Whedonesque : Comments on 16453 : HBO's "Recount" — a Somewhat Behind the Scenes View.

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May 27 2008

HBO's "Recount" — a Somewhat Behind the Scenes View. Blogger Bob Harris, who is a friend of Danny Strong, has written about the difficulties Strong faced in getting Recount made.

If you'd like to share my sense of pride and amazement right now, consider what Danny's starting line looked like: in addition to his acting, Danny has been writing almost as long as I've known him, but he'd never been an investigative journalist, and prior to "Recount," he'd gotten just as many scripts produced as you have. And how many production companies would be willing to pile tons of money into a political film where the ending is already known? There was only one any of us could even imagine doing this thing — HBO. Talk about your long shots.

Harris's other Whedonverse connection is that he did the voiceover on the Doublemeat Palace corporate video in Buffy episode 6.12. And the IMDB says he's friends with Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson.

Gag Halfrunt | Cast&Crew | 14:42 CET | 7 comments total | tags: bob harris, recount, danny strong

That is a great tribute to Danny. Love it! Bob Harris seems like a cool dude.

And I raise a glass to Mr. Sydney Pollack today who was a producer for Recount. He passed away yesterday. Apparently he saw what we've known all along, Danny is awesome.

[ edited by Harmalicious on 2008-05-27 14:33 ]

Harmalicious | May 27, 17:17 CET

I just finished his Prisoner of Trebekistan the other day. For any who are interested, I've written a review of it here.

He's rather more than friends with Jane. They've been a couple for 5+ years.

swanjun | May 27, 18:29 CET

Nice review, swanjun. I agree with your assessment of the book, which I learned about from Whedonesque and read some time back.

I also thought the Salon.com review of Recount, which Harris links to, is a fair review of the film. Despite Warren Christopher's objections to the portrayal of him in the film, I thought the film itself tried to balance the two sides of the recount -- except with Laura Dern's portrayal of Harris. While most people I know thought Harris was a puppet, and totally in over her head -- and, of course, she made a number of poor fashion choices, particularly with respect to her rivaling Tammy Faye Baker in her make-up application -- the over-the-top portrayal made the film look more biased than it actually was.

But kudos go to Danny Strong. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to meet him (and I managed to find myself in one shot -- so I got my one second of fame as an extra), and he may end up getting an Emmy for this. It would be a little ironic that our favorite "Superstar" might get something that has eluded the grasp of our Boss.

palehorse | May 27, 18:57 CET

Thanks, palehorse. And I still have envy of your duties as extra! :)

swanjun | May 27, 19:20 CET

Jane has a review on her blog. It's aptly entitled Superstar.

purplehazel | May 28, 15:56 CET

As a compulsively lazy person, I nonpartisanly applaud people like Danny who can make things happen. (I'd still like to see him play Billy Rose in a biopic, tho. Amber, Julie, Mercedes, and Juliet would be great as his ex-wives.)

DaddyCatALSO | May 29, 04:30 CET

I just finished his Prisoner of Trebekistan last month. I wasn't all too thrilled with Bob based on his picture on the cover - and then I figured out who "Jane" was*. He came way up in my estimation based on his taste in women. (and it was a lovely little insight into Jane too - I've been reading her blog off and on, but now I just love her more.)

For some reason, I didn't read Trebekistan till a guy I met on Ken Jennings' blog mentioned reading it, and I realized that such things as libraries still do exist. (My brother *bought* Braniac)

* This happened when he mentioned she was a "Hugo winner" and suddenly the ads for his book on her blog clicked (as usual, this happened in the middle of the night when there was no one awake to tell).

Wonderful news about Danny and Recount too. Did I edit it out of the Emmy broadcast, or was he not there? How could I have missed this? (Especially while reading the book?)

Pamelajaye | November 01, 06:47 CET

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