New TV series on the McCann case,BBC/HBO.

Perhaps they are making Kate's book into a film            

Well a film has always been on the cards ...... mentioned in 2008/9 I believe.  I suppose the Americans could get away with an unbiased telling of the story, but anything made in UK would be totally McCann biased.

When factual crimes are finally resolved, there is sometimes a race by film companies to get the film out. Perhaps it is a pre-emptive strike made with multiple endings.

marconi wrote:

plebgate wrote:Oh well if it's BBC America - CAN'T WAIT.     

And imagine Dr.Phill  being the other police officer!

And imagine Pat Brown's guest appearance as 'a criminal profiler'

jeanmonroe wrote:

marconi wrote:

plebgate wrote:Oh well if it's BBC America - CAN'T WAIT.     

And imagine Dr.Phill  being the other police officer!

And imagine Pat Brown's guest appearance as 'a criminal profiler'

With Wendy Murphy as adviser   

Thinking about this. As it's based on and opening saying based on MM. Surely the McCanns could sue as it was their idea of having a fictitious abduction.   

candyfloss wrote:

jeanmonroe wrote:

marconi wrote:

plebgate wrote:Oh well if it's BBC America - CAN'T WAIT.     

And imagine Dr.Phill  being the other police officer!

And imagine Pat Brown's guest appearance as 'a criminal profiler'

With Wendy Murphy as adviser   

And imagine AR's guest appearance as 'the bumbling, bungling cop'

What certification is it going to get? At least XX if he wants to include Gasper   

Woofer wrote:Well a film has always been on the cards ...... mentioned in 2008/9 I believe.  I suppose the Americans could get away with an unbiased telling of the story, but anything made in UK would be totally McCann biased.

Absolutely .

whatliesbehindthesofa wrote:

Okeydokey wrote:

whatliesbehindthesofa wrote:It just says 'based on'.  I suspect that it's a fictional drama about a child who disappears.  Not a dramatisation of Madeleine McCann's disappearance and subsequent events, a purely fictional story.  That's how I read it anyway.

Well that would be even more dangerous for the BBC - if it's a drama inspired by the case.

I didn't say it was inspired by the case.

The way I see it, Saïd Taghmaoui is playing a detective investigating the disappearance of a child, and that he's just mentioned a real world example of it.

I don't think there's anything to make of this - it's just a drama about a missing child as far as I can tell.

Maybe his English isn't that good after all.  "Based on" has a clear meaning and it's not "totally unconnected to".

candyfloss wrote:BBC America


Nigel Moore ‏@mccannfiles  · 12 mins  
@RosalindaHu I never realised there was a BBC America. How does that work? http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/  #mccann

Speculation on your part?

Hope they haven't got Kate and Gerry giving parenting advice, I don't think I could stomach that.

Okeydokey wrote:
Maybe his English isn't that good after all.  "Based on" has a clear meaning and it's not "totally unconnected to".

Yeah, I think there was possibly a translation issue, or a misunderstanding on the part of the article's writer.

Although on semantics, "Game of Thrones" is 'based on' or 'inspired by' The War of the Roses*, but isn't a dramatisation of The War of the Roses.

*and lots of other historical events.

Tony Bennett wrote:
Mitchell is also married and has, I believe, three children. I think one of them was born when he was out in Praia da Luz.

Was she "born" aged 3 and 51/52nds?

mysterion wrote:When factual crimes are finally resolved, there is sometimes a race by film companies to get the film out. Perhaps it is a pre-emptive strike made with multiple endings.

Could be.
In August 1969, one month after Apollo 11, I bought a book about it...it covered all the history of the space-race, Soyuz, Gemini, Apollo and so on, which was obviously written well before Apollo 11's flight. Only the first two chapters dealt with the actual flight and were no doubt finished off at the last minute.

So, as you suggest, maybe these film makers  are doing something similar, getting the groundwork done with the hope that they can quickly finish it according to however things turn out.

I hope I'm wrong but If the BBC is involved in the production/distribution of this programme then it is likely to be biased in favour of the McCanns. Remember how BBC East Midlands told an outright lie about Goncalo Amaral by claiming he said F*** the McCanns outside the court. After receiving complaints the BBC followed up with a miniscule apology but it achieved what it set out to, which was to discredit Amaral, and the damage was done.


Here is an interesting biography of actor Saïd Taghmaoui.

Saïd Taghmaoui – A Boxer Turned Actor
1 Jul 2013
Saïd Taghmaoui was born on July 1973 in Villepinte Seine-Saint-Denis, France into a Moroccan immigrant family of Berber ancestry. He was the youngest of the 10 children in his family and grew up in la cite des 3000, the ghetto in Aulnay-sous-Bois, also known as the poor Paris suburb. Dropping out of school at the age of 14, he started spray Painting Graffiti wherever he could and was quite a delinquent. That didn’t last for long as by the age of 17 he got involved in boxing in France. At a time in his life, he was ranked number 2 in his category. He also got into the French championship twice. Later on, he also proved himself to be quite a dancer as he joined a French gangsta-rap group known as Assassin, but even that didn’t last long. In 1995, Taghmaoui joined up with his close friend and rising filmmaker named Mathieu Kassovitz and that where his rise as an actor started. Along with Mathieu Kassovitz he made a revolutionary film “La Haine” (Hate) which not only made Kassovitz win the best-director award at Cannes but also set Saïd Taghmaoui on a course to global fame.

What sets him apart is his multilingualism. He is fluent in French, Arabic, Berber and English. This helped him gain fame and helped him to not be confined in just one country but stretch out. He is known to have stacked up assignments on multiple continents, although in small parts and as a supporting cast, he still managed to pull it off. He was quite determined and ambitious. Although he was nominated for Cesar Award in the category of the most promising actor in 1996 for his performance in the film La Haines, his talent was recognized in the much anticipated movie “The Kite Runner “ and “ Vantage point “ . He was the second actor after Maurice Chevalier to land big Hollywood roles in the Movie industry. In recent years, he starred in the highly acclaimed and first of the three Mega-budget Movie “G. I. Joe “based on the fan-favorite Marvel comic book series. In France, he made sure his characters were not caricatures. Omar Sharif presented him with an award at the 2005 Cairo Film Festival, and said that Taghmaoui was his cinematic heir. “I cried,” Taghmaoui recalls.

He didn’t just do movies but also starred in a lot of TV-series. His first role in the TV-series business was as Hamid in the “Sleeper cells” which released in 2006. Then he got a role in “Secrets” in 2007. The most promising role of his would have to be in the controversial, and one of the most famed TV-series of all time “lost” where he played the character of “Ceasar”. He also played the role of Saddam Hossain’s brother Barzan Ibrahim in “Between Two Rivers”, a BBC-HBO television mini-series about Saddam’s life. Taghmaoui even after gaining international fandom and success still hasn’t forgotten his roots and his ancestry and till this day is in love with Morocco
http://muslim-academy.com/said-taghmaoui-a-boxer-turned-actor/#sthash.zSeqIzqj.dpuf

Clay Regazzoni wrote:

Tony Bennett wrote:
Mitchell is also married and has, I believe, three children. I think one of them was born when he was out in Praia da Luz.

Was she "born" aged 3 and 51/52nds?

I made a significant mistake here.

He does indeed have three children.

His wife was pregnant with a fourth child, but he couldn't return home to be with his wife for the birth because he was so involved in the reputation management of the McCanns.

He was interviewed by The Guardian in 2008 about this, as follows:

Interviewer: You started the interview by saying that you were not sentimental but during the trip through Europe with the McCanns you were photographed crying. In that day the ex-journalist became the news...

Answer by Clarence Mitchell: It wasn't intentional. But when I found out that my wife had lost the baby, I felt lost and angry for being there and not beside her. It is at least ironic that during this search for Maddie, I had also lost a son. Very young yes, but it was my son. I believe that that united us.

marconi wrote:There is also a BBC Brazil.

The Brits are everywhere,I have to watch my back here in Sweden.   

Tony Bennett wrote:

I made a significant mistake here.

He does indeed have three children.

His wife was pregnant with a fourth child, but he couldn't return home to be with his wife for the birth because he was so involved in the reputation management of the McCanns.

He was interviewed by The Guardian in 2008 about this, as follows:

Interviewer: You started the interview by saying that you were not sentimental but during the trip through Europe with the McCanns you were photographed crying. In that day the ex-journalist became the news...

Answer by Clarence Mitchell: It wasn't intentional. But when I found out that my wife had lost the baby, I felt lost and angry for being there and not beside her. It is at least ironic that during this search for Maddie, I had also lost a son. Very young yes, but it was my son. I believe that that united us.

Sympathy for his loss, but at the same time he hasn't exactly covered himself in glory there....

Is a dead child a prerequisite for a political career these days? Call me callous, cynical, whatever, but one could be forgiven for thinking so.

Clay Regazzoni wrote:

Tony Bennett wrote:

I made a significant mistake here.

He does indeed have three children.

His wife was pregnant with a fourth child, but he couldn't return home to be with his wife for the birth because he was so involved in the reputation management of the McCanns.

He was interviewed by The Guardian in 2008 about this, as follows:

Interviewer: You started the interview by saying that you were not sentimental but during the trip through Europe with the McCanns you were photographed crying. In that day the ex-journalist became the news...

Answer by Clarence Mitchell: It wasn't intentional. But when I found out that my wife had lost the baby, I felt lost and angry for being there and not beside her. It is at least ironic that during this search for Maddie, I had also lost a son. Very young yes, but it was my son. I believe that that united us.

Sympathy for his loss, but at the same time he hasn't exactly covered himself in glory there....

Is a dead child a prerequisite for a political career these days? Call me callous, cynical, whatever, but one could be forgiven for thinking so.

Wasn't it Gordie Broon who set the stage with that one? Was I wonder Gerald calling in a favour?   

whatliesbehindthesofa wrote:

Okeydokey wrote:
Maybe his English isn't that good after all.  "Based on" has a clear meaning and it's not "totally unconnected to".

Yeah, I think there was possibly a translation issue, or a misunderstanding on the part of the article's writer.

Although on semantics, "Game of Thrones" is 'based on' or 'inspired by' The War of the Roses*, but isn't a dramatisation of The War of the Roses.

*and lots of other historical events.

I think a good writer would say GOTs is "inspired by" the War of the Roses.  In fact a good writer would avoid using the phrase "based on" in relation to historical events.  "The Longest Day" film was based on the book of the same title, it wasn't "based on" the D Day landings - it sought to tell the story of the landings.