A master of confrontational cinema

The March issue of Inside Film includes a lengthy feature on the latest project by edge writer/director Andrew Niccol – Lord of War. Starring Nicolas Cage and Ethan Hawke, Lords of War is a morally confronting black comedy about the international arms trade. Given the nature of the film Hollywood refused to back it, despite the success of Niccol’s previous (and in their way equally subversive) films The Truman Show, Gattaca and S1M0NE. Niccol himself raised the required $50 million to film Lords of War overseas and then sold it back to the studios. “In France it was the number one film, which seemed to say something about the national attitude,” says Niccol. “A lot of  the reviews in the States were really quite good – but they went on to say that the problem was that nobody should be allowed to make it!”