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More4 risks US ire with Bush assassination film
Death of a President: fictional documentary looking back at the assassination of Mr Bush in October 2007

Jason Deans, broadcast editor
Thursday August 31, 2006

Digital channel More4 will court controversy once again this autumn with a fictional piece, shot as a documentary, about the assassination of the US president, George Bush.
Death of a President seems certain to cause a furore on the other side of the Atlantic when it is premiered at the Toronto film festival next month.

In the UK the 90-minute film will be broadcast first on Channel 4's digital service in October.

The drama takes the form of a fictional documentary looking back at the assassination of Mr Bush in October 2007, after he has delivered a speech to business leaders in Chicago.

When Mr Bush arrives in the city he is confronted by a massive demonstration against the Iraq war and is gunned down by a sniper as he leaves the venue. The hunt for Mr Bush's killer focuses on a Syrian-born man, Jamal Abu Zikri.

Death of a President will use a combination of archive footage, CGI special effects and scripted scenes.

Actors play the fictional secret service agents and other aides who are with Mr Bush when he is shot and recall the incident in interviews recorded for the retrospective documentary.

Death of a President also looks at the differing viewpoints of the pro- and anti-Iraq war lobbies and the impact of Mr Bush's war on terror on the US.

"I'm sure there will be people who are upset by it. But when you watch it, you realise what a sophisticated piece of work it is," said Peter Dale, the head of More4.

"It's not sensational or simplistic, it's thought provoking."

Death of a President has been made by Borough Films, the independent producer responsible for two similar BBC2 fictional pieces in the style of retrospective documentaries.

The Day Britain Stopped looked at the collapse of the UK transport system, while The Man Who Broke the Bank followed a scenario with a similarly catastrophic breakdown of the financial system.

Death of a President has been produced by Gabriel Range, Simon Finch and Ed Guiney.

Original article posted here.