Posted on 05/03/2016 7:11:43 AM PDT by Western Phil
On the heels of actor Will Ferrell pulling out of a planned "Alzheimer's comedy" about Ronald Reagan comes news that Hollywood is preparing a feature film about late Senator Ted Kennedy and the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick.
Australian-born "Zero Dark Thirty" star Jason Clarke will portray Kennedy in "Chappaquiddick" — the film's working title — and John Curran, whose credits include "The Painted Veil," will direct, said the movie's co-producer and Apex Entertainment president and chief executive Mark Ciardi. Production is slated to begin around Labor Day with a tentative release in late 2017.
Ciardi noted that younger generations may not know about the story. "In some parts it will be educational, that, wow, in 1969 this happened, with the moon landing in the backdrop, this event happened and how everything kind of played out after that," he said.
But the film will not be a "political" movie. "I certainly wouldn't characterize it as just a political movie at all," said Ciardi.
Producers are scouting locations for the film, but Ciardi would not say if Chappaquiddick would be one of those locations. Local officials said no request was made to film on the island as of yet.
Kennedy went to Martha's Vineyard to race in the Edgartown Regatta and that evening attended a party at a rented house on serene and picturesque Chappaquiddick, which is separated from the Vineyard by a narrow strait and accessed by a small, barge-like ferry. Guests included Kennedy friends and several women, including Kopechne, who had worked on the presidential campaign of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated a year earlier.
Kennedy and Kopechne, 28, left the party together and a short time later the car plunged into Poucha Pond. Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and said he made several futile attempts to rescue Kopechne, who was trapped inside.
Kennedy said in his memoir True Compass about the event: "I've had to live with that guilt for forty years. But my burden is nothing compared to her [Mary Jo Kopechne] loss and the suffering her family had to endure."
For once we agree with Ted Kennedy.
It was ‘voluntary’ he left her there to drown.
Even worse. It will probably paint Kennedy as a hero.
“...the car plunged into Poucha Pond”
Precursor to runaway SUVs.
Whitewash!!
My grandpa had that book. Dad and I both read it.
Yup. When they announce they will tell the story of Mary Jo’s murder “with the moon landing in the backdrop”, you know it will be cr@pola.
I guess Hitlery is not the first person who was a senator who was responsible for people getting killed.
If it were not for the Apollo program, that POS would never have withstood the attacks but the people’s attention was elsewhere.
Finally going to get Mary Jo the blame she deserves. Probably she will be excoriated for distracting Kennedy’s pants while he was driving.
Or, maybe she was driving.
It was her that was drunk. Not him.
Or, maybe it was not him but someone who only looked like him confessing to the police.
This could just be the Oscar Best Picture of 2016.
I cannot imagine the Ted Kennedy heroics we will see in this historically accurate film.
See the handsome brave Ted Kennedy bravely attempt to salvage his political career after getting drunk and sneaking out with a young attractive campaign worker for a little extra martial sex.
.
.
.
Naa.
Ted: “We'll cross that bridge when we get there, Mary Jo”
Here's all you need to know kids...
I still have that book somewhere in my files.
Did you hear Ted Kennedy’s girlfriend told him she was pregnant?
He said “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Mad Magazine's take on Ted Kenedy...
Is it me, or is the author trying to somehow equivocate that the Reagan movie would have been on a par with the Kennedy tale? Am I missing something?
In the Oliver Stone version, George Bush and Richard Nixon force Teddy off the bridge...
I guarantee you that the officials on the Vineyard won’t allow it to be filmed on their island. Extremely liberal place.
Lloyd Bridges to be technical director and director of underwater sequences?
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