Paul Haggis To Direct Un-Miserable Film For Once

Paul Haggis is good at doing two things: making films so unrelenting miserable that they make everyone in the world want to take their own life after watching them, and winning Oscars for doing it.

But Paul Haggis wants to mix up the system a bit. He’s just signed up to produce and direct Against All Enemies, a movie based on the memoirs of Richard A. Clarke, a former US terrorism brainiac. And, shockingly, Against All Enemies doesn’t contain any scenes of slightly masculine women chewing their own tongues off.

Paul Haggis (DVDs) is currently riding a high that is unlikely to be
matched for the rest of his career. After his Walker, Texas Ranger
creating days are far away enough to be actively forgotten, the script
he wrote made Million Dollar Baby an Oscar-winner in 2005, and his
follow-up Crash also won best picture at the Oscars this year.
Obviously, his stock will fall a little once Casino Royale - which he
wrote the script for - is released. So this is the highest of the high
for Haggis.

Or at least, it would be if not for the fact that Haggis is a wily chap, and knows that
there are a handful of subjects that would keep him in Oscars until his dying day. He’s ticked a
couple of them off (serious films about perceived gender roles, serious
films about how racist Sandra Bullock is), which leaves two choices
left. One is a film about a dead singer - not really Paul’s bag - and
the other is a big long film complaining about the government. Bingo.

So Paul Haggis has signed up to direct and produce Against All
Enemies, an adaptation of Richard A. Clarke’s insider view on the US
government’s cack-handed way of responding to 9/11 and invading Iraq.
Haggis is currently supervising the second draft of the script, while
also writing another film, Death And Dishonour.

Then the next task for Paul Haggis will be the casting of Against
All Enemies - which could prove difficult, as the characters in the
book include Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and George W Bush. We’re
not sure about the first two, but we’d quite like to see B-list
impressionist Jon Culshaw try the Bush role for size. He could even try
to squeeze in some of his hilarious mispronunciations. Oh, wouldn’t
that be a wheeze.

Read more:

‘Crash’ director eyeing timely terrorist thriller - Reuters

[story by Stuart Heritage]