British director Gabriel Range insists he had to show President George W. Bush being assassinated in new movie Death of a President, otherwise his powerful message would have been diluted.
Death of a President has been hit with a torrent of criticism for depicting the fictional slaying of the leader, but he insists he needed to use real-life political figures to spark a debate on the state of the world.
The film shows Bush shot dead in Chicago in 2007. The film then follows an investigation into the ‘murder,’ carried out by a Syrian gunman.
He says, “I think it’s very important that Bush is a sitting president.
“If it was a fictional president, the reaction would be completely different, like watching 24, and would have undermined the entire idea.
“I wanted it to feel like it’s about the world we live in now.”
The world premiere of Death of a President at the Toronto Film Festival ended with the audience giving Range and his movie a standing ovation.
Bush ‘Assassination’ Team Receive Death Threats
Makers of the controversial film depicting a fictional attempt on President George W. Bush’s life are receiving assassination threats of their own.
Death of a President has been hit with a torrent of criticism for depicting the imagined slaying of the leader, but now director/producer Gabriel Range and studio bosses fear for their own lives.
Bodyguards were hired to protect the team at the British movie’s Toronto Film Festival premiere last weekend after a string of unsettling letters.
Peter Dale, head of production company More4, confirms, “We received unpleasant emails and passed them on to our lawyers.
“They challenged the making of the film and our right to show it.”
Earlier this week Range sold U.S. distribution rights to the movie to Newmarket Films.
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