In 1999, five days of chaos took over Seattle when what were intended to be peaceful demonstrations at the World Trade Organizations Ministerial Meeting turned into riots so ugly that a state of emergency was declared by the mayor. It took two years to organize the event and it was the first of its kind to be held on American soil. Still, despite all efforts on both the parts of the peacekeepers and the protesters, mayhem erupted. Flash forward to 2008 and the whole event has been turned into a provocative exploration of the humanity behind all the unintended violence, called BATTLE IN SEATTLE.
Stuart Townsend is best known as an actor who has appeared in some unfortunate failures like AEON FLUX and THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Not one to give up though, Townsend has changed his personal career direction and with BATTLE IN SEATTLE, he gives us his first screenplay and his first directorial efforts. His years as an actor, which incidentally have not stopped, have made him some strong contacts, including the romantic link to fiancee and Academy Award winner, Charlize Theron. Theron appears in BATTLE IN SEATTLE as a pregnant wife of a police officer (Woody Harrelson) who is on duty for the riots.
BATTLE IN SEATTLE has already been heralded by top critics like Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman as a directorial debut that exhibits "stunning passion and skill." Roger Ebert calls is "not quite a documentary and not quite a drama but interesting all the same." Having already worked the festival circuit, the film is finally ready for it's national release October 17 and I personally am very curious to see how Townsend manages to make sense of such a monumental mess.
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