Movies

Surprise! Michael Moore Made A Donald Trump Movie And It's Opening This Week

Michael Moore Donald Trump Movie
By Angie Han/

You didn't really expect Michael Moore to just sit out the madness of this presidential election cycle, did you? The filmmaker and activist has announced a late-breaking October surprise in the form of Michael Moore in Trumpland, based on his own one-man play. The movie will have its world premiere in New York City tonight (Tuesday, October 18), exactly three weeks before the November 8 election, and officially begin its theatrical run tomorrow. 

Over this past weekend, Moore teased a potential "October surprise" to drop in the near future.

The hints got less subtle as the week went on.

Now we have full details on Moore's "October surprise." Michael Moore in TrumpLand will screen for the very first time in New York's IFC Center at 9:30 PM tonight. Tickets are free and will be available at the theater box office starting one hour before the screening; head over to the IFC website for more details. The synopsis reads as follows:

See the film Ohio Republicans tried to shut down. Oscar-winner Michael Moore dives right into hostile territory with his daring and hilarious one-man show, deep in the heart of TrumpLand in the weeks before the 2016 election.

The part about "Ohio Republicans" is a reference to his attempt to stage and film Michael Moore in TrumpLand at the Midland Theatre in Newark, Ohio. Moore has said the venue pulled out at the last minute because they considered Moore "too controversial," although the theater maintains that a contract was never signed and that they turned him down for several reasons including a lack of advance notice. Moore eventually wound up performing and filming the show at the Murphy Theater in Wilmington, Ohio instead.

Moore's firmly anti-Trump stance is bound to spark criticism and controversy, but that's nothing new for the politically active filmmaker. Perhaps the most shocking thing about Michael Moore in TrumpLand is just how successfully he's managed to pull a Beyoncé. I can't remember the last time a film has been announced and released theatrically in the same week. It's rare even at film festivals. TrumpLand will be Moore's second release of the year, after last winter's Where to Invade Next.

Far less surprising is that Moore is not exactly a fan of Republican nominee Donald Trump. He's so against Trump, in fact, that he's even announced he's breaking his vow to never vote for Hillary Clinton. (He'd previously made that promise in reaction to her support for the Iraq War.) "For the sake of preventing a proto-fascist from becoming our commander-in-chief, I'm breaking that promise," he wrote on his site. "She's a hawk, to the right of Obama. But Trump's psycho finger will be on The Button, and that is that."

Michael Moore in TrumpLand begins its regular theatrical run October 19. Election Day is Tuesday, November 8.

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