Funding Mentalism
October 9, 2008 at 6:43 am by Kevin MurphyChris Morris, the comedy genius behind Blue Jam, The Day Today, Brass Eye and Nathan Barley, is having a hard time funding the production of a film about British Islamic terrorism.
The Beeb and Channel 4 have reportedly knocked him back already, so now he’s asking for small donations from fans to get the project off the ground.
Some donors will get to be extras in the film.
Here are some emails he or his proxies have recently sent to me and others:
Thanks for your email offering support for the “Four Lions” project.
The response so far has been extremely encouraging and our next move depends on numbers. We won’t ask for your money until we have enough people involved to make the system work.
So whether you want to be in the film or just fancy a binge of coin chucking, please spray the news around.
And if passing this on seems like a bit of a hassle? Well think about it. Yesterday, over a hundred thousand people - alive and breathing and not passing it on just like you are thinking of not passing it on - died. It’s unlikely they were all wiped out precisely because they weren’t passing it on but its not impossible is it? Not totally statistically unimaginably impossible. Run that by yourself a couple of times before you decide not to pass it on.
Thanks
CM
And:
Dear Lion
At the moment the detonator’s going off and you’re part of it but until the effect has gone exponential, your mails are being sorted by one person so bear with me.
Many people have asked us exactly what the Four Lions project is. Clearly we can’t launch the film before its been shot, but I’ve pulled together a few paragraphs from the paperwork that’s been flying around. Its shameless hype but its accurate – unlike almost everything you will have read in the press. No one who has read the script could disagree with a word here.
In three years of research, Chris Morris has spoken to terrorism experts, imams, police, secret services and hundreds of Muslims. Even those who have trained and fought jihad report the frequency of farce. At training camps young jihadis argue about honey, cry for their mums, shoot each other’s feet off, chase snakes and get thrown out for smoking. A minute into his martyrdom video, a would-be bomber looks puzzled and says “what was the question again?” On millennium eve, five jihadis set out to ram a US warship. They slipped their boat into the water and carefully stacked it with explosives. It sank.
Terrorist cells have the same group dynamics as stag parties and five a side football teams. There is conflict, friendship, misunderstanding and rivalry. Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks.
Four Lions is a funny, thrilling fictional story that illuminates modern British jihad with an insight beyond anything else in our culture. It plunges us beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien. It undermines the folly of just wishing them away or alienating the entire culture from which they emerge. It understands how terrorism relates to testosterone. It understands jihadis as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous. As Spinal Tap understood heavy metal and Dr Strangelove the Cold War, Four Lions understands modern British jihadis.
As for your offer, we’re hoping to set up a one click pay scheme soon. We’ll let you know.
Hope that helps
Deirdre Steed.
PS Please pass this on to ten more people.
I’ll probably chuck them a few quid, when the time comes.
Their email address is fundingmentalism@warpfilms.com
