NY Times: John Cusack Goes to War

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John Cusack Goes to War
By DAVID CARR
Published: May 18, 2008


POLITICAL satire has its work cut out for it in the current environment. An unpopular war, the tortured rhetoric of a government defending its various pratfalls and news media that many see as complicit in the mess have created a burlesque — one that may not require annotation or exaggeration. Not that John Cusack isn’t willing to give it a whirl. His “War, Inc.,” which opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, is a satire that goes over the top and stays there.

Mr. Cusack is one of the writers as well as the star of the film, set in a mythological country called Turaqistan over the course of a militarized trade show in a privatized war. (Joshua Seftel is the director.) The well-compensated conqueror and savior is a company named Tamerlane, which delivers a full menu of capabilities, including leveling the country with bombs, rebuilding what’s destroyed, and even using its war-making technology to glue limbs back on victims.

As a conflicted mercenary seeking a toehold amid the lucrative mayhem, Mr. Cusack has some big-name accomplices, including his sister Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley and, underneath a mop of black hair, Hilary Duff.

Given the number of war-theme movies (“Redacted,” “In the Valley of Elah” and “Lions for Lambs,” among others) that have been disasters at the box office, and given that moviegoers may not be much in the mood for a comedy about Mideast misadventures, Mr. Cusack is well aware of the obstacles on the road ahead.

“We’ve had strong reactions both ways,” he said, speaking from London, where he is filming “Shanghai,” about an American expat visiting that city right before Pearl Harbor. “We wanted to make something and not just talk about it, and we were aware of the challenges that went with it.”

Those who suggest that the movie’s core premise — war as a profit engine — is so five years ago are right in a way. Mr. Cusack and his co-writers, Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser, have been grinding away almost since the start of the very long war it takes aim at.

“We have been swimming upstream from the beginning,” said Grace Loh, Mr. Cusack’s producing partner. “There was a long struggle to get it funded, and when we didn’t really get the kind of budget we had hoped, we filmed in Bulgaria and really tried to make the best movie we could with the money we had.” ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/movies/18carr.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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