Is Sony Pictures Trying To Help Re-Elect Obama With Bin Laden / Seal Team 6 Movie?

One of the hottest projects in Hollywood is the upcoming untitled Bin Laden / Seal Team 6 movie. The film tells the story of the raid that successfully killed the 9/11 mastermind, Osama Bin Laden. Deadline is reporting that the film will open on October 12, 2012, which is the same release strategy used on The Social Network, which also premiered in early October.

As you would expect, some are questioning the timing of the films release, as it hits theaters less than a month before the presidential election. A message board poster at IMDB even compared the movie with Hitler-esque propaganda.

Do you think the Bin Laden / Seal Team 6 movie should be released before the election? Tell us what you think.

It does appear that Sony Pictures, the company distributing the film, is trying help Obama’s re-election bid, as they hosted a fundraiser for the President back in April. At the time of this writing, Sony is the only major studio to hold a political fundraiser this campaign season, according to The Weekly Standard.

Douglas Urbanski, a Hollywood producer and conservative radio talk show, calls the release date “very, very deliberate.” It should be noted that Urbanski was a producer for The Contender, a 2000 political film that sympathizes with a sex scandal-plagued Democrat and demonizes a conservative Republican member of Congress. That film was released October 13, 2000, only a mere month of way from the presidential election. Urbanski tells TWS, “It was without a doubt a deliberate attempt to influence the election“.

So it appears that Hollywood trying to sway voters just before an election is nothing new, so why is the Bin Laden / Seal Team 6 movie such a big deal?

Maureen Dowd, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times – Sunday Review, shares her thoughts on the films release date:

“The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film by the Oscar-winning pair who made “The Hurt Locker” will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.

The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.

It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a C.I.A. ceremony celebrating the hero Seals.”

Earlier today, Representative Peter T. King, who is also chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called for an investigation into the White House’s cooperation with Hollywood filmmakers over the film. Essentially he wants to know what the Obama administration divulged about the raid, while helping the screenwriter do his research.

White House spokesman Jay Carney was quick to respond to King’s investigation requests, calling them “ridiculous“, he went on to say, “I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie.”

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal of the project released the following statement, disputing King’s comments as well:

“Our upcoming film project about the decade long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the dangerous work of finding the world’s most wanted man was carried out by individuals in the military and intelligence communities who put their lives at risk for the greater good without regard for political affiliation. This was an American triumph, both heroic and non-partisan, and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise.”

News of the films release has people tweeting, as always.

Some Twitterers are taking a comedic negative stance toward the movie and its release date.

As Bigelow said in her statement, this project is nothing new, it’s been in development for quite some time. But, I think we’re all in agreement that Sony is trying to give Obama a little surge right before the election.

Currently IMDB has the movie listed as “Untitled International Thriller”, and features no other information on the project.

What are your thoughts on the movie and its scheduled release? Leave us a comment.