Lost Colony Entertainment Plans Film on Benoit Murder/Suicide

http://www.lostcolonyentertainment.com/

Writer/Producer/Director Richard O’Sullivan (“One Night With You,” “Hallows”) has optioned the exclusive film and television rights to author Irvin Muchnick’s acclaimed book CHRIS & NANCY: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death.

The book details the harrowing true-life story of late WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, who made international headlines in 2007 when he murdered his wife and small son before hanging himself in his Atlanta home.

“It’s a glimpse into the collapse of a fragile mind,” says O’Sullivan. “Chris Benoit was a guy whose brain had been scrambled by a combination of steroids, painkillers, and repeated concussions to the point that he literally lost touch with reality. He was a 40 year old man with the physical brain of an 85 year old Alzheimer’s patient. It’s the story of a true-life descent into hell.”

The Benoit project comes at a time in which the sports entertainer’s former employer, World Wrestling Entertainment, is under intense media scrutiny due to the U.S. Senate campaign of the company’s former CEO, Linda McMahon. O’Sullivan says that while the project isn’t politically motivated, it will be impossible to tell the story without depicting the Connecticut candidate as a character in the film.

“Linda McMahon and her husband Vince obviously play a big part in this story,” says O’Sullivan. “They run a company that was built on the broken bodies of these wrestlers. I mean, it’s staggering when you look at a list of all these young men and women who’ve died as a result of this lifestyle they’ve perpetuated. And now they’re using the money made off these human sacrifices to try and win Chris Dodd’s seat. If you think they’re not eyeing a future run for the White House, then you don’t know how these people think.”

O’Sullivan says that the film is a long way from being cast but thinks Oscar winner Helen Mirren would be the perfect choice to play Linda McMahon.

For All You Linkaholics, Columnist Rick Green With 2-Minute Drill on Linda McMahon

Hilarious — and I say this not just because I’m one of the links:

“The Morning Memo From Team McMahon We’d Like to See”

http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/10/the-morning-memo-from-team-mcm.html#more

Irv Muchnick

The Morning Memo From Team McMahon We’d Like To See

Minimum Wage Gaffe Is Linda McMahon’s Fatal Turnover

As usual, Chris Powell of the Manchester Journal Inquirer is on the money. See “McMahon’s money fails in debate with Blumenthal,” http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2010/10/05/chris_powell/doc4cab228a3bc2b818022198.txt.

Highlights:

• “Having been mocked as an insensitive plutocrat since [the minimum wage imbroglio], McMahon at the debate now was certain that she wouldn’t reduce the minimum wage after all. But McMahon insisted on pursuing economics further and became incoherent.”

• “Blumenthal assailed McMahon’s wrestling business for purchasing its promotional products abroad, for neglecting the health of its employees, for receiving tax breaks while laying off employees, for hiring lobbyists, and for ‘marketing sex and violence.’ McMahon’s answers were weak and in the latter instance there was no answer at all.”

• Conclusion: “The ‘career politician’ of McMahon’s sneer … posed triumphantly as anti-establishment.”

In the big picture, I now see this campaign as similar to the 1985 Villanova-Georgetown NCAA basketball final. It’s not that McMahon couldn’t win it, but like Villanova she’d have to play “the perfect game.” The minimum wage gaffe is Linda’s fatal turnover.

Irv Muchnick

Do the 60-Minute Test – Blumenthal Was Fine And McMahon Seems to Have Little Left in the Tank

Linda McMahon was by no means terrible in last night’s debate. She was just … predictable. Her serial defenses of her gaffe about the minimum wage were overdone and counterproductive. Her corporatist line was so steady that it was at moments (as others observed last night) almost more honest than Richard Blumenthal’s on items like TARP bailouts.

McMahon’s answer to the question about World Wrestling Entertainment lobbying was evasive and defining. I made note of it at the time, and the Center for Responsive Politics followed the debate by republishing the complete goods. See “Contrary to Linda McMahon Campaign’s Assertions, World Wrestling Entertainnment Lobbied on Legislation,” http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/10/contrary-to-campaign-of-senate.html.

I think the decisive moment in the debate came at the very beginning, when Blumenthal and McMahon each was confronted with the opposition’s core attack ad. It is here that the candidate has an opportunity to turn a 30-second spot into, effectively, a rerun of 120 spots in a row over the course of the hour-long debate.

Blumenthal won that battle. He answered the Vietnam question and it never came up again. McMahon kept answering and answering and answering the minimum wage question, and her exasperation escalated.

Is Linda ready to spring video of Dick cavorting with Eliot Spitzer’s call girl? Short of that, the fundamentals are starting to take hold in this election, and McMahon loses the liars’ sweepstakes.

Irv Muchnick