Sarah Palin Film Is a 'Real-Life Version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,' Says Director

Sarah Palin will be joined by an unlikely group of co-stars in her upcoming film: Matt Damon, Rosie O'Donnell, David Letterman and Bill Maher, among other Hollywood celebrities who loathe her.
 
The stars appear in the feature-length biography of Palin from documentary filmmaker Stephen Bannon that is designed to reintroduce Palin as a woman who rose from nowhere to become the nation's most popular governor.
 
That, of course, was before she was chosen as John McCain's vice presidential running mate and the liberal media set out to strip her of her credibility, according to the film.
 
That effort included Hollywood figures saying some remarkably unkind things about Palin, and Bannon puts them front and center in his film, The Undefeated, which he'll roll out in theaters slowly beginning a month from now. A DVD is forthcoming and negotiations for VOD are ongoing.

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While the celebrities are only a small part of the film, Bannon's goal is to remind moviegoers of the vile comments made about Palin, and he hopes the rest of the film makes the case that they were calculated and undeserved.
 
Palin didn't participate in the film's production beyond granting access to Bannon, but her voice is heard narrating via an audio version of her 2009 book, Going Rogue.
 
Bannon has shown his unfinished movie to a select few, including Palin and her husband Todd, and Scott Conroy, co-author of the book, Sarah From Alaska.
 
"Conroy and his co-author, Shushannah Walshe, understand better than anyone the dramatic struggle of Gov. Palin against the entrenched Republican establishment and Big Oil," Bannon tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That's why I say this film is a real-life version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
 
Bannon has produced a string of politically conservative documentaries, beginning in 2004 with In the Face of Evil, about Ronald Reagan fighting the Cold War. Prior to that he was an executive producer of mainstream titles Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, and The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn.
 
Bannon made The Undefeated for $1 million and he predicts that, whether or not Palin runs for president in 2012, the film will help shape the narrative of the election and the various campaigns.
 
"This will go off like an atomic bomb in the upcoming Republican primary," he says.