Even Tom Hanks isn't sure his movie about Charlie Wilson will draw crowds
IT sounds like a surefire hit for the Christmas movie season: bosomy showgirls snorting cocaine in a Las Vegas hot tub. A rowdy, Scotch-guzzling hedonist splashing in there with them. Oh, he’s also a congressman. Then there’s a rogue C.I.A. operative. Big names on the marquee: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman. All this, and the story is true.
But Mr. Hanks said he and executives at Universal Pictures fear that “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which opens on Friday, could be a dud.
“There’s people at the studio, of course, who are losing sleep over it,” Mr. Hanks said, neglecting to mention that his own company acquired the project and produced the film with Universal. “There’s a possibility that this movie does absolutely nothing. None whatsoever.”
The problem isn’t the sex-and-drugs part, but that “Charlie Wilson’s War” is also about Afghanistan, military spending bills and kids with their arms blown off. A mere whiff of more depressing headlines out of the Middle East may be enough to drive some people home to watch a DVD of the Yule log.
Tom Cruise and Reese Witherspoon are usually reliable box office draws, but their latest movies, “Lions for Lambs” and “Rendition,” have done as well as nearly every other movie with Iraq-related themes: not well at all....
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But Mr. Hanks said he and executives at Universal Pictures fear that “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which opens on Friday, could be a dud.
“There’s people at the studio, of course, who are losing sleep over it,” Mr. Hanks said, neglecting to mention that his own company acquired the project and produced the film with Universal. “There’s a possibility that this movie does absolutely nothing. None whatsoever.”
The problem isn’t the sex-and-drugs part, but that “Charlie Wilson’s War” is also about Afghanistan, military spending bills and kids with their arms blown off. A mere whiff of more depressing headlines out of the Middle East may be enough to drive some people home to watch a DVD of the Yule log.
Tom Cruise and Reese Witherspoon are usually reliable box office draws, but their latest movies, “Lions for Lambs” and “Rendition,” have done as well as nearly every other movie with Iraq-related themes: not well at all....