The true story of America’s foremost abortionist is so toxic to Hollywood that no major film distributor will go near it, claims a producer of the upcoming film about the life of convicted murderer Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
In a phone call with Breitbart News on Tuesday, producer Phelim McAleer said that a niumber of major studios and distributors have rejected the film, including several major streaming services.
McAleer declined to name specific distributors, citing nondisclosure agreements.
Gosnell tells the true story of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist who was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder in 2013. Gosnell was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter, on 21 felony counts of performing late-term abortions and on hundreds of other lesser counts, including corruption and more than 200 violations of the 24-hour informed consent law.
The 300-page grand jury report reads like a horror script of its own; it explains the doctor’s penchant for a practice he termed “snipping,” in which he killed babies born alive at his office by severing their spinal cords with scissors. Gosnell’s medical office was described in the report as a “baby charnel house,” with bloodstained furniture, unlicensed physicians and nurses and fetal remains stored in plastic jugs and bags in the basement freezer.
Gosnell was ultimately sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 30 years in prison. But despite its villain’s heinous crimes, the case became almost as notorious for mainstream and liberal media outlets’ refusal to cover it.
McAleer said the Gosnell film — which he produced with his wife and frequent collaborator Ann McElhinney (FrackNation), and which is directed by veteran actor Nick Searcy (Justified) and written by Andrew Klavan (True Crime) — aims to bring the horror story surrounding the case to a wider audience. The producers have also written a book about the Gosnell case, due to be released this winter.
McElhinney, who also worked with McAleer on the 2014 play Ferguson, called it “laughable” that distributors would find the Gosnell film overly controversial, and pointed to recent films concerning abortion, including 2014’s Obvious Child and last year’s Grandma (for which actress Lily Tomlin received a Golden Globe nomination) as examples of Hollywood’s depiction of the issue.
McElhinney added that Gosnell producers made a conscious decision to aim for a PG-13 rating, eschewing some of the most graphic material in an attempt to make the film as accessible as possible.
“This is continuing the media coverup — they don’t want anything that asks difficult questions about abortion,” she said in a statement.
Gosnell is currently in post-production, but without a distributor lined up, the producers say they are planning an independent release to get around what they call Hollywood’s blatant “coverup.” McAleer said test screenings of the film have scored “off the charts” and pointed to the film’s record-breaking crowdfunding haul — $2.2 million from more than 30,000 contributors — as proof that there is an audience for the story.
“This is one of the biggest crime sprees in American history,” McAleer said. “The book and movie will ensure that the coverup is ended and the truth will be known.”
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum