“Truth”: Not the Only Bad News From Toronto

Scott wrote here about the absurd movie Truth, which tries to sell the idea that the Mary Mapes/Dan Rather fantasy about George W. Bush was real after all. Truth premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only bad news to come out of the film festival. There is also this:

Jessica Chastain is taking on gun control in a new political thriller, thanks to EuropaCorp and FilmNation Entertainment.

“Miss Sloane,” which was sold at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be directed by John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) from a script by Jonathan Perera. Production is slated to begin in March 2016.

Chastain will play a lobbyist who gives up everything to pass an amendment enforcing stricter gun control laws.

“Amendment”? Not quite sure what that means. More here:

Director John Madden, coming off the success of helming his sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is in negotiations to direct Ms. Sloane [Ed.: The title has been variously reported.], an original script from first-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera that centers on a lobbyist who takes on the powerful gun lobby to push through federal gun control legislation. …

[Jessica Chastain] would play the lead, the seasoned lobbyist who, with her small team of politicos, attempts to pass the hot-button legislation into federal law while going up against well-financed and unscrupulous members of the gun lobby.

The lobbyist as heroine! It’s a whole new genre. It will be interesting to see whether the film ever gets around to describing the “stricter gun control laws” that the lobbyists are pushing. Liberals generally content themselves with saying they favor “common sense gun control legislation.”

One constant feature of the gun control debate is the left’s assumption that more gun control laws–on top of the many such laws already on the books–would pass, but for “well-financed and unscrupulous members of the gun lobby.” But if lobbyists have the magical power to block legislation, how did all of the many laws beloved by liberals get passed?

The fact is that the money on this issue (as with most issues) is primarily on the liberal side–e.g., Michael Bloomberg. What the left can never acknowledge is that Congressmen and Senators are reluctant to vote for gun control laws that 1) won’t do any good, and 2) will cause millions of Americans who value their constitutional right to keep and bear arms to vote against them.

Just for fun, let’s do a poll. Which will be a bigger bomb, a movie that celebrates real left-wing journalists, or one that celebrates a fictitious left-wing lobbyist? Imagine the riveting scenes that both will generate!

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