Glenn Beck Wants to Escape the Cutthroat Cynicism of Politics by Making It in the Movie Business
Politics can be cynical, superficial and empty, which is conservative commentator Glenn Beck has decided to devote his talents (and money) to something less soul crushing — the movie industry. The Hollywood Reporter reports on Wednesday that Beck is preparing to make three original films because he's "much more into culture" than politics, which he thinks is a waste of time. "We're beginning to agree that Republicans and Democrats suck — they've built this machine to grind people into the ground," Beck said. "I hate this stuff. I hate politics. I hate politicians and I feel like I'm wasting my life." We wish him the best of luck.
Beck is working on films set in modern and ancient history, as well as a "faith-based" film. And while it might seem odd for someone devoted to fighting against Hollywood's liberal mainstream media, there might be a real window of opportunity here. Matt K. Lewis at The Week writes Wednesday that the right turned against movies because conservative action heroes are gone and movies are too liberal. "X-Men are all victims of discrimination," and so on. There won't be any victims in Beck's releases. He bought back the right to The Christmas Sweater, a tale of hope and redemption in a family of struggling former small business owners. "It is based not only on my childhood but a dream that I had as an adult after I sobered up," Beck said.
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His film inspirations include non-preachy, family friendly movies like The Lego Movie, which he praised for skipping "the double meanings and adult humor that I just hate." Beck also cited The Princess Bride and Divergent, two movies that have a lot of sexual innuendo but are apparently good anyway. Beck praised filmmakers who are prepared to take risks, like Noah's Darren Aronofsky. He called Noah "awful," but not a "Godless climate-change movie." "I actually felt like kind of a dirt-ball basing my review on something I hadn't seen, on somebody else's review," Beck said after actually seeing the movie. "That's what people do to me." Beck assumed he wouldn't like the movie, saw it, and didn't like it. In that sense, Beck may already be aware of what's waiting for him in Hollywood.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/04/glenn-beck-wants-to-escape-the-cutthroat-cynicism-of-politics-by-making-it-in-the-movie-business/360768/
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