Kingdumb
August 28, 2007 at 3:02 pm
The new issue of Weekly Standard picks up this charming item from Entertainment Weekly:
“Of all the things that fill a filmmaker with dread, huge applause at the end of a test screening isn’t usually one of them. But director Peter Berg started to worry when he showed his new movie, The Kingdom, to an audience in California farm country. About two hours into the high-voltage political thriller–about a group of FBI operatives (played by Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman) investigating a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia–the packed house went completely bonkers, erupting in cheers when the Americans gun down a group of jihadists. Most directors would have started popping the champagne. But Berg was thoroughly freaked. ‘I was nervous it would be perceived as a jingoistic piece of propaganda, which I certainly didn’t intend,’ says the actor-turned-director, hunched over an outdoor table at a shabby Santa Monica coffeehouse. ‘I thought, Am I experiencing American bloodlust?’ ”
Leave a Comment