"Bowling" Scores Big Again/5 Festivals Name it "Best Film"/My Month in London

Mike's Letter

0 Comments Print

October 29th, 2002 12:00 AM

"Bowling" Scores Big Again/5 Festivals Name it "Best Film"/My Month in London

Dear Friends,

Another incredible weekend for "Bowling for Columbine" -- of ALL films in release, it was #2 in box office per screen average this week (and #1 in Canada!). Thank you to all of you who went to see it -- and for those who haven't, I'm doing my best to see that United Artists brings the film to your town soon. They are adding at least 50 more theatres this Friday.

I also want to thank those audiences at the numerous festivals around the world in the past month who have awarded "Bowling for Columbine" their top prize, the 1st place audience award for "Best Film." These include: the Chicago Film Festival, the Vancouver Film Festival, the San Sebastian (Spain) Film Festival, the Montreal Independent Film Festival and the Atlantic Film Festival. To honor us like this -- not as "Best Documentary", but as "Best FILM" -- has moved all of us who worked so hard on this movie. And to be chosen as the opening or closing night film at many other festivals has been an exhilarating experience. Two very powerful and emotional screenings stand out to us: "Bowling for Columbine" as the closing night film in Denver (with the Columbine students and victims present among the 2500 in attendance), and the outdoor screening on closing night with 3000 people in the city square in Sarajevo -- we will never forget your laughs and your tears and your cheers. All those times we felt like giving up in those three years it took to make this film were suddenly forgotten, thanks to your generosity.

I would like to address the rest of this letter to those of you on my list who do not live in the United States and have been writing and wondering, "Hey, man, when do WE get the movie, the book, and the F-16 fighter jets flying overhead on the way to Iraq?!"

Well, first, let me alert those of you in the British Isles that I will be spending the next month on the stage at the Roundhouse theatre in London performing a one man show I have written. This is something I have been wanting to do for sometime, so I'm going to give it a go in Britain first before bringing it to the States. As the British have been good sports/guinea pigs in the past, allowing me to try out my TV shows on them ("TV Nation" was co-produced by the BBC and "The Awful Truth" by Channel Four UK), I thought it best that they be the first ones ever subjected to my attempt at live theatre.

So, I will be at the Roundhouse from November 8 to December 8. There will be singing, dancing and a nightly search for Osama bin Laden. OK, maybe not the dancing. BUT, whatever night we catch bin Laden, I'm sharing the $25 million reward with the audience that is there THAT night! If you are in the neighborhood of London (roughly anyone from Iceland to Bosnia), and would like attend, please call 0870 890 0512 for tickets or click here www.michaelmoorelive.com.

A British edition of "Stupid White Men" has just been published in paperback by my new publisher in the UK, the good people at Penguin. This edition contains two new chapters, one outlining the behind-the-scenes struggle with HarperCollins to get it published when they wanted it censored after 9/11, and the other presenting my new list of questions for Mr. Bush about his actions/inactions both pre and post 9/11. In its third week of release, the book has already leapt to #2 on the London Times bestseller list. ("Bowling for Columbine" premieres at the London Film Festival on November 10 and 11 and opens in theatres there on the 15th.)

"Bowling for Columbine" is now in theatres all over France, already setting a box office record for a documentary. My book has also just been released on France, though they have changed the title to "Mike! Contre-Attaque!" But in Germany, where it has just been published and is #3 on their bestseller list, it is known simply as "Stupid White Men." I guess the German publisher knew their audience!

"SWM" is currently in bookstores in South Korea (title translation: "This Dumb Guy" with me on the cover). It will be published in Sweden in November, in Japan by the end of this year, and in Italy early next year. The first part of next year should also see "Stupid White Men" spread to Turkey, China, Lebanon, Slovenia and Serbia.

"Bowling for Columbine" is also now showing in Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium. It will open in Germany on November 18, and in Scandinavia in December. The film will open in Australia and Japan on December 26. Another 30 countries are slated to see "Bowling for Columbine."

Well, that's my foreign affairs report. Thanks to all the good people throughout the world who protested Bush's upcoming war extravaganza this past weekend. And thanks to all of you who have supported my work throughout the years. I read your letters and I am very grateful for your support. If you are near London in the next month, stop by the Roundhouse and say, "Hi."

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

Tags: