Sicko - Michael Moore's Next

[modage]

Moore Moves Ahead with Sicko
Source: Associated Press Tuesday, July 27, 2004

With Fahrenheit 9/11 becoming the first documentary to cross the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, director Michael Moore expects a smooth path on raising money to make Sicko, his critique of health-maintenance organizations.

The Associated Press says Moore would not provide details but said financing of his next movie was in the works, thanks to Fahrenheit 9/11, which cost just $6 million to make.

"Clearly, if you make a movie that has this ratio of how much it costs to its gross, you're going to find an easy time making your next film," Moore said.

The idea for Sicko stems from a segment Moore did on his The Awful Truth TV show, in which he staged a mock funeral at an HMO for a patient denied an organ transplant he needed to survive. The HMO relented and paid for the transplant.

[MacGuffin]

Giving them a sick feeling
Drug firms are on the defense as filmmaker Michael Moore plans to dissect their industry.
Source: Los Angeles Times

America's pharmaceutical industry is putting out an advisory about the latest potential threat to its health: Michael Moore.

Moore, the filmmaker whose targets have included General Motors ("Roger & Me"), the gun lobby (the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine") and President Bush ("Fahrenheit 9/11") has now set his sights on the healthcare industry, including insurance companies, HMOs, the Food and Drug Administration — and drug companies.
 
At least six of the nation's largest firms have already issued internal notices to their workforces, preparing them for potential ambushes.

"We ran a story in our online newspaper saying Moore is embarking on a documentary — and if you see a scruffy guy in a baseball cap, you'll know who it is," said Stephen Lederer, a spokesman for Pfizer Global Research and Development.

In September and October, GlaxoSmithKline, the second-largest in retail sales, as well as AstraZeneca and Wyeth, sent out Moore alerts, instructing employees that questions posed by the media or filmmakers should be handled by corporate communications. Heavyweights Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis Pharmaceuticals each sent out similar memos before their recent merger. Merck & Co., Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries send periodic messages about dealing with the press but haven't singled out Moore by name. Johnson & Johnson declined to comment.

Moore's project is only the latest bit of bad news for the embattled industry. Popular — and lucrative — drugs such as Vioxx, Celebrex and Aleve have been linked to cardiovascular problems, and the possibility of lawsuits is looming. Canada is undercutting U.S. drug prices, and health budgets are being slashed. And then there's increased scrutiny by the FDA, whose oversight of the drug industry and its relationship to it is raising many questions.

"We have an image problem — not only with Michael Moore, but with the general public," said M.J. Fingland, senior director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "We're criticized on the Hill and in the press — put in the category of the tobacco industry, even though we save lives."

The industry, Fingland said, has made great strides in the last three years — ever since a new ethics policy was implemented in 2001. Drawn up with the help of the American Medical Assn. and other medical specialty groups, it restricted the types of gifts given to doctors, for example, setting a $100 ceiling on each. Although pharmaceutical companies can still sponsor meetings, they no longer have free rein to treat doctors to five-star dinners or pick up their hotel tabs.

"Giveaways, lavish trips are a thing of the past," Fingland said. "We've cleaned up the business considerably."

Despite the improvement, pharmaceutical executives are bracing for the worst.

"Moore's past work has been marked by negativity, so we can only assume it won't be a fair and balanced portrayal," said Rachel Bloom, executive director of corporate communications for the Wilmington, Del.-based AstraZeneca. "His movies resemble docudramas more than documentaries."

Rumors are already flying within the industry about Moore's moviemaking tactics. Moore, it is said, has hired actors to portray pharmaceutical salesmen who offer gifts to doctors who promote their products. There's also word that he's offered physicians $50,000 apiece to install secret cameras in their offices in an effort to document alleged corruption.

In September, employees said that Moore was shoving a microphone at people at GlaxoSmithKline, Bloom notes, even though he was in town only for a radio appearance.

"We have six business centers nationwide, all of which report 'sightings,' " Bloom said. "Michael Moore is becoming an urban legend."

Tentatively titled "Sicko," Moore's film will probably be released in the first half of 2006, sometime between the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. No deal has yet been reached, but an announcement is expected after the new year. There's interest in the industry, he says, on the part of some of the major studios and not just their specialty divisions.

Reached at his home in Michigan, the director declined to say whether he's hired actors to portray pharmaceutical salesmen and denied paying doctors to help him install secret cameras. ("I didn't need to. So many doctors have offered to help, for free, in an effort to expose the system.") He does admit to hanging around hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, including two that have not issued internal alerts.

It's getting harder and harder to find corporate executives, however, who are willing to sit down for interviews, Moore said.

Moore decided to make a film about healthcare because it's "a hot-button issue with the average American — the domestic issue of the day," he said. "Being screwed by your HMO and ill-served by pharmaceutical companies is the shared American experience. The system, inferior to that of much poorer nations, benefits the few at the expense of the many."

Tackling the health industry first occurred to the documentarian after he shot a segment for his now-defunct TV show, "The Awful Truth," about a man fighting his insurance company to pay for a kidney and pancreas transplant. He said the viewer response was enormous — as was audience reaction to a derogatory line about HMOs in the Jack Nicholson-Helen Hunt movie, "As Good As It Gets." There was a raw nerve, he ultimately decided, that wasn't being addressed.

Last summer, the Endeavor agency, which represents Moore, tested the Hollywood waters — sending out a six-page outline of "Sicko" to a host of independent producers, independent film companies and the major studios. The movie, according to the treatment, would end with Moore sailing to Cuba with ailing Americans to take advantage of that country's free healthcare. That, he says, was only a joke made on a late-night talk show.

According to the summary, human interest stories about victims of the system will be interspersed with interviews. He will dig up conflict-of-interest concerns aimed at members of Congress overseeing Medicare and will look at politicians who accept campaign contributions from a host of insurance companies, as well as concerns about the "merger mania" in the healthcare industry.

Nancy Pekarek, vice president of corporate media relations for British firm GlaxoSmithKline, said employees are uneasy about an assault.

"We've been getting voicemail messages," she said. "This is their career, after all, and it's no fun to be targeted. The problem is that Moore's film [isn't likely to] reflect the stringent standards of today."

The movie, Moore said, is only in its early stages "and already people are freaky-deaky."

While "Sicko" is coming to life, "Fahrenheit" hasn't been laid to rest. Beginning on Inauguration Day, Moore will be documenting the activities of the Bush administration for "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 ."

"The word is out to whistle-blowers, in networks and corporations, that Bush has his sequel — a second term," Moore said. "And one bad sequel deserves a good one. What form it takes depends on the 'improvisation' of my lead actor. I'm more than happy to share residuals with him if he'd sit down with me for 10 minutes."

[metroshane]

where's the trailer and/or promotional material?

[cine]

where's the trailer and/or promotional material?

this thread was made back in the summer before we laid those rules down. you ass.

[Myxo]

While "Sicko" is coming to life, "Fahrenheit" hasn't been laid to rest. Beginning on Inauguration Day, Moore will be documenting the activities of the Bush administration for "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 ."

I knew he'd do this.

[metroshane]

this thread was made back in the summer before we laid those rules down. you ass.

Ah, you mean back when they could move threads, you pitiful boy?

[cine]

don't get all myxo on me, dude.. cause you sound like a tool. thanks.

[MacGuffin]

Michael Moore Updates: Sicko Status and Traverse City Film Festival

For all of those who've been wondering where hell Michael Moore is, he has finally spoken. The controversial filmmaker wrote a letter to Anne Thompson of The Hollywood Reporter to fill everyone in on what he's up to:

Michael Moore Letter
Here's Michael Moore's latest update on his many activities:


Friends,
Just a quick note to let you know how things are going.

Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health care system. I received over 19,000 of them. It was truly overwhelming as we literally took a month and read them all. To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. That's all I will say right now.

We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next movie, "Sicko." As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them "Sicko" is "a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth."

But like my other movies, what we start with (General Motors, guns, 9/11) is not always what we end with. Along the way, we discover new roads to go down, roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas -- and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with. That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot "Sicko." I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it.

At this point, we've shot about 75% of "Sicko" and will soon begin putting it together. It will be released in theaters sometime in 2007.

And if you don't hear much from me in the meantime, it's only 'cause I'm busy working. I realize that my silence doesn't stop the opposition with their weird obsession for me! It seems like not a week passes without my good name being worked into some nutty news story or commentary. (I have to say, though, I did enjoy and Ms. Streisand for why he had to resign from Congress!)

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. If you're near the state of Michigan later this month, I'll be putting on the second annual Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. I've personally selected 60 or so movies that I love, many of which did not get the notice or distribution they deserved. Others are brand new independent movies and documentaries that I hope will find a large audience when they are released.

The film festival will take place in this beautiful town in northern Michigan, from July 31st to August 6th. Appearing in person with their films will be David O. Russell ("Three Kings"), Lawrence Bender ("An Inconvenient Truth"), Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Larry Charles ("Borat"), plus Jeff Garlin, Jake Kasdan, and other filmmakers. We're also going to show every feature film made by the greatest American director of all time, Stanley Kubrick. Joining us in person will be his executive producer, Jan Harlan, and actors Malcolm McDowell ("A Clockwork Orange") and Matthew Modine ("Full Metal Jacket"). We'll also be presenting a special salute to films made in Iran (a sort of "Let's get to know them first this time!" effort).

If you'd like to see the entire list of films, click here. Tickets go on sale today (July 7) at noon. To purchase your tickets (all seats $7), click here or call 231-929-1506. Last year we had 50,000 admissions, and we expect most films to sell out early this year.

Well, that's it for now. Bush has quietly closed down the special section of the CIA that was devoted solely to capturing Mr. bin Laden, so we can all rest easy now. I wonder who his next scary evildoer will be. A fearful nation awaits its marching orders, sir!

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

P.S. Don't forget to visit my website which I update every day with all the news the Bush stenographers (a/k/a "Mainstream Media") fail to put on page one.

[polkablues]

We're also going to show every feature film made by the greatest American director of all time, Stanley Kubrick.

The floors of the world are wet with Xixax drool right now.

[Gold Trumpet]

I don't live very far from Traverse City. Should I try to get tickets? hmmm..naw.

[MacGuffin]

Weinsteins Expect Big Things from Sicko
Source: Cinematical

At the Traverse City Film Festival, Michael Moore finally talked in practical terms about his health care film, Sicko, for the first time. Though he's clearly passionate about exposing the problems with American health care, Moore still seems to be struggling a bit with the film -- after all, he says, "everyone knows that health care is a mess in this country." His goal, then, seems to be less education than motivation: Moore hopes that Sicko "pushes health care to the top of the public agenda" and, presumably, forces politicians to get involved. The problem, though, is that all the health care companies know exactly who Moore is, so the moment he shows up to document the struggles of a family dealing with an outrageous situation, "they get free health care." According to Moore, "There has been a 100% success rate of the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from the HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, whatever." Well, that's progress. Now all we have to do to fix things is have Moore travel to all the families with complaints, and the health care issue will be solved, right?

In addition to the pressure of simply pulling the film together, Moore is facing high expectations, from both his supporters and his bosses, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. According to Moore, the pair have been securing financing for the film by telling potential investors that it will gross $40 million, a total that would make Sicko the third highest-earning documentary of all time. Whoa. I mean, it's nice for bosses to have confidence and all, but couldn't they have said, like, $15 million? At this rate, ending up the fifth most successful doc ever would make Sicko a failure to its investors.

[MacGuffin]

Michael Moore Documentary Rattles Health-Care Giants
Trade Groups on the Defensive; Pharma Companies Allege Bias

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The health-care industry is worried sick over "Sicko."

Few details have emerged about the 2007 documentary from Michael Moore, the filmmaker who ripped apart Detroit automakers with "Roger and Me" and now has his sights set on the $1.5 trillion pharmaceutical and health-care industry. But it's still enough to mobilize health-care trade groups who are trying to discredit the film.

No balance from Moore
"A review of America's health-care system should be balanced, thoughtful and well-researched to pin down what works and what needs to be improved," said Ken Johnson, senior VP for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "You won't get that from Michael Moore."

Added a spokesman for one of the top 10 pharma companies: "We expect it will be one-sided and biased, just like his other documentaries."

Several other pharmaceutical makers did not return calls for comment. But Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline all advised their employees last year not to speak to Mr. Moore when he began his research for "Sicko." It is not known whether any HMOs or drug companies will appear in the film.

"We were approached, but declined," said a spokeswoman for a second top-10 drugmaker. "Frankly, as much as we felt like we wanted to get our message across, in the end we didn't want to subject ourselves to the editing process."

Academy Award winner
Mr. Moore, the Academy Award-winning director of "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- the latter the biggest-grossing documentary in movie history -- recently told Variety that the drug companies have been on to him for some time.

"They're so hip [to me] that whenever we have a family" with a health-care nightmare "they get free health care," Mr. Moore said during panel discussions last month at his second annual Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan. "There has been a 100% success rate of the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from the HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, whatever."

On his website, Mr. Moore offered a snapshot of what the documentary entails. "Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health-care system, and I received over 19,000 of them," he wrote. "To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next movie, 'Sicko.' As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them 'Sicko' is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth."

Film in flux
Mr. Moore didn't return calls for comment. But on his site he said that, like his other films, what he starts with is not necessarily what he ends with.

"That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot 'Sicko,'" he wrote. "I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it."

[Pubrick]

"I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that."

yeah, leave that to morgan spurlock.

[MacGuffin]

Michael Moore dissects U.S. health care

First, General Motors. Then gun control, followed by George W. Bush. Now rabble-rousing filmmaker Michael Moore has turned his irreverent camera on health care in America.

"Sicko," Moore's dissection of the health care system, promises to be another hilarious documentary romp, based on excerpts he showed Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

During a two-hour appearance, Moore discussed his career as a counterculture journalist, provocative filmmaker and liberal standard-bearer, and he played three clips from "Sicko," which he said would be in theaters next June.

The segments presented stories of personal health care nightmares, including that of a woman denied payment for an ambulance ride after a head-on collision because it was not preapproved.

"They try to find every way they can to deny it to you or not sell it to you," he told a packed theater. "Or they try to find anyway they can not to pay the bill."

The "Sicko" excerpts also included a segment comparing Canada's public health care to the privatized system in the United States, concluding that Canadians have more equitable access to medical services.

The idea for "Sicko" grew out of a segment from Moore's TV show "The Awful Truth," in which he staged a mock funeral outside a health-maintenance organization that had declined a pancreas transplant for a diabetic man. The HMO later relented.

Health care representatives downplay the potential impact of Moore's documentary.

"We can't control what a major Hollywood entertainer does," said Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. "Our focus remains on a positive agenda of high-quality health care for more Americans."

With a laid-back persona but an in-your-face documentary style, Moore broke onto the scene with 1989's "Roger & Me," chronicling his efforts to meet with GM boss Roger Smith amid the economic chaos the automaker's plant closings had on Moore's hometown of Flint, Mich.

Moore's 2002 gun-control film "Bowling for Columbine" won the documentary prize at the Academy Awards. He followed with 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11," skewering Bush for his actions over the Sept. 11 attacks. The film topped $100 million at the box office to become the biggest documentary hit ever.

Given Moore's devoted fans and a subjective, opinionated documentary style the filmmaker likens to a newspaper's op-ed section, "Sicko" has set the health-services industry on edge.

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the trade group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, said industry officials were "freaking out and pulling their hair out" when they first got word of Moore's documentary.

They have since calmed down, Johnson said.

"Michael Moore is a political activist with a track record for sensationalism. He has no intention of being fair and balanced," Johnson said.

[MacGuffin]

MOORE'S 'SICKO' STUNT
TAKES 9/11 WORKERS TO CUBA
Source: New York Post

Filmmaker Michael Moore's production company took ailing Ground Zero responders to Cuba in a stunt aimed at showing that the U.S. health-care system is inferior to Fidel Castro's socialized medicine, according to several sources with knowledge of the trip.

The trip was to be filmed as part of the controversial director's latest documentary, "Sicko," an attack on American drug companies and HMOs that Moore hopes to debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Two years in the making, the flick also takes aim at the medical care being provided to people who worked on the toxic World Trade Center debris pile, according to several 9/11 workers approached by Moore's producers.

But the sick sojourn, which some say uses ill 9/11 workers as pawns, has angered many in the responder community.

"He's using people that are in a bad situation and that's wrong, that's morally wrong," railed Jeff Endean, a former SWAT commander from Morris County, N.J., who spent a month at Ground Zero and suffers from respiratory problems.

A spokeswoman for the Weinstein Co., the film's distributor, would not say when the director's latest expose would hit cinemas or provide details about the film or the trip.

Responders were told Cuban doctors had developed new techniques for treating lung cancer and other respiratory illness, and that health care in the communist country was free, according to those offered the two-week February trip.

Cuba has made recent advancements in biotechnology and exports its cancer treatments to 40 countries around the world, raking in an estimated $100 million a year, according to The Associated Press.

In 2004 the U.S. government granted an exception to its economic embargo against Cuba and allowed a California drug company to test three cancer vaccines developed in Havana, according to the AP.

Regardless, some ill 9/11 workers balked at Moore's idea.

"I would rather die in America than go to Cuba," said Joe Picurro, a Toms River, N.J., ironworker approached by the filmmaker via an e-mail that read, "Joe and Mike in Cuba."

After helping remove debris from Ground Zero, Picurro has a laundry list of respiratory and other ailments so bad that he relies on fund-raisers to help pay his expenses.

He said, "I just laughed. I couldn't do it."

Another ill worker who said he was willing to take the trip ended up being stiffed by Moore.

Michael McCormack, 48, a disabled medic who found an American flag at Ground Zero that once flew atop the Twin Towers, was all set to go to.

The film crew contacted him by phone and took him by limo from his Ridge, L.I., home to Manhattan for an on-camera interview.

"What he [Moore] wanted to do is shove it up George W's rear end that 9/11 heroes had to go to a communist country to get adequate health care," said McCormack, who suffers from chronic respiratory illness.

But McCormack said he was abandoned by Moore. At a March fund-raiser for another 9/11 responder in New Jersey, McCormack learned Moore had gone to Cuba without him.

"It's the ultimate betrayal," he said. "You're promised that you're going to be taken care of and then you find out you're not. He's trying to profiteer off of our suffering."

Moore's publicist did not return calls from The Post. But McCormack played a tape for The Post of a telephone conversation between himself and a Moore producer. The woman is heard apologizing for not taking McCormack, while saying the production company was not offering anyone guarantees of a cure.

"Even for the people that we did bring down to Cuba, we said we can promise that you will be evaluated, that you will get looked at," said the woman. "We can't promise that you will get fixed."

Participants in the Cuba trip were forced to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from talking about the project, the sources said.

Travel to Cuba is severely restricted from the United States, but Moore's crew was granted access, the producer told McCormack, through a "general license that allows for journalistic endeavors there."

Some called the trip a success, at least logistics-wise.

"From what I heard through the grapevine, those people that went are utterly happy," said John Feal, who runs the Fealgood Foundation to help raise money for responders and was approached by Moore to find responders willing to take the trip.

"They got the Elvis treatment."

Although he has been a critic of Cuba, Moore grew popular there after a pirated version of his movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," was played on state-owned TV.