Taglines: What if a Comedian Ran for President?……….What if He Won?
What would happen if one of the nation’s funniest men became its leading one? Oscar winner Robin Williams reunites with the director of “Good Morning, Vietnam” to answer just that question in the comic tale of an entertainer’s accidental rise to power, “Man of the Year.”
Robin Williams plays a Jon Stewart-like host of a latenight talkshow who runs for president only to see the stunt backfire when he actually wins due to a set of unusual circumstances. Linney plays the head of a computer company that investigates those circumstances.
Acerbic performer Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) has made his career out of skewering politicians and speaking the mind of the exasperated nation on his talk show. He cracked scathing jokes at a fractured system night after night… until he came up with a really funny idea: why not run for president himself?
After a flip comment, Dobbs ignites a grassroots movement that puts him on the ballot. Hot on the campaign trail, he debates elected drones and says exactly what frustrated voters have often thought. Nov. 2nd later, the muckraker wins–only to learn that a computer voting error gave him the victory. With time ticking on the inaugural clock, Dobbs has a big decision to make: should he go back behind the mike or stay in the Oval Office?
This election season, comic actors including Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum and Lewis Black join Williams in a pulled-from-the-headlines comedy. Together with Oscar winner Barry Levinson (“Rain Man,” “Wag the Dog”), they’ll show the world that–only in America–a comedian can become the country’s next president and our “Man of the Year.”
From 1987’s wartime comedy Good Morning, Vietnam to 1997’s current-events satire Wag the Dog, Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson’s films have often drawn their humor from a rich comedy source — the political arena. He has examined our politicos’ decisions and deceptions… and helped guilty voters laugh as we share with our elected leaders the fall-out of some pretty bad choices.
Now in his new comedy, the writer-director asks us to ponder a ‘what-if’ scenario that doesn’t seem so far-fetched in 2006: what would happen if a computer voting error allowed one of the nation’s funniest men to become its president? On October 13, 2006, Oscar winner Robin Williams reunites with the filmmaker to answer just that question.
As we rapidly approach November 7 and the mid-term elections, Levinson explores the convergence of U.S. politics and pop culture events of the past decade — savvy pro-wrestlers and muscle-bound action stars have moved into governors’ mansions while millions of Americans receive their nightly news from wisecracking talk-show hosts… not the stern newscasters of the past. In Man of the Year, he brings a cast — all of whom understand that this blurry division is not an alien concept for a media-devouring country — to erase the fine line between entertainment and government.
Welcome to the story of one entertainer’s accidental rise to power. Universal Pictures and Morgan Creek invite you to meet your latest Man of the Year. With his razor-sharp wit and signature style, Williams plays acerbic performer Tom Dobbs, a guy who has made a career out of skewering politicians and speaking the mind of the exasperated nation on his talk show. He cracks jokes at a fractured system night after night… until he comes up with a really funny idea: why not run for president himself?
After one flip comment too many, Dobbs ignites a grassroots movement that puts him on the presidential ballot. Hot on the campaign trail — with his manager/mentor, Jack Menken (Christopher Walken, Click, Wedding Crashers), and wisecracking head writer, Eddie Langston (Lewis Black, Accepted, television’s The Daily Show), in tow — he debates elected drones and asks what frustrated voters have so often pondered: “What has happened to leaders’ responsibility to the very citizens they serve?”
On election day, Dobbs stuns the unsuspecting world by winning the vote. A shocked country wakes up to find that they have a new leader of the free world… the nation’s favorite wiseguy.
But a scrupulous voting-software analyst, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney, Love Actually, Kinsey), soon learns that a glitch in her company’s voter software gave Dobbs a victory that was never meant to be his. Her mission? Help Dobbs learn the truth before her Machiavellian employer hunts her down, destroys her credibility and buries the secret of the botched election forever.
Now pursued by both Eleanor and her company’s nefarious chief legal counsel, Alan Stewart (Jeff Goldblum, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Jurassic Park), Dobbs has a big decision to make as time ticks on his inaugural clock: should he go back behind the mike or stay in the Oval Office and keep shaking things up?
Man of the Year (2006)
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Starring: Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, David Alpay, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Matthews, Catherine Crier, Karen Hines
Screenplay by: Barry Levinson
Production Design by: Stefania Cella
Cinematography by: Dick Pope
Film Editing by: Blair Daily, Steven Weisberg
Costume Design by: Delphine White
Set Decoration by: Clive Thomasson
Art Direction by: Charlie Campbell, Joshu de Cartier
Music by: Graeme Revell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language including some crude sexual references, drug related material, and brief violence.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: October 13, 2006
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