ACTION – AT 10:20 P.M. ET:  It was inevitable that Hollywood would make a film about the killing of bin Laden, but there seems to be an odd agenda at work here.  From London's Telegraph:

A film about the killing of Osama bin Laden has been given the green light after Colombia Pictures won the rights to distribute the movie, which will be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow.

Bigelow and journalist-turned screenwriter Mark Boal, who won Oscars for Iraq bomb squad movie The Hurt Locker in 2010, had already been working on a project about the al-Qaeda chief's capture or killing, before his death on May 2.

Immediately afterwards there were reports they were scrambling to decide what to do with the project, but the announcement by Amy Pascal of Columbia's parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed the plans.

So far so good.  But then get this:

Boal and Bigelow will produce the as-yet unnamed movie with Annapurna Picture's Megan Ellison, and executive producer Greg Shapiro. Filming will start in late summer, with the film to be released in the last quarter of 2012.

COMMENT:  What's that?  The film will be released in the last quarter of 2012?  Now wait.  I know a little something about Hollywood, and I'm wondering about that schedule.  You'd think the studio would want to take advantage of the bin Laden raid and get this movie out as quickly as possible.

Ah, but it's modern, chic Hollywood.  Now, students, what will happen in the last quarter of 2012?  That's right, the presidential election.  And who ordered the bin Laden hit?  That's right, Barack Obama.  And who could benefit by a huge film being released right before the election that heralds Barack's triumph?  No doubt there.

This, it appears, will be Hollywood's gift to the Obama campaign.  You may be sure that the movie will be released just in time for the voting, that it will be a major event, with saturation coverage by the mainstream media, and that it will portray Obama as a heroic, larger-than-life figure.  It's got to be worth a few points, maybe more, in an election.  In a close election, all that publicity might actually make the difference.

And if the Republicans properly ask that the premiere be delayed until after the election, you can just hear the cries of "censorship" from the literary precincts.

Hooray for Hollywood?  Not quite.

May 25, 2011