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Posted
More
News on the Fred Leuchter film
More
news about the new movie by Errol
Morris“Mr
Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter, Jr.”about
Fred
Leuchter (right, with Robert Faurisson). Fourth
Floor Productions with Scout
Productions, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USASee too: Acclaim for Leuchter film at Sundance Film Festival, Jan 27.
1999 Excerpts from
Mark
Singer’s review article in The New
Yorker,
Feb 1, 1999, with this Website’s comments
Reuters dispatch, Thursday May 20 4:40 AM
ET
Date with “Death”
By Andrew Hindes
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) –
Canada’s Lions Gate Entertainment has picked up North American rights to the documentary
“Mr.
Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter Jr.,” and plans to release it later this year.
The picture is about Leuchter, an engineer who designs and repairs gas chambers, electric chairs and lethal injection systems. The mild-mannered eccentric investigated the use of poison gas in WWII Nazi concentration camps. His controversial findings, which have become required reading for Holocaust deniers, eventually led to his ruin.
“Death,” which debuted as a work-in-progress at the Sundance Film
Festival in January, has already received much press attention including a lengthy
New Yorker feature earlier this year. The copious press coverage was unusual for an independent film that did not yet have a domestic distributor.
The film was directed by Errol
Morris, whose other documentary credits include 1997’s “Fast, Cheap &
Out of Control,” 1992’s “A Brief History of Time” and 1988’s “The Thin Blue
Line.”
Reuters/Variety
Thursday
May 20, 2:25 pm Eastern Time
Company
Press Release
SOURCE:
Lions
Gate Entertainment Corp.
Lions
Gate breathes life into Mr.
Death
Errol Morris’s new film to be released by Lions
Gate
CANNES, France, May 20 /CNW-PRN/ –
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. AMEX/TSE:LGF
LIONS Gate
Entertainment has purchased all North
American rights to world-renowned award-winning filmmaker Errol
Morris‘s newest work,
Mr.
Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter, Jr.
The announcement was made today by Tom
Ortenberg and Mark Urman, co-presidents of Lions Gate’s film releasing division.
Mr. Death
debuted to great acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Lions Gate later in the year.
Mr.
Death tells the story of
Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., an engineer who decided to become the “Florence
Nightingale of Death Row.” His mission was to design and repair gas chambers, electric chairs and lethal injection systems. But Leuchter became infamous for his work with anti-Holocaust writer
Ernst Zundel, who commissioned
Leuchter to conduct a forensic investigation into the use of poison gas in WWII Nazi concentration camps.
Leuchter’s controversial findings eventually hypothesized that the Holocaust never happened. He fully expected his involvement with Zundel to be the crowning achievement of his career; instead, it ruined him.
Of the acquisition, Mr. Urman said,
“Mr.
Death is the culmination of
Errol Morris’s career thus far, and is further proof that he is one of the most inventive and exciting filmmakers working today.”
Mr. Ortenberg added, “Errol Morris has created a motion picture genre all his own, and Mr.
Death is the most provocative and accessible of all his great films.”
“Mr.
Death
expresses a number of important
political and social issues,” said Mr.
Morris. “I think it’s a film – even
more than The Thin Blue Line or any
other film that I’ve made – that will
prompt discussion and interest, and I
wanted it to reach the widest possible
audience. And Lions Gate has made a
commitment to do just that.They see
it, as I do, not as a specialized film,
but rather a film that could attract a
much broader audience than anything
I’ve done before.”
Mr. Morris’s award-winning credits as a director/producer include Fast Cheap &
Out of Control (1998 Truer Than Fiction
Independent Spirit Award); A Brief History of Time (1992 Sundance Filmmakers Trophy and Grand Jury Prize); and The Thin Blue
Line.
Mr. Death: The
Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter,
Jr. was produced by David
Collins, Michael Williams and
Dorothy Aufiero and executive produced by attorney/producers representative John Sloss. The deal was negotiated by Urman and Ortenberg on behalf of Lions Gate, with Sloss of Sloss
Law representing the film.
Lions Gate Entertainment is celebrating two Academy Awards for its 1998 releases,
Gods and Monsters (winner of the Best
Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Bill
Condon) and Affliction (for which
James Coburn won an Oscar for Best
Supporting Actor). Upcoming titles on
Lions Gate’s release slate include the prize-winning The Red Violin, directed by
Francois Girard, starring Samuel
L.
Jackson, Greta Scacchi, Jason
Flemyng and Don McKellar; Mr.
McKellar’s own award-winning apocalyptic romance, Last Night; and
Francis Veber‘s Cesar-winning
French comedy sensation, The Dinner
Game.
Lions Gate recently wrapped production on American Psycho, Mary Harron’s adaptation of the controversial novel that stars Christian Bale, Reese
Witherspoon and Willem Dafoe.
The film will be released this winter.
The company’s most recent acquisition,
Peter Greenaway’s 8 1/2 Women, starring
John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Polly
Walker, Amanda Plummer, Toni Collette
and Vivian Wu, was recently announced in Cannes and will be released later this year.
LIONS GATE
ENTERTAINMENT CORP. (AMEX/TSE:LGF) develops, produces and distributes a wide range of film and television content.
Through its four main operating groups –
motion pictures, television, animation, and studio facilities – the distinctive
Lions Gate brand is recognized throughout
North America and around the world.
SOURCE: Lions
Gate Entertainment Corp.
Related
stories on Fred Leuchter: the Movie (“Mr
Death”):
- Early
stories, Boston Herald, etc., Jan
1999 - Acclaim
for Leuchter film at Sundance Film
Festival, Jan 27, 1999 - Mark
Singer’s review article Feb 1, 1999 in
The New Yorker - George
Jonas comments in review that Stalin
and Mao killed tens of
millions - Canada’s
Lions Gate Entertainment picks up North
American rights to the documentary“Mr.
Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter Jr.” - NY
Daily News, Dec 29, 1999: Irony is good
for the blood - New
York Post, Dec 29, 1999: Mr. Death Sums
Up Moral History of Century - Los
Angeles Jewish Journal, Dec 24, 1999:
on Errol Morris and Mr. Death - More
news about the new movie by Errol
Morris “Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of
Fred A.Leuchter, Jr.”
- Erroll Morris admits he
had to alter this film on life of Fred
Leuchter, after Jewish
complaints - New
York Times Reviews the film Dec 26,
1999 - Forensic Chemist Roth comments
he would have made different findings
if he knew source of fragments was
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