Obamania Invades Hollywood

The election of this very charismatic new president stimulates writers, who are already preparing films and television series.

Calm is back in Beverly Hills. Following the victory of Obama, all of Hollywood, including George Clooney and Michael J. Fox, appeared non-stop on American television to congratulate themselves on the Democratic candidate’s victory.

Since then, the stars have gone back to the studios. While the newly elected president forms his team, the possible appointment of Barry Diller (former CEO of Vivendi Universal), a close friend of Hollywood moguls, as media adviser was greeted with joy Friday in Los Angeles. The CEOs of studios, as well as the actors, are so happy to close the Bush era and return to the golden age of the 1990s, when they met frequently with the Clintons, that they demand no particular political action from the new host of the White House.

Even the three unions of producers, actors, and writers who had a very hard strike, delaying Desperate Housewives last year, are silent.

A Mixture of Martin Luther King and Kennedy

In contrast, it is logical that Obama, described by Stevie Wonder as a “mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy,” is the new great source of inspiration for Hollywood scriptwriters. Already, in 2004, the TV series 24 was inspired by Senator Obama for the character of David Palmer, the first black president of the United States. The black producer Tyler Perry, unknown in France but all-powerful in Los Angeles with his comedies for the American public such as Meet the Browns (with Angela Bassett), has asked his teams to work on Barack and Michelle Obama’s love story. “With Angela Bassett and Denzel Washington in the leading roles, it will be an excellent film,” says the millionaire, who had the idea of the film after he dined with the Obama couple last March. Dubbed “For the Love of You,” the film should start production by Christmas.

In New York, in the Time Warner skyscrapers near Central Park, HBO writers also looking for the right idea. Scripts on headlines like the financial crisis are expected. But in the immediate future, the new president especially inspired authors like the great Bill Maher’s show, broadcasted every Friday evening on the channel. The other writers in the group, those who write the famous HBO series Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, focus on the war in Iraq. In early December, U.S. viewers will discover two eagerly awaited box sets: one is devoted to Saddam Hussein, the man who built an empire on the blood of a nation. The second, Generation Kill, tells the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Obama, who just announced the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, should logically be in the next season of this series.

But it’s finally at Disney where we should see Barack Obama on the screen sooner. Or rather, his daughters, Malia and Sasha, aged 10 and 7 years old, respectively. During the campaign, the future president had explained how they were fans of Hannah Montana, the Disney heroine, rock star by night and wise student by day. In April, Hannah Montana released a film (Hannah Montana, the movie, will be showing in France on 17 June 2009). “Something could happen at that time,” says one at Disney, without wanting to say more. Does that mean that Obama girls will make an appearance on the TV series? After the photo of John-John Kennedy in the Oval Office, it would be a first. But as Obama has just explained that he wants to protect his daughters from the media, the suspense remains.