IT IS a shot that echoes around the world — President Bush being assassinated by a fanatical sniper in a Chicago hotel.
At least that is the story of a “shockingly real” Channel 4 film that is causing outrage among Americans.
Death of a President uses digital trickery, archive footage and actors to imagine the murder of President Bush and the descent into national paranoia that follows.
The feature-length drama will be screened on More4, Channel 4’s digital sister channel, next month after a big-screen premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Channel 4 hopes to sell the film to US broadcasters but Americans in London declared it to be tasteless and expressed fears that it could encourage extremists in their home country.
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The film is set in October next year, when “US foreign and domestic policies have polarised the country’s electorate”. Arriving in Chicago to make a speech to business leaders, the President is confronted by a large anti-war demonstration. He continues with his visit but as he leaves he is shot dead by a sniper.
The assassination scene explicitly recalls the attempt on President Reagan’s life in 1981. John Hinckley fired six shots at close range as the President left the Washington Hilton hotel.
Americans were appalled at the Bush film. Michelle Bowman, 35, a consultant working in London, said: “Most Americans will find a film depicting the assassination of a sitting American president in very poor taste. I cannot imagine that any American broadcaster would show this film.”
The White House refused to comment on the film, which it said “did not dignify a response”, but a senior Republican Party official said: “It sounds like it’s in very poor taste and in keeping with the tactics of liberal groups who have frequently tried to compare the president to Hitler and his policies to those of fascism.”
The film is directed by Gabriel Range, who made the BBC drama The Day Britain Stopped, which imagined a chain of events that could paralyse the transport system.
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Range told The Times: “We studied hours and hours of footage of Bush. The scenes are created by a mixture of special effects, stock footage and digitally compositing our actors on to the archive of Bush.” He denied accusations of sensationalism. “The film is based on meticulous research and interviews with FBI agents and people on the other side of the War on Terror. It is a serious and sensitive film. There is no way that it would encourage anyone to assassinate Bush and usher in Cheney’s America.”
Peter Dale, the head of More4, said that the film combined a “gripping detective story” with a thought-provoking critique of contemporary US society.
He said: “It’s a pointed political examination of what the War on Terror did to the American body politic. I’m sure that there will be people who will be upset by it but when you watch it you realise what a sophisticated piece of work it is.”
More4 will also screen a sequel to A Very Social Secretary, its satire about David Blunkett’s affairs. Robert Lindsay plays the lead role in The Trial of Tony Blair, which depicts the Prime Minister struggling to adapt to life out of office.
The comedy, written by Alistair Beaton, shows Mr Blair seeking absolution from the Roman Catholic Church as he seeks to evade a war crimes tribunal over his role in the Iraq invasion. Alexander Armstrong plays David Cameron in the satire.
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Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy front The 30 Greatest Political Comedies. The duo, described by Mr Dale as “the Morecambe and Wise of politics”, present the results of a poll of MPs that range from Till Death Us Do Part to The Thick of It.