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 The TV hit man who became a hitman. Allegedly. listen to interview with sam rockwell what's the film about? chuck's tv style was he actually a hitman?Chuck Barris. One of Crap TV’s founding fathers, responsible for some of America’s worst and yet most popular programmes. The creator and/or host of 60s hits like The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game and The $1.98 Beauty Show. For most people, being credited with single-handedly lowering the standard of global televisual entertainment would be enough. But not Chuck. In the 80s, when his TV star was waning, Barris started claiming that while regularly appearing in front of millions of Americans, he’d also been a hitman for the CIA who’d flown him round the world on top secret killing missions. Which seems unlikely, obviously. A bit like, say, Matthew Kelly turning out to be... OK, bad example. But Barris claims it’s true. Perfect territory, then, for a Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) screenplay and ex-small screen icon George Clooney’s first stint behind the camera.  Indie favourite Sam Rockwell (Heist, Lawn Dogs) plays Chuck. “It doesn’t really matter to me and George whether he actually did it,” he told Collective. “Either way it’s interesting. I didn't want to know too much. If he didn’t do it then it’s still interesting because why did he make it up? I mean, Chuck’s a complicated person. He’s capable of just about anything.” As a TV host, Barris was years ahead of his time with his bizarrely casual style. “It seemed like he didn’t give shit,” says Rockwell, who won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his performance. “But a lot of it came from stage fright. He’d look down at the ground and he’d be squinting because he didn’t have his glass for the cue cards. Even now you don’t see a lot of people doing it as loosely as he did. You really thought, ‘Is this guy stoned?’” Then again, maybe he was just thinking about his next hit. Jonathan Carter 14 March 03 Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, on national release 14 March 03. Accompanied by the short film C'Etait Un Rendezvous at selected cinemas.
reviews roundup BBCi film:...shot through with sadness... more Empire Magazine: ...The film’s eclectic style is ideally suited to its schizophrenic content... more Tiscali ... interesting, but not that interesting... more useful link: confessions of a dangerous mind official site The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. conversations
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