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.
Right-Wing conspiracy - Blowout!
Oooooohh, that’s cold. Heh.
Perhaps it will be revealed that Ted saved the world from the evil machinations of Mary Jo.
United States Senator Edward " Ted" Kennedy was a hero in taking home Mary Jo who was too drunk to drive. The non drinker Edward Kennedy was knocked unconscious and can't remember where he was for all those hours.
Ted Kennedy paid the ultimate price not to fulfill his destiny of becoming of being the President.
Ted: Don't worry Mary Jo. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Hollywood will turn an insensitive drunk coward - and murderer - into a sympathetic victim.
It’s disgusting.
...only because Foster Brooks is no longer with us.
...only because Foster Brooks is no longer with us.
I guess he couldn’t turn left with a erection.
He lied. He was too drunk to mount any kind of rescue attempt. Plus the timing of the events prove that he did nothing except get the hell away from the scene. The senator did not report the fatal car accident for 10 hours.
"It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. ... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call."
- - testimony of diver John Farrar, Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Edgartown District Court.
Not to portray Ted in 1969.
Mary Jo Kopechne died for her country. Without her death, Ted would have been elected president.
LOL
And Teddy named his dog. “splash.”. How appropriate...
5.56mm
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