigger to what could be a real-life Armageddon.”
Stewart’s fiancée, Dylan Meyer, is the daughter of Nicholas Meyer, the director of ABC’s groundbreaking 1983 TV movie The Day After and an executive producer of the How...
“We’ve grown so accustomed to the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, that it barely registers in our daily lives,” Stewart says in a fundraising video obtained by The Hollywood Reporter for the documentary, which is based on the book Doomsday Machine by the Vietnam-era whistleblower. “But when some new crisis or close call startles out of our slumber for just a brief moment, we truly grasp the insanity of living on a hair trigger to what could be a real-life Armageddon.”
Stewart’s fiancée, Dylan Meyer, is the daughter of Nicholas Meyer, the director of ABC’s groundbreaking 1983 TV movie The Day After and an executive producer of the How...
- 12/15/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Daniel Ellsberg died on Friday at 92 years after a battle with cancer and barely six weeks after concluding 40 hours of interviews with documentary maker Paul Jay, who is at work on How to Stop a Nuclear War. The feature follows the Pentagon Papers leaker’s efforts to raise an alarm about the threat of a devastating nuclear war.
On Monday, Jay told The Hollywood Reporter that the man who sounded the alarm about the Vietnam War was far more concerned for the rest of his life about the United States and Russia planning for a globally destructive nuclear attack that could be launched by accident, or intentionally.
“Dan considered today’s world more dangerous than during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” the Toronto-based filmmaker said of the Oct. 1962 stand-off between U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro that nearly resulted in a nuclear war.
On Monday, Jay told The Hollywood Reporter that the man who sounded the alarm about the Vietnam War was far more concerned for the rest of his life about the United States and Russia planning for a globally destructive nuclear attack that could be launched by accident, or intentionally.
“Dan considered today’s world more dangerous than during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” the Toronto-based filmmaker said of the Oct. 1962 stand-off between U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro that nearly resulted in a nuclear war.
- 6/19/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Emma Thompson is set to narrate a feature doc about Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” by then U.S. President Richard Nixon.
The Hollywood actress will lend her voice to director Paul Jay’s How to Stop a Nuclear War, which is based on the book Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Ellsberg.
In extensive interviews with Jay for the feature, Ellsberg explains the “institutional madness” of American nuclear war plans and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous, according to a synopsis by the filmmakers.
In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Thompson said she had been fearful of nuclear weapons in her youth and participated in protests against their use, and feels a need to get active again.
“Making the connection between the climate crisis movement and the anti-nuclear movement has never been more essential.
The Hollywood actress will lend her voice to director Paul Jay’s How to Stop a Nuclear War, which is based on the book Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Ellsberg.
In extensive interviews with Jay for the feature, Ellsberg explains the “institutional madness” of American nuclear war plans and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous, according to a synopsis by the filmmakers.
In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Thompson said she had been fearful of nuclear weapons in her youth and participated in protests against their use, and feels a need to get active again.
“Making the connection between the climate crisis movement and the anti-nuclear movement has never been more essential.
- 1/31/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
A feature doc about Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” by then U.S. President Richard Nixon, is in the works.
Director Paul Jay’s How to Stop a Nuclear War is based on the book Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Ellsberg. In extensive interviews with Jay for the feature, Ellsberg explains the “institutional madness” of American nuclear war plans and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous, according to a synopsis by the filmmakers.
Ellsberg famously made copies of the Pentagon Papers and classified nuclear documents during the Nixon administration and leaked the documents to the New York Times and other media outlets in 1971. As a high-level Pentagon analyst, Ellsberg was charged by the U.S. with breaking the Espionage Act.
But the case was dismissed...
A feature doc about Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” by then U.S. President Richard Nixon, is in the works.
Director Paul Jay’s How to Stop a Nuclear War is based on the book Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Ellsberg. In extensive interviews with Jay for the feature, Ellsberg explains the “institutional madness” of American nuclear war plans and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous, according to a synopsis by the filmmakers.
Ellsberg famously made copies of the Pentagon Papers and classified nuclear documents during the Nixon administration and leaked the documents to the New York Times and other media outlets in 1971. As a high-level Pentagon analyst, Ellsberg was charged by the U.S. with breaking the Espionage Act.
But the case was dismissed...
- 11/29/2022
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Yet, even when the film founders on its own self-seriousness, writer-director Steve Lustgarten manages to imbue it with a cinematic intelligence. Ultimately, the film is too academic for the marketplace, but, equally, it displays real talent.
Set in Portland, Ore., the action centers around Paul Jay Horenstein), a mousey photogapher's assistant who spends his working hours being bullied by his philandering boss (Mark Rabiner) and his free time taking photographs, which are usually devoid of human figures.
At least that's the case until he notices Lisa (Nicole Harrison), the teenage girl next door. After she shows up at his door bearing chocolates for sale, he begins to keep an eye out for her, snapping her picture unawares and, inadvertently, spying her nude in her bedroom window.
Lisa turns out to be more forward than Paul, and after teasing him into a day at the beach, eventually lures him into her bed, where his dreams finally come graphically true, and, following painful second thoughts, he begins to shed his painful social inhibitions.
The film fails mainly in the way it reduces the concrete to the symbolic. Paul is a walking psychological problem and Lisa is its ambulatory solution, yet their patency doesn't stop Lustgarten from reinforcing their"meaning'' with more clues and symbols. Even the landscape, particularly at the seaside, is psychological rather than physical. The dialogue is unfailingly awkward, and deteriorates as the age of the speaking character increases.
Nevertheless, Lustgarten does integrate characters and landscape gracefully, alters his editing rhythms intelligently, and controls his sober tone even as the film skirts sensationalism, a noteworthy accomplishment in the face of some extensive nudity. Many of the film's faults are typically, though not egregiously, those of a student project, while many of its virtues are entirely those of an individual.
AMERICAN TABOO
Lustgarten Entertainment Organization
Writer-directorSteve Lustgarten
ProducersSteve Lustgarten, Sali Borchman,
Ron Schmidt
CinematographersLee Nesbit, Steve Lustgarten, Eric Edwards
MusicDan Libonati, Dan Brandt
EditorsSteve Lustgarten, Ron Schmidt
Color
Cast:
Paul Jay Horenstein
Lisa Nicole Harrison
Michael Mark Rabiner
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Set in Portland, Ore., the action centers around Paul Jay Horenstein), a mousey photogapher's assistant who spends his working hours being bullied by his philandering boss (Mark Rabiner) and his free time taking photographs, which are usually devoid of human figures.
At least that's the case until he notices Lisa (Nicole Harrison), the teenage girl next door. After she shows up at his door bearing chocolates for sale, he begins to keep an eye out for her, snapping her picture unawares and, inadvertently, spying her nude in her bedroom window.
Lisa turns out to be more forward than Paul, and after teasing him into a day at the beach, eventually lures him into her bed, where his dreams finally come graphically true, and, following painful second thoughts, he begins to shed his painful social inhibitions.
The film fails mainly in the way it reduces the concrete to the symbolic. Paul is a walking psychological problem and Lisa is its ambulatory solution, yet their patency doesn't stop Lustgarten from reinforcing their"meaning'' with more clues and symbols. Even the landscape, particularly at the seaside, is psychological rather than physical. The dialogue is unfailingly awkward, and deteriorates as the age of the speaking character increases.
Nevertheless, Lustgarten does integrate characters and landscape gracefully, alters his editing rhythms intelligently, and controls his sober tone even as the film skirts sensationalism, a noteworthy accomplishment in the face of some extensive nudity. Many of the film's faults are typically, though not egregiously, those of a student project, while many of its virtues are entirely those of an individual.
AMERICAN TABOO
Lustgarten Entertainment Organization
Writer-directorSteve Lustgarten
ProducersSteve Lustgarten, Sali Borchman,
Ron Schmidt
CinematographersLee Nesbit, Steve Lustgarten, Eric Edwards
MusicDan Libonati, Dan Brandt
EditorsSteve Lustgarten, Ron Schmidt
Color
Cast:
Paul Jay Horenstein
Lisa Nicole Harrison
Michael Mark Rabiner
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
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