Recent films released with the backdrop of war in Iraq and post-9/11 security have failed miserably with US film-goers.
11/06/2007 - Tom Cruise - 23rd Annual Museum Of The Moving Image Black Tie Salute Honoring Tom Cruise - Arrivals - Cipriani 42nd Street - New York City, NY, USA © Janet Mayer / PR Photos
Whether a case of too much too soon, anti-war sentiment or imagery overload in grim times; Americans are not showing up for the war film fare.
"Lions for Lambs" is a recent casualty of "war."
The film's stars, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep are not pals, and the two veteran actors, Streep and Redford, will not appear with Cruise to promote the movie, nor did they attend his recent gala by the American Museum of the Moving Image.
FOX's Roger Friedman reports that an insider told him, "Meryl and Bob can’t stand Tom. In London, Tom kept trying to push himself into interviews. Bob said, 'No.' Tom wouldn’t listen. Meryl has done almost nothing for the movie. She wants nothing to do with him."
The film's weekend box office is expected to fall way short of the intended goal.
"Rendition," a drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal about the CIA's policy of outsourcing interrogation of terror suspects, has taken just under 10 million dollars at the box office. Disastrous returns considering the amount shelled out for talent alone.
"In the Valley of Elah," about a father investigating the death of his son in Iraq, earned good reviews but has only raked in around seven million dollars following its release in September.
"The Kingdom," starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, fell well below its 70 million production budget with around 47 million dollars in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo.
The worst performance is expected for director Brian De Palma's fictitious documentary, "Redacted," based on the real-life rape and murder of an Iraqi schoolgirl by US soldiers.
Television producer Steven Bochco said it was hard to engage audiences in a "hugely unpopular war."
"TV is fully saturated with this war and I don't know if you can do a serious drama about this war and locate any angle that would overcome the negativity about it," he told the New York daily, Newsday.
Iraq films remain a difficult sell for audiences because of the swirl of confusion surrounding the rights and wrongs of the conflict, he added.
"World War II was hugely romanticized in terms of its fiction. There were unambiguous villains, and the feeling we were fighting the right people over the right issues, as opposed to this war, which many people feel is misguided.
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