PREMIERSHIP ON SCREEN: Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in "The Special Relationship"

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PREMIERSHIP ON SCREEN: Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in "The Special Relationship"
by Darius Kadivar
05-Dec-2010
 

Set between the years of 1992 and 2001 the HBO series depicts the UK–US Special Relationship between British Prime Minister  Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton.

 

 

Official Trailer of HBO's "The Special Relationship":

 
 
Michael Sheen on Playing Tony Blair:
   
Bill Clinton introduces Tony Blair at the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation:
   
Tony Blair in conversation with President Bill Clinton at the NCC, Philadelphia:
   

 


Plot:


The film is set between the years of 1992 and 2001 and depicts the UK–US Special Relationship between Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and President of the United States Bill Clinton.Executive producer Christine Langan said of the plot, "The film's time frame goes from 1994, when New Labour was taking lessons from Clinton's people, to 1998 and the end of Kosovo. It focuses on the international activities of Blair as prime minister and what he learns from his American ally. They're brothers in arms, but Clinton isweakened by the Lewinsky scandal in the middle of it all, while Blair strengthens his position, moving frombeing something of an acolyte to equal to moral superior, post-Kosovo ».

 

More about the film:

 

The SpecialRelationship is a 2010 American-British political film directed by Richard Loncraine from ascreenplay by Peter Morgan.It is the third film in Morgan's informal "Blair trilogy", whichdramatizes the political career of British PrimeMinister Tony Blair(1997–2007), following The Deal(2003) and The Queen (2006), both directed by Stephen Frears.

The first drafts of TheSpecial Relationship dealt with Blair's specialrelationships with U.S. PresidentsBill Clinton and George W. Bush. However,Morgan excluded the Bush scenes from subsequent drafts (thus ending thenarrative on January 20, 2001) because he found the Blair/Clinton dynamic more interesting. Morgan intended to make his directorial debut with the film but backed out a month before filming began and was replaced by Loncraine. The film was produced by Rainmark Films and backed by HBO Films and BBC Films.

The film stars Michael Sheen as Blair, Dennis Quaid as Clinton, Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton, and Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair. Principal photography on locations in and around London, England ran from July 20 to September 4, 2009. The film was broadcast on HBO in the United States and Canada on May 29, 2010, and was broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2010.

 

Michael Sheen on PlayingTony Blair Several Times:


Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, Prime Ministerof the United Kingdom. Sheen previously played Blair in Peter Morgan's The Dealand The Queen.Critics noted that his portrayal in The Queen was much more sympatheticthan in The Deal, which Morgan attributed to Blair being in a"honeymoon" period after his appointment as Prime Minister in May1997. Sheen felt a greater scopeto play Blair in this film compared to the previous two; "This wasinteresting because it covers a much bigger period of time for the character.It allowed me to explore things I wasn't able to explore in the other films andtake things further. I just found it a very fascinating story how this manchanged with time and how he developed and how he became the man making thechoices he eventually made that turned a lot of people against him.

 

 

Recommended Watching:

 

PREMIERSHIP: Historian Simon Schama's Tour of 10 Downing Street (BBC)


Related Blogs:


PRESIDENCY ON SCREEN: John Travolta in "Primary Colors" (1998)


PRESIDENCY ON SCREEN: Henry Fonda vs Cliff Robertson in "The Best Man" (1964)

 

 



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