J. Neil Schulman
@ Agorist.com
Glenn Beck v. Tim Robbins
I’m making my first exception to my “at least one new article a day” history of this blog by holding this over through the weekend. The discussion below the main article is sufficiently interesting to me to keep it at the top of the queue. I’ll refresh and republish Saturday and Sunday on Facebook’s Networked Blogs — JNS
Ever since I answered Glenn Beck’s June 2nd praise for my novel Alongside Night — to his three million radio listeners — with an offer for Glenn Beck to play the role of Dr. Martin Vreeland in the Alongside Night movie I’m now making, I have received a whole lot of feedback from fans of the novel who want to see the character of Dr. Martin Vreeland hit the big screen at their local multiplex.
There are fans of Alongside Night who are also fans of Glenn Beck. Lots of them. And that’s not surprising. Alongside Night is, in fact, right up the alley of many of the topics Glenn Beck regularly talks about on his syndicated/satellite radio and Fox News Network TV shows. Alongside Night portrays the United States in economic meltdown due to bankers, politicians, and “security” officials uniting in a coalition to put the once-free American people (OK, I know, not all of them) under their thumbs.
There are also fans of Alongside Night who hate Glenn Beck. Lots of them. And that’s not surprising. Glen Beck rants against anarchists on his show — as recently as yesterday’s Glenn Beck show on the Fox News Network. Alongside Night is a novel where the good guys are divided into two camps. There are libertarian minarchists like Dr. Martin Vreeland who want to again limit the United States to its original 1787 Constitution and 1791 Bill of Rights. Then there are libertarian anarchists like Merce Rampart of the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre who have concluded the Constitution was a noble experiment which tried and failed to restrain omnipresent government and instead invoke Thomas Jefferson’s “new guards” language in the Declaration of Independence to try marginalizing government by bringing anarchist-style law-and-order to the black market.
Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged, was promoting the Martin Vreeland approach.
J. Neil Schulman, in his novel Alongside Night is sympathetic to the Martin Vreeland/Ayn Rand approach — but even more sympathetic to the Merce Rampart approach.
Many of the critics of my approaching Glenn Beck to portray Dr. Martin Vreeland on screen argue to me that I shouldn’t cast Glenn Beck because in real life he’s not as consistently libertarian as Dr. Martin Vreeland.
To which I — as author of the novel, as writer of the screenplay, as the guy who’s going to direct the movie, and as the guy who’ll be authoring the movie in an editing bay — say, “And your point is …?”
I approached Glenn Beck to take the role of Dr. Martin Vreeland not because I believe that Glenn Beck is identical to the character I made up but because (a) Glenn Beck has an enormous fan base who would buy tickets to see the movie if he were in it and self-promoted his appearance in it on radio and TV; but also (b) because as the director and editor of one independent feature film already I have confidence that with some work to guide his talents as a broadcaster, stand-up comic, and public speaker to the specific needs of screen acting, I can get a screen performance out of Glenn Beck that will do credit to both my movie and his career, and help Alongside Night reach a huge movie-watching audience.
But a lot of Alongside Night‘s fans in the anti-Beck camp are more concerned with the guilt-by-association Alongside Night would have if I cast Glenn Beck and encourage him to promote it. They argue to me that Beck’s polarizing politics, self-described “rodeo clown” antics, and sometimes mawkish persona would make Alongside Night about nothing but Glenn Beck.
Now, it has to have crossed your mind by this point that the title of this article is “Glenn Beck v. Tim Robbins” and at the top of this page are side-by-side photos of these two men showing how much they look like each other.
Oscar-winner Tim Robbins portrayed a character Glenn Beck’s critics would argue is eerily similar to Glenn Beck in Bob Roberts — and more paranoid Beck critics would argue to the characters Tim Robbins portrayed in Arlington Road and War of the Worlds (based on a novel by a lifelong socialist).
Tim Robbins physically resembles Glenn Beck so much that if I were casting The Glenn Beck Story my first call would be to Tim Robbins’ representatives at the United Talent Agency.
Like 95% of Hollywood A-listers Tim Robbins is politically on the left. He advocates big government, uses the word “collectivism” as a praiseworthy term, believes the United States projection of military force into countries like Iraq and Afghanistan to be evil, and referred to President George W. Bush as a stupid drunk.
Tim Robbins’ advocacy of big-government solutions and identifying with socialists less-than-scrupulous in their dedication to individual human rights makes him as suspicious a target to libertarians as Glenn Beck.
But I’ll bet you anything that if I offered Tim Robbins the role of Dr. Martin Vreeland in Alongside Night every single libertarian and anarchist who has thrown caltrops under the chariot of my trying to get this movie financed and into production by slamming my offer to Glenn Beck would not care a whit about the socialist-friendly politics of Mr. Tim Robbins.
The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice, and moral cowardice of that annoys the hell out of me.
One of the reasons I’m working to produce Alongside Night as an independent film on what by studio standards is considered a low budget is so I can make sure the vision of the original novel is faithfully brought to the screen. So long as I am in good enough health to helm this movie I would not give up the director’s chair for any studio or production company offer — not even if overnight it took me from being a debt-ridden Type-II diabetic who can’t even afford health insurance to being a debt-free millionaire who has all the money I need to buy Stairmasters, NutraSystem foods, and the regular care of top-ranked endocrinologists.
I would not replace myself as director even if one of my favorite living A-list directors — Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Andrew Davis, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius, Phil Alden Robinson, Paul Greengrass, or Robert Zemeckis — was offered to me.
I started out my career as a writer whose first novel, Alongside Night, received unbelievable praise from “A-Listers” — the literary endorsements from Anthony Burgess and Milton Friedman on the dust jacket of Alongside Night‘s first hardcover edition making that point emphatically. The praise from other “A-listers” — Charlton Heston, Robert A. Heinlein, Piers Anthony, David Brin, Colin Wilson, Walter Williams, Dennis Prager — have continued unabated through other novels and books.
My debut as a film director was the first-time Nichelle Nichols had ever agreed to star in an independent feature film. Look up her filmography before Lady Magdalene’s and you’ll see Star Trek films from Paramount and movies like Snow Dogs and Are We There Yet?
The IMDb rating for the Twilight Zone episode I wrote, “Profile in Silver,” is 8.4.
Yet — and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m way too well-known as a libertarian from my published books and articles — I have never sold a screenplay to a Hollywood studio, been asked to join the writing staff of a TV show, nor ever been offered a job to direct a movie.
If you think it’s because I don’t have enough talent, Va te faire enculer.
I don’t give a damn what the politics are of Mr. Glenn Beck or Mr. Tim Robbins when it comes to whether I’ll make an offer to act in my movie.
I would just as readily make an offer to Sean Penn — whose politics I simply despise — if I thought I could get past his agents at CAA who won’t look at a script for him unless the film is fully-financed, has a start date, and there’s a pay-or-play offer in six-figures.
I’ve been blacklisted. I would never do that to another performer.
So the only question for me is not what I think of the politics of a Glenn Beck or a Tim Robbins, but whether my politics makes my vision unacceptable to them.
All I can promise is that any movie you see with the legend “A J. Neil Schulman Film” will — whoever is cast in it — in fact be a J. Neil Schulman film.
And Steve Reed — my good friend and favorite critic — you are more than welcome to respond to this article.
My comic thriller Lady Magdalene’s — a movie I wrote, produced, directed, and acted in it — is now available for sale or rental on Amazon.com Video On Demand. If you like the way I think, I think you’ll like this movie. Check it out!
June 11, 2010 - 2:09 pm
Neil, I think it would be great if Glenn Beck were to accept your offer and if your film were made. I think it would also be a good result if someone else were cast in the role and your film were made. You wrote a very important book in 1979, and it would make a very important film.
But, look, possibly, if the stand up comic stylings of Glenn Beck don’t get to be part of your film, try the stand up comedy of Doug Stanhope. He wouldn’t bring as big an audience to your film, but it would be terrifically fun to watch.
June 11, 2010 - 4:53 pm
Jim,
I’m finding out more and more libertarians and pro-free-market conservatives who might want to be in Alongside Night.
Not to say this is a casting list or that I even know how to get through to any of them but here are just a few names (in random order) that keep coming up:
Drew Carey
Denis Leary
Sam Waterston
Richard Belzer
Penn Jillette
Janine Turner
Kelsey Grammer
Kevin Costner
Neil
June 12, 2010 - 4:04 am
Neil, don’t forget Adam Baldwin — not a Baldwin Brother, the one from FIREFLY and SERENITY, also a free-market semi-libertarian conservative and an excellent actor with a large fanbase.
If you want to cast Glenn Beck, and he’s willing to accept, go ahead. If you want to cast Tim Robbins and he’s willing to accept, go ahead. It’s your movie and your vision. My opinions are just my opinions, and if Mr. Beck and you can work together and bring your vision to the screen, great. I withdraw my objections, which were never based on politics, but on distant and limited personal information which might be entirely wrong.
Break a leg.
June 12, 2010 - 4:07 am
P. S.: And afterward go ahead and make The Glenn Beck Story, starring Tim Robbins. The irony is too great to not do it.
June 12, 2010 - 5:10 am
Well, you invited me.
“[…] I’ll bet you anything that if I offered Tim Robbins the role of Dr. Martin Vreeland in Alongside Night every single libertarian and anarchist who has thrown caltrops under the chariot of my trying to get this movie financed and into production by slamming my offer to Glenn Beck would not care a whit about the socialist-friendly politics of Tim Robbins. The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice, and moral cowardice of that annoys the hell out of me.”
You lose the bet, Neil.
When you deal in the supposed unanimity of collectives, even informal ones, ONE counter-example — mine — is enough to blow up your premise. Even if one admits that a paragraph such as this is the premise of a valid argument — and I’m not about to do that.
This, the core comment of your blog post, is not any sort of argument. It’s a logical fallacy as well as a personal smear. It goes by the name of “poisoning the well.”
You proceed from assuming that everyone who’s criticized your choice of Beck, and for any reason, “would not care a whit” about Robbins’s politics. And that they, including me, are moral cowards. I’m not at all sorry to disoblige you, because neither one of these assumptions is true — and you know it.
~ You are treating every criticism of your casting choices, or anything else about this proposed film that you have put into the arena of public discussion, as “caltrops under the chariot” and a “slam” by those who have “moral cowardice.” You refuse, on all public evidence, to even entertain the idea that any principled criticism can be made by those who care about the book, and the film, enough to not want to see its prospects weakened by poor choices.
~ Throughout your blog posts, and on Facebook, you collapse all criticisms of your project into the issue of Beck’s (or Robbins’s) political differences with the libertarian themes of your story. You refuse to recognize the plainly spoken truth of other issues being brought to bear, at least in Beck’s case thus far:
An outsized political reputation as a media distraction.
The unlikelihood of transferring small-screen polemical talents to big-screen acting, certainly short of extensive and outsized personal tutoring when in production.
The lack of evidence that the man at issue even wants to become a dramatic actor, let alone that he is willing to take the inevitable “pay cut” from his current gigs.
The way such a man’s fame, however earned, can and almost certainly will drag media attention away from your themes and plot.
~ You take your idée fixe about political crosstalk and make it into the only criticism you’ll even acknowledge, and proceed to dissect that and only that. Even to the point of considering it a variety of “bigotry” on your Facebook pages.
All of this is not arguing in good faith. It’s not argument, period. It’s a selectivity of focus that speaks poorly for your persuasive powers. It’s not so much a “straw man” as a gunning down of any area of criticism that you don’t want to hear.
With all of that having already made a hash of any attempt at open discussion, by your unwarranted and borderline-vicious dismissal of all critics even of your own political persuasion, I’ll nonetheless proceed to Beck versus Robbins.
Tim Robbins is indeed a better prospect for acting in the part of Martin Vreeland. The most obvious reason being that he is an actor, with long, effective, diverse, and well-acclaimed credits. He is a known quantity and quality in this respect. Glenn Beck is not.
As to neoconservative warmonger versus socialist sympathizer, both are entirely suspect in the eyes of genuine libertarians, including me. And all performers have limits in how their skills can transcend a disagreement with their scripts.
Yet here, as to their potential, there is little question as to who would be likely to work better. Robbins has a track record, including working under a conservative (semi-libertarian, I’d say) director such as Clint Eastwood, who brought out a deserved Oscar-winning performance in “Mystic River.” Beck has no such record under any director, and to me, your extrapolations from his cable-news persona aren’t enough of a substitute.
As to political reputations diluting or distracting from the making of and reception for your film, Beck gained his long before any possibility of such a role ever arose. Robbins did as most performers do, and did not become an active “political animal” — in campaigns or behind the camera — until long after he’d established his acting and artistic chops.
Beck or Robbins? I doubt, finally, that it would matter. Part of me says, simply, that you’re dreaming with either one, given their likely demands for far more than an indy-film budget can bear, and that this publicity-by-open-casting ploy isn’t going to get you anywhere. Part of me fears, professionally and physiologically, for your taking on too many crusades at once.
Getting your ideas in Alongside Night on the screen through any performers will itself be a struggle, one that’s orders of magnitude greater than working against publishers’ inertia and hostility. Two such crusades can figuratively — or literally — kill anyone, despite the best of intentions.
I have admired your work for three decades, starting with this very book. I’ve known you personally for nine years. You are my friend. Nothing would delight me more than seeing this book make it to the screen, even with problematic casting and troubled financing.
Yet if you want to throw something like this open to public discussion, you cannot take the tack that any vigorous comment on your choices means, as you’ve said to me, that others are simply giving you shit. They can be giving you concern. And, in fact, from what I’ve read here and elsewhere, they are.
Yet if you’re going to simply dismiss any such comments, from those closest to your own political views, as coming from “moral cowards,” I suppose none of this really matters. It certainly doesn’t make anyone want to respond seriously for very long in a discussion forum.
You’re better than this, Neil. You don’t need to thus impugn those who care enough about your projects to actually suggest that some of your choices are suboptimal or unlikely to help your cause.
I could say more, but it’d be a matter of rhetorical re-plowing of ground I’d already covered, including privately with you. I’ve read, said, and vented enough.
June 12, 2010 - 9:29 am
Steve’s Reed’s challenges and concerns can’t be answered by argument; they can only be answered existentially: by what has happened and by what will happen.
Has any libertarian other than Steve Reed — who tries to make himself the exception that disproves the rule — published any concern whatsoever that the real-life politics of Tim Robbins would hurt a movie release of Alongside Night as many libertarians have suggested the personal politics of Glenn Beck would?
No.
That speaks volumes to me about how today’s self-identified libertarian activists have far more fear of being associated with more-statist right-wing fellow travelers than more statist left-wing fellow travelers. Did I and do I call that “hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice, and moral cowardice”?
I did and do.
But Steve Reed’s criticism is invalid, because if it were not for the moral cowardice factor I should have been deluged in the past 24-hours with protests from libertarians rushing to give me hell for the prospect of casting a socialist in the role of libertarian Dr. Martin Vreeland.
The silence is deafening, and existentially proves my point.
Would I get a better screen-acting performance out of the Oscar-winning Tim Robbins than the far-less experienced Glenn Beck?
Of course. I speculate — and I fully admit that this is a “forward looking statement” — that I’d barely have to open my mouth as a director — beyond saying “Whenever you’re ready” and “Cut” if Tim Robbins was on my set.
But with the tools of advance coaching, rehearsal, carefully blocking, multiple takes and full coverage, and the power of the editing bay could I get a performance out of Glenn Beck that by the time I’m done would be Oscar worthy?
I’ve already bet my reputation — by making the offer — that I can. Call it ego or arrogance, but given what my director’s eye sees in Glenn Beck, my level of stress about this question is far, far lower than my fears of reaching the end of 2010 without having the movie in the can.
With a master craftsman screen actor like Tim Robbins on my set, he’s the only artist the movie needs.
With a far-less-experienced screen actor like Glenn Beck on my set, I’m the only artist the movie needs.
Would Glenn Beck’s career as a pundit whose politics are objectionable to many in my own profession harm the reputation of my film?
That — to me — isn’t a bug but a feature. I thrive on controversy like this. That’s the dialectic. That’s where my early training in aikido comes into play. That’s where the prospect of taking every liberal and left-winger in Hollywood who walk into a screening of Alongside Night with no other intention than laughing at Glenn Beck but instead see a nuanced performance that turns their world on its head makes me shudder … with anticipation.
Neil
June 13, 2010 - 6:24 am
I was a cast member on J. Neil Schulman’s previous film Lady Magdalene’s, and although I do agree with some of the points that have been raised online over the last few days by some of Neil’s critics, I also take issue with a few of those points too.
Some of these criticisms seem well intentioned, and look to come from people who are genuinely on JNS’s side. And from people, who it would seem, want him to make a success of his forthcoming project, Alongside Night.
As an actor myself, I can see how some people would automatically be critical, when he made the announcement, that it was his intention to use a non-actor in the pivotal role of Dr. Martin Vreeland.
Initially, when Neil mentioned this guy Glenn Beck to me as a possible candidate for the Dr. Vreeland role, I was very intrigued because I had not heard of the guy!
Yes, I hold my hands up! I didn’t know who he was, strange as that may seem to some of you. To explain a little. I currently reside in the U.K. I am very selective in what little television I watch, and I don’t get Fox News, which is probably the main reason that I’ve missed him.
However, I quickly checked him out online to see what was generating all this vitriolic flack which now seemed to be flying in Neil’s direction from all angles.
I have been extremely critical in the past, when people from a non–acting background have been handed a “Role On A Plate,” especially when they don’t deliver!
So, when I tuned in to listen to Glenn Beck a few days ago it was with a certain amount of dread.
After listening to him on the radio first, and then watching him on the TV, I thought to myself, “Well, the guy is certainly an entertainer.” Quick witted. Sharp. Slick. Intelligent. Politically aware. Eloquent. So he had qualities which were certainly required in the Vreeland character. But there was still doubt in my mind at this point.
What swung it for me was a programme that I found online, where he was being interviewed, and to my amazement it was like a different person – light years away from “The Personality” that I had seen on Fox News the day before.
So the answer to the first question. Can Beck Act? I believe he can. He may need a little bit of help here and there, but I believe he will be able to pull it off.
As far as how his involvement could be popular or unpopular. Or how his political leanings, religious beliefs, past personal problems et cetera, et cetera will affect the box office, cause Riots In The Street, blah blah blah …. well Who Knows?!
There Are Never Any Guarantees Of Success At The Box Office!
Even Movies with the Biggest Stars and Most Successful Directors Take a Dive!
There Is No Such Thing as A Sure Thing! …. Especially In The Movie Business!
The Bottom Line is this:
Glenn Beck as I’ve discovered over these last few days is a major player in the media, with a large audience of both lovers and haters and from A PR perspective any shortcomings he has as an actor (and I’m sure these, if any, can be addressed and fixed!) are more than outweighed by the sheer amount of media attention that his involvement will bring to this project.
So after my initial skepticism on Schulman’s intention on going after Glenn Beck to play the role of Dr. Martin Vreeland, I now believe that if he gets Beck onboard this project, J Neil Schulman will silence his critics and Glenn Beck may end up with an even greater following than he has already.
Mark Gilvary
Cast Member & Associate Producer
Alongside Night
http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1667061/
N.B.: In a recent Facebook discussion Schulman said the following:
June 13, 2010 - 11:35 am
Mark Gilvary thinks the following two lines from my reply to Steve Reed (Comment #6) can be misunderstood:
Obviously I’m not saying it comes down between a single actor and the director. A movie set has dozens of people on it, all of whom are crucial.
My point — if too pithily stated — is that a director doesn’t have to do very much work if the actor in front of the camera turns in a masterful performance; but that ultimately the authoring of the movie is the cutting together of different shots in an editing bay … and by the time the audience is seeing it, who really knows who did what with whom?
Neil
June 13, 2010 - 10:26 pm
Hey, I’m sure Neil could do a great job even if I were playing the part, if he were filming in Australia! Oh, by the way, Neil, if you need an experienced make-up artist on set, who also could probably play a very nice young mother of a teenage girl, you couldn’t go past Kandee Johnson.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3623393/
She also has a massive and loyal following on YouTube, Blogspot and Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/kandeethemakeupartist
http://www.kandeethemakeupartist.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/kandeejohnson
278,080 subscribers (and many, many millions of videos viewed) mostly women who watch her for her make up tips, and who appreciate her as a totally lovely lady.