Whoopi and her pet project

Question

I really think this is an interesting idea for a movie, I didn't even know there were black people living in Germany at the time of the Nazis. How in the world would you ever get something like this greenlit? It doesn't exactly scream high concept and Hollywood doesn't seem interested in intelligent Black films. Maybe it could work as a cable movie.
Goldberg Fights To Turn Holocaust Drama Into MovieWhoopi Goldberg is fighting to turn German writer Hans Massaquoi's harrowing account of the Holocaust into a new movie, but studio executives can't see the point of the project. The Ghost star has spent the past seven years trying to get the film, based on Massaquoi's book Destined To Witness: Growing Up Black In Nazi Germany, made but keeps coming up with a blank when she pitches the story to movie bosses. She says, "Massaquoi lives in New Orleans now and we have been trying for several years to get this done and people keep saying to us, 'Well, what's the hook?' It is an extraordinary story that no one's ever seen before.

No one really knows about it. He's a huge hero in Germany, they have nothing but love and respect for him. They have told his story in Germany. Seven years I've been trying to get it off the ground. It doesn't cost a lot to make, but that is what I wish to do more than anything."

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I really think this is an interesting idea for a movie, I didn't even know there were black people living ... the ground. It doesn't cost a lot to make, but that is what I wish to do more than anything."[/nq]
[nq:2]From the IMDB.[/nq]
Which movie bosses is she talking to? The wrong ones? Oprah owns her own movie studio, and *** knows she has enough money to make any movie she wants. I suspect that either A) the script sucks, or B) Whoopie is trying to sell an idea without a really great script. Poor baby. She should know better by now!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I really think this is an interesting idea for a movie, I didn't even know there were black people living ... in intelligent Black films. Maybe it could work as a cable movie. Goldberg Fights To Turn Holocaust Drama Into Movie[/nq]
I actually found this pretty **** amusing. What's the one way a Holocaust movie can't get greenlit in Hollywood? It's about black people! *ROTFL!*
Cheers,
B

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I really think this is an interesting idea for a ... cable movie. Goldberg Fights To Turn Holocaust Drama Into Movie[/nq]
[nq:1]I actually found this pretty **** amusing. What's the one way a Holocaust movie can't get greenlit in Hollywood? It's about black people! *ROTFL!*[/nq]
Anyone who thought there weren't blacks in **** Germany should see the excellent film "Mephisto" (1981, Istvan Szabo, director), starring Klaus Maria Brandauer.
It's not about the black experience under the ****'s, but the main character is involved with a black woman, and it's a portrait of how the ****'s manipulated people's lives, and how people caved in to the pressure.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
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Usenet · Answer

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[nq:2]I actually found this pretty **** amusing. What's the one way a Holocaust movie can't get greenlit in Hollywood? It's about black people! *ROTFL!*[/nq]
[nq:1]Anyone who thought there weren't blacks in **** Germany should see the excellent film "Mephisto" (1981, Istvan Szabo, director), starring ... woman, and it's a portrait of how the ****'s manipulated people's lives, and how people caved in to the pressure.[/nq]
Yeah, but if she wrote in that Adolf Hitler had Negro blood, hoo boy!

Usenet · Answer

She should approach the German studios, who have had a string of ****-related successes of late ("Downfall", "Sophie Scholl"). The premise is certainly an interesting one.
Besides, a lot of the money in Hollywood is there as a tax break from Germany. So it would seem sort of logical to follow the money trial back to the source.
M

Usenet · Answer

Interesting site here about Hans J. Massaquoi
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0003/black ****.html
About growing up black in **** Germany.
One of an estimated 24,000 blacks in the fatherland at the time.

+++
I had dinner at a friend's house the other night and met a German documentary maker who has travelled all over the world, including Namibia, which as Germany's African colony... and he said there's still a Hermann Goeringstrasse in the middle of town...

It's show business. No show, no business.
**** Wolf

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I actually found this pretty **** amusing. What's the one way a Holocaust movie can't get greenlit in Hollywood? It's about black people! *ROTFL!*[/nq]
[nq:1]Anyone who thought there weren't blacks in **** Germany should see the excellent film "Mephisto" (1981, Istvan Szabo, director), starring Klaus Maria Brandauer.[/nq]
That's a terrific film, part of a trio of pictures Szabo did with Brandauer including "Colonel Redl" and "Hanussen". They're all great, but the latter is especially interesting as it's the true story of WW I vet and clairvoyant entertainer whose predictions so freaked out the ***** that they had him murdered (http://www.steinschneider.com/biography/hanussen bio.htm). It's one of those marginally fantastic fantasy films (i.e. "Man Facing South-East") I wish we'd see more of.
[nq:1]It's not about the black experience under the ****'s, but the main character is involved with a black woman, and it's a portrait of how the ****'s manipulated people's lives, and how people caved in to the pressure.[/nq]
You have to understand that most Americans get nearly 100% of their information about what life in **** Germany was like from Holocaust movies. When I told friends of mine - well-educated, cultured college grads - that Bush was using 9/11 as our version of the Reichstag Fire, they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. If it's not in a Holocaust movie, it might as well not have happened, which is why I dearly wish Hollywood would make a film or two about how the ***** rose to power in the first place.

I contemplated writing a screenplay about the German resistance movement, but quickly scrapped those ideas when I realized it wouldn't have a chance of selling it no matter how good it turned out. I mean, who wants to see WWII-era Germans as anything other than mass-murderers? Now I'm thinking of pitching it as a comic book where, ironically, I'd have a much better chance of getting this sadly ignored chapter in history told.

Cheers,
B

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When I told friends of mine - well-educated, cultured college grads - that Bush was using 9/11 as our version ... dearly wish Hollywood would make a film or two about how the ***** rose to power in the first place.[/nq]
Maybe they just thought you were totally nuts, saying something like that, and they were being kind to you.
Let's see, Hitler and his boys started that fire. So I guess you're saying Bush and his boys arranged for those planes to fly into the towers. Which is insane, but if that's what you're thinking, that kind of nuttiness is normal among a certain crowd.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]You have to understand that most Americans get nearly 100% of their information about what life in **** Germany was ... of mine - well-educated, cultured college grads - that Bush was using 9/11 as our version of the Reichstag Fire,[/nq]
I wonder if they'd know about The Gulf of Tonkin Incident that helped provide an excuse to move the US into Vietnam in force.
[nq:1]they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. If it's not in a Holocaust movie, it might as ... a comic book where, ironically, I'd have a much better chance of getting this sadly ignored chapter in history told.[/nq]
There have been several German films about the resistance Rosenstrasse, The White Rose, Aimée and Jaguar and that one about the big band jazz fans... can't remember the title.
I read a book about the Germans who were sent in by the Allies to spy on Germany just prior to the final push across the Rhine a very wide variety of motives and some very shady characters amongst them, but still... they had to be insanely brave to willingly walk into that situation.

It's show business. No show, no business.
**** Wolf

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]When I told friends of mine - well-educated, cultured college ... how the ***** rose to power in the first place.[/nq]
[nq:1]Maybe they just thought you were totally nuts, saying something like that, and they were being kind to you. Let's ... towers. Which is insane, but if that's what you're thinking, that kind of nuttiness is normal among a certain crowd.[/nq]
"...Bush was using 9/11 as our version of the Reichstag Fire..."

What I meant is that President Caligula was taking advantage of a terrible tragedy and exploiting it for political gain and to strip us of our civil liberties. As for whether the Neo-Cons had anything to do with arranging 9/11 or allowing it to happen, well, I certainly wouldn't put it past them. In 1996 the Project for a New American Century produced a document stating their intention to invade Iraq, but that the only way it could be pulled off would be if there was a "Pearl Harbor-like" event to get the American people to go along with it.
Cheers,
B

Whoopi and her pet project

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