HBO’s Fox News Film Abandoned Due To ‘Conflicting Interests’
Did you know that HBO was working on a film about Roger Ailes and the Fox News Channel? Well, the network was. And now it isn’t. HBO announced today that it was abandoning its plans for a Fox News film, citing a conflict of interests.
HBO felt that it was inappropriate to make a movie about the Fox Network since HBO has close ties to CNN. According to the Huffington Post both CNN and HBO are owned by Time Warner.
HBO Films President Len Amato told Deadline that the movie was pretty much D.O.A.
“We recently decided not to pursue the Ailes project.It had become clear to us before even receiving a script that due to our company’s CNN affiliation the film could never be seen as objective.”
HBO had optioned the rights to Gabriel Sherman’s upcoming book about the Fox News Network and had planned on tackling the film’s subject by concentrating on Roger Ailes. A source described the project, saying:
“HBO prefers to take on Fox News through Ailes. The idea is that it should make Fox News look like a Mafia, and you get into this through Ailes, sidestepping Murdoch, not approaching the story head on.”
The Fox News Film was in the early stages. HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson said that little work had been done on the film.
A Fox News Film wouldn’t be out of place for HBO since the network has placed its hat in the political ring a few times before. HBO created “Recount” about the 2000 election, “Game Change” about Sarah Palin and the 2008 election, and most recently, the network placed George W. Bush’s head on a spike in an episode of “Game of Thrones.”
