Oliver Stone And Nicolas Cage Do 9/11: The Movie

In what’s possibly the most insensitively-timed announcement ever - what with people still missing after the London terrorist blasts - Paramount Pictures have told the world that next year will herald the arrival of the first September 11th movie.

The movie - directed by Oliver Stone (DVDs) - will feature Nicolas Cage (DVDs) as Sergeant John Maclaughlin, who became trapped alongside fellow officer William J. Jimeno during a rescue operation amidst the collapsed towers.

Despite Stone’s assertion that this is going to be "a work of collective passion, a serious meditation on what happened [that] carries within a compassion that heals," hecklerspray can’t help but wonder what direction this somewhat dubious project is going to take.

Does the world really need a 9/11 movie? This isn’t some little-known, Hotel Rwanda-style atrocity that needs to find a wider audience. Pretty much everyone on the planet knows what went down on that grim September morning. Even those living in caves. Especially those living in caves.

Cage isn’t exactly renowned for being a subtle performer - witness his hyperactive gurning in the likes of Snake Eyes and Face/Off. Surely the best director for this would be someone who could reign Nicky in… who could stomp on his jittery tendencies and coax out a restrained, sensitive performance?

In short: someone other than Oliver Stone.

Stone’s pretty well known for being a conspiracy theorist, some of his ideas occasionally stretching the fabric of logic. Isn’t anyone else worried that this is all going to turn into some madcap, flashfire-edited collage of scenarios that even David Icke would cast aside as being "a bit far-fetched"?

There’s another worry, of course - Paramount’s insistence that the story will "focus on the officers’ rescuers and their families" conjuring up images of cheesy TV-movie sentimentality, all of which would only serve to cheapen the serious events being dealt with.

To put things bluntly: hecklerspray doesn’t really think this is a good idea.

Coming soon - Colin Farrell (DVDs) stars in Capital Strike, the inspiring tale of a tube worker risking his life to save others caught up in the July 7 explosions.

Think we’re joking? Give it five years…

[story by C J Davies]