A Michael Moore documentary about President Donald Trump could be back on track.
Moore, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Bowling for Columbine and Sicko, tweeted a warning to both Trump and Roseanne Barr on Wednesday, accompanied by a vintage clip from a 1998 episode of Barr’s syndicated talk show, The Roseanne Show, in which Barr, Trump and Moore all appear.
“I know Roseanne. And I know Trump. And they are about to rue the day they knew me…,” Moore warned in his newest tweet, which followed an earlier May 29 post in which Moore wrote, “So @therealroseanne woke up this morning & posted hateful, slanderous tweets about me, Valerie Jarrett, George Soros & Chelsea Clinton — and ABC fired her. If only NBC had fired Trump when he started his racist birther movement in 2011, he wouldn’t be in the White House today.”
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The clip shows Moore along with Trump on Barr’s show, with Trump praising the filmmaker’s breakthrough film, Roger & Me, which criticized General Motors and its then CEO, Roger Smith. “I hope he never does one on me,” Trump says in the clip as he and Moore laugh.
Moore had been working on a Trump takedown titled Fahrenheit 11/9. Playing off the title of the filmmaker’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), which criticizes the George W. Bush administration as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new documentary refers to the date Trump effectively became the president-elect in 2016.
The film was officially revealed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, when Harvey and Bob Weinstein announced they had personally bought worldwide rights under their Fellowship Adventure Group as they talked up the film to potential distributors. While there was some talk that the movie would be ready for a summer 2017 release, Moore then became busy with his Broadway show, The Terms of My Surrender, which began a 12-week run Aug. 10.
When the show closed in October, Trump tweeted, “While not at all presidential I must point out that the Sloppy Michael Moore Show on Broadway was a TOTAL BOMB and was forced to close. SAD!” Pointing out that the show had always been scheduled as a limited run, Moore directed a string of tweets at Trump that began, “1) You must have my smash hit of a Broadway show confused with your presidency — which IS a total bomb and WILL indeed close early. NOT SAD.”
Meanwhile, in the wake of exposés about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults, The Weinstein Co. had fired the mogul, and Moore and his reps began negotiations to free his Trump doc, which was not part of the TWC assets put up for auction, from the Weinsteins to set it up with another distributor or broadcast outlet.
It is unclear whether Moore has now secured that footage to use in the new documentary about Trump — and now Barr — that he is promising, or if he is creating a new project altogether. Moore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I know Roseanne. And I know Trump. And they are about to rue the day they knew me… pic.twitter.com/vW81Gq7s1i
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) May 30, 2018
