{"id":3142,"date":"2012-09-26T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/09\/26\/reality-intrudes-into-art\/"},"modified":"2012-09-29T06:24:30","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T13:24:30","slug":"reality-intrudes-into-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/09\/reality-intrudes-into-art\/","title":{"rendered":"reality intrudes into art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matt Damon\u2019s Anti-Fracking Movie Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation<\/a>
\n“It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For his next escape<\/a><\/h3>\n

Matt Damon\u2019s troubled anti-frack film<\/strong><\/p>\n

By PHELIM MCALEER<\/strong>
\nLast Updated: 12:23 AM, September 26, 2012
\nPosted: 10:24 PM, September 25, 2012<\/p>\n

Matt Damon and John Krasinski ran into a big problem while making their film \u201cPromised Land\u201d; how they solved it tells us a lot about Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Some time ago, the two actors decided to make a movie about fracking \u2014 a method of getting once-inaccessible oil and gas out of the ground that has become the b\u00eate noire<\/em> of many environmentalists.<\/p>\n

The two wrote a screenplay they said was about \u201cAmerican identity . . . and what defines us as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the usual Hollywood script. We all know the . . . drill: Damon\u2019s character works for an \u201cevil\u201d oil company. He comes to small-town America and sells locals a dangerous bill of goods.<\/p>\n

Then he encounters two problems \u2014 his corporate heart is melted by an attractive local woman and Krasinki\u2019s character, an environmentalist, reveals the oil company plan to exploit, pollute and leave.<\/p>\n

Shocked townspeople feel betrayed. Damon is conflicted \u2014 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?<\/p>\n

The filmmakers were so pleased with the script that they announced it would be promoted as a potential Oscar winner.<\/p>\n

But then came trouble.<\/p>\n

I broke the news<\/a> that \u201cPromised Land\u201d was about fracking and now I can reveal that the script\u2019s seen some very hasty rewriting because of real-world evidence that anti-fracking activists may be the true villains.<\/p>\n

In courtroom after courtroom, it has been proved that anti-fracking activists have been guilty of fraud or misrepresentation.<\/p>\n

There was Dimock, Pa. \u2014 the likely inspiration for \u201cPromised Land,\u201d which is also set in Pennsylvania. Dimock featured in countless news reports, with Hollywood celebrities even bringing water to 11 families who claimed fracking had destroyed their water and their lives.<\/p>\n

But while \u201cPromised Land\u201d was in production, the story of Dimock collapsed. The state investigated and its scientists found nothing wrong<\/a>. So the 11 families insisted EPA scientists investigate. They did \u2014 and much to the dismay of the environmental movement found the water was not contaminated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was Wolf Eagle Environmental Engineers in Texas, a group that produced a frightening video of a flaming house water pipe and claimed a gas company had polluted the water. But a judge just found that the tape was an outright fraud<\/a> \u2014 Wolf Eagle connected the house gas pipe to a hose and lit the water.<\/p>\n

Other \u201cpollution\u201d cases collapsed in Wyoming and Colorado. Even Josh Fox, who with his Oscar-nominated documentary \u201cGasland\u201d first raised concerns about flammable water, has had to admit<\/a> he withheld evidence that fracking was not responsible.<\/p>\n

These frauds and misrepresentations created huge problems for the Damon\/Krasinski script about \u201cwhat defines us as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, according to sources close to the movie, they\u2019ve come up with a solution \u2014 suggest that anti-fracking fraudsters are really secret agents employed by the fossil-fuel industry to discredit the environmental movement.<\/p>\n

In the revised script, Damon exposes Krasinski as a fraud \u2014 only to realize that Krasinski\u2019s character is working deep undercover for the oil industry to smear fracking opponents.<\/p>\n

Hollywood is worried about declining theater audiences; it\u2019s blaming the Internet and the recession. But the real problem might be closer to home.<\/p>\n

Damon and Krasinski said they were making a movie that \u201cdefines us as a country\u201d but then shoehorned ideology into a script \u2014 and when real-world events became a problem, they shoehorned in more<\/em> ideology.<\/p>\n

The simple truth about fracking is that much of the opposition is being driven by proven liars, charlatans and fraudsters \u2014 some driven by zealotry, others by hunger to win a big lawsuit.<\/p>\n

There is a war going on in parts of America between impoverished locals and urban elites. These elites are using fraud, exaggeration and celebrity star power to stop rural communities from prospering through gas drilling.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a great setting for a movie. Unfortunately for America, it\u2019s not one Hollywood is going to make anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Phelim McAleer is a journalist and the director of \u201cFrackNation<\/a>,\u201d a documentary about fracking. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Matt Damon\u2019s 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\u2019s troubled anti-frack film By PHELIM MCALEER Last Updated: 12:23 AM, September 26, 2012 Posted: 10:24 PM, September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fracking","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}