• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

HBO prepping bombshell Scientology film from Oscar winner Alex Gibney

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
My thetan is ready.

Based on Lawrence Wright's controversial book 'Going Clear,' the documentary from Alex Gibney is likely to draw an aggressive response from the notoriously litigious church

...

THR has learned that Oscar winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) is putting the finishing touches on a film that tackles the Church of Scientology and its Tinseltown tentacles. HBO, no stranger to controversy, having ushered such hot-button docs as The Case Against 8 and the Paradise Lost trilogy to the screen, is eyeing a 2015 airdate for Going Clear, which is based on Lawrence Wright's controversial book that was also exclusively excerpted in THR.

HBO long has championed documentary filmmaking. It commissioned the Scientology project two years ago, before the book's 2013 publication, when frequent collaborator Gibney brought it to the network. The film, which is expected to feature new revelations about the controversial religion and its famous followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, almost certainly will draw an aggressive response from the notoriously litigious church.

"We have probably 160 lawyers [looking at the film]," says HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins, who is bracing for protests as well. If the doc is finished in time, it likely will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in January.

...

HBO and Gibney (UTA, Cowan DeBaets) aren't inclined to back down, having taken on other powerful organizations in the past including the Catholic Church (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God) and the U.S. military (Taxi to the Dark Side). And though Wright says he has received threatening letters from lawyers representing Hollywood Scientologists, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is prevailing in the battle of wills. Thanks to HBO, his story of physical abuse and imprisonment within the church now will reach a much wider audience.

Says Nevins, "And this time, we'll be ready."
Click to expand...
 
S

studyguy

Member
Honestly I always saw Scientology as a tax shelter for the rich that just so happened to be surrounded by a bunch of crazy people. Crazy rich people in a lot of cases.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.
 
S

Seanspeed

Banned
Dangerous game considering the Hollywood elite involved in Scientology.

I hope they don't pull any punches, though.
 
S

Savitar

Member
I wonder what Scientology will do because they do tend to do a lot of shit.

Though when the public and media eye is on them they do make sure to stay clear and silent for the most part.
 
G

GKSilKamina

Member
When I think of Scientology's lawyer team I see a swarm of furious bees in nice suits pouring out of a hive en masse. Here's hoping Alex Gibney and HBO don't get murdered.
They probably will be. At least financially.

I'm excited for the film. Sounds very interesting and HBO pumps out some pretty good stuff these days.
 
C

Captain Pants

Killed by a goddamned Dredgeling
Awesome! I had hoped that The Master was going to tackle Scientology more head on than it did. This will be interesting for sure.
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Hope they get lots of bodyguards and lawyers and such to defend themselves.

Scientology is going to try to Free Game the shit out of everyone related to making this.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Oh this is going to be good...

tumblr_mpqgggFXab1r59fvyo1_500.gif
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
kirblar said:
HBO: "We're not sure if we're untouchable and we thought this would be the best way to find out!"
Click to expand...
That just gave me an idea.

I wonder what would happen if you pitted Scientology's army of lawyers against Westboro's army of lawyers?
 
entremet

entremet

Member
South Park did a great job under the cover of satire explaining the whole thing.

I couldn't believe it when I saw it.
 
B

Blader

Member
Didn't even know this was a thing but I'm looking forward to it. Gibney is one of my favorite documentary filmmakers.

Sho_Nuff82 said:
My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.
Click to expand...

I think it's less about saying "these people are weird" and more about "these people are actually dangerous and incredibly influential."
 
Exr

Exr

Member
Sho_Nuff82 said:
My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.
Click to expand...
The reality can be more disturbing with regards to how Scientology treats its members and the way they operate. Xenu and Sea Org and all of that is some left field shit that most are aware of, but the inner workings and abuse within the group needs to be realized by more people.
 
J

Jeff-DSA

Member
I have a friend that has basically given all his time and money to Scientology. He works down at the celebrity center or whatever in Los Angeles. I rarely ever see him anymore, and when I do, it's weird and uncomfortable because he's supposed to not be hanging out with us anymore. I hate it.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
Amy Berg's sex abuse exposé An Open Secret isn't the only new documentary likely to ruffle feathers in Hollywood.

THR has learned that Oscar winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) is putting the finishing touches on a film that tackles the Church of Scientology and its Tinseltown tentacles. HBO, no stranger to controversy, having ushered such hot-button docs as The Case Against 8 and the Paradise Lost trilogy to the screen, is eyeing a 2015 airdate for Going Clear, which is based on Lawrence Wright's controversial book that was also exclusively excerpted in THR.

HBO long has championed documentary filmmaking. It commissioned the Scientology project nearly two years ago, right after the book's January 2013 publication, when frequent collaborator Gibney brought it to the network. The film, which is expected to feature new revelations about the controversial religion and its famous followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, almost certainly will draw an aggressive response from the notoriously litigious church.

"We have probably 160 lawyers [looking at the film]," says HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins, who is bracing for protests as well. If the doc is finished in time, it likely will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in January.

This is not the first time HBO has tussled with the Church of Scientology. When the network aired the 1998 documentary Dead Blue: Surviving Depression, throngs of protesters converged in front of HBO's midtown Manhattan headquarters, lambasting Nevins and the company for presenting antidepressant drugs in a positive light (Scientologists are opposed to psychiatry).

"I didn't see what [antidepressants] had to do with Scientology until I worked on that film, until I saw these people outside the building," recalls Nevins in an interview. "I thought they must be a union protest. But it was our film they were protesting. They're so anti-psychiatry, anti-medicine and anti-Freud. It was really quite interesting."
See more Scientology's Historic Hollywood Holdings

But are a throng of HBO lawyers enough to combat the church's legal arsenal? Wright's Going Clear, which stemmed from his 2011 New Yorker profile of filmmaker and former Scientologist Paul Haggis, prompted an all-out offensive from the church. The book's U.K. publisher, Transworld, dropped Going Clear from its lineup on the advice of its lawyers. The title, which was a National Book Award finalist in the U.S., never was published in the U.K.

Nonetheless, HBO and Gibney (UTA, Cowan DeBaets) aren't inclined to back down, having taken on other powerful organizations in the past including the Catholic Church (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God) and the U.S. military (Taxi to the Dark Side). And though Wright says he has received threatening letters from lawyers representing Hollywood Scientologists, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is prevailing in the battle of wills. Thanks to HBO, his story of physical abuse and imprisonment within the church now will reach a much wider audience.
Says Nevins, "And this time, we'll be ready."
Click to expand...

I've liked every one of Gibney's films and he handles tough and contentious topics really well, hope this is great as well.
 
K

KingGondo

Banned
It takes huge balls to try to publish anything about Scientology.

By the way, anyone who is interested in the church should read Going Clear, which this doc is apparently based on.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
Thread title is a little sensational. The quote is "We have probably 160 lawyers [looking at the film]." This likely means HBO is paying 160 lawyers to review the film and determine what content in it is objectionable in its current edited state. HBO will then make appropriate edits to prevent any successful litigation by the Church. HBO is not hiring 160 lawyers to defend the presumed lawsuits that will come out of this film.
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
Good luck getting Hollywood talent for True Detective season 3 :\


They should set in somewhere in Europe.
 
B

Bo Knows GAF

Member
"Probably 160"? So that indicates there could be more?

I can't wait to see the backlash this creates. I'll watch it though just like everyone else watches a car crash or fire.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
I've been reading Going Clear. Awesome read, I find Scientology so fascinating and creepy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Oppenheimer Wins Best Movie of 2024 | Oscar Full Nominees List
News 2
90
6K
Ballthyrm replied
  • Locked
Alex Gibney (Going Clear) developing death row drama for HBO starring Laura Dern
6
889
A Fish Aficionado replied
  • Locked
Scientology Ramps Up 'Going Clear' Smear Campaign, Targets Academy Members
2 3 4 5
215
23K
Siegcram replied
  • Locked
'Going Clear' director says Scientologists have been coming after him 'pretty hard'
9
3K
jelly replied
From mother! to Breathe, these fall festival films could shift the Oscar race
11
3K
Blader replied
Top Bottom