Update:
Matt Damon’s Anti-Fracking Movie Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation
“It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.”
For his next escape
Matt Damon’s troubled anti-frack film
By PHELIM MCALEER
Last Updated: 12:23 AM, September 26, 2012
Posted: 10:24 PM, September 25, 2012
Matt Damon and John Krasinski ran into a big problem while making their film “Promised Land”; how they solved it tells us a lot about Hollywood.
Some time ago, the two actors decided to make a movie about fracking — a method of getting once-inaccessible oil and gas out of the ground that has become the bête noire of many environmentalists.
The two wrote a screenplay they said was about “American identity . . . and what defines us as a country.”
It was the usual Hollywood script. We all know the . . . drill: Damon’s character works for an “evil” oil company. He comes to small-town America and sells locals a dangerous bill of goods.
Then he encounters two problems — his corporate heart is melted by an attractive local woman and Krasinki’s character, an environmentalist, reveals the oil company plan to exploit, pollute and leave.
Shocked townspeople feel betrayed. Damon is conflicted — will he go with the company and his career, or with his heart and ride back into town in his white SUV, denounce the oil company and save the day?
The filmmakers were so pleased with the script that they announced it would be promoted as a potential Oscar winner.
But then came trouble. [Read more…]