Malcolm Tucker, the Glaswegian Machiavelli played sublimely by Peter Capaldi in TV’s The Thick of It, gets to scheme his devilish schemes on the big screen in the movie In the Loop, filming for which began recently. Directed by Armando Iannucci, who co-wrote the script with TTOI regulars Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell and Tony Roche, In the Loop concerns the strange tale of a US president and a UK prime minister who bumble into war. These krazee film types and their over-active imaginations ...


Iannucci has secured a double coup - casting James “Tony Soprano” Gandolfini as a US general, and getting backing to make a satirical comedy in the first place (in this case, BBC Films, the UK Film Council and media investment fund Aramid Entertainment are stumping up). Satires are generally tough sells in a business that gets nervous around too much dialogue. Action, not words, is assumed to be what modern audiences, with their ever-shortening attention spans, want. It’s hard to imagine the magnificently loquacious Dr Strangelove being greenlighted now. Even the full title, Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, would have the studios in a cold sweat over the number of words on the posters.


Satire thrives in strange, dangerous, what the ancient curse calls “interesting” times, and periods of conflict are particularly fertile grounds. Kubrick’s classic was built around the Cold War. MASH was set during the Korean War but spoke to the generation fighting in Vietnam. Michael Moore skewered the Bush administration’s response to September 11 in Fahrenheit 9/11. This week in cinemas, Morgan Spurlock, of Super Size Me fame, attempts to do the same with the so-called war on terror.


Michael Moore is unusual in that he takes an issue that has been bubbling away for years, makes it personal, and transforms it into a cause for national and international concern. He did it with America’s gun culture (Bowling for Columbine), and most recently the iniquities of the US private healthcare system (Sicko). In each case, his instinct, that audiences want to hear about such subjects if the information is provided in an entertaining way, has paid off. Bowling for Columbine, made for $4 million, has to date earned $58 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo). Sicko came in at $9 million and has taken $36 million in the US and overseas.


Satire is not dead, it just has to be packaged in a smarter, more subtle fashion than of old. Charlie Wilson’s War, the true tale of a US congressman who helped aid anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan, was blisteringly relevant to today’s wars as well as being a slick piece of entertainment. Between them, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman mined sparkling drama from harsh geopolitics.


With British stars such as Capaldi and Steve Coogan on board, In the Loop should do well at home, among the BBC 2 and 4 crowd especially. For success in America, Iannucci is relying on Gandolfini’s pulling power. If the box office failure of other Iraq war-related movies is any guide, even Big T might not be enough. But cometh the impossible sell, cometh Malcom Tucker. Expect strong language when the film emerges next year.


Coming soon
Next week: Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys I & II) plays the big shot TV star son returning to the bosom of his not so easily impressed family in the comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. www.welcomehomeroscoejenkins.com
May 23: Writer-director Jeff Nichols’, one of the many new talents to have their work showcased at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, sees his revenge drama Shotgun Stories going on wider release. www.shotgunstories.com
May 30: Emmanuel Mouret’s romantic comedy Change of Address ships to these shores after a tender reception in its native France.
June 6: War as diplomacy by other means in the Oscar-nominated Mongol - The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan.
June 13: M Night Shyamalan tries to erase all bad memories of Lady in the Water with The Happening.


Pick of the week
Emotions run high but the acting stays impressively low-key in the Argentinian family drama XXY.