BBWM Headline: Star-studded cast recreates financial crisis in HBO’s ‘Too Big to Fail’

http://www.widepr.com/press_release/14522/bbwm_headline_star_studded_cast_recreates_financial_crisis_in_hbo_s_too_big_to_fail.html

PASADENA, Calif. – You might not think that the financial crisis three years ago would be fodder for stimulating drama. But some TV brokers are speculating that you’re wrong.
On May 23 HBO is offering “Too Big to Fail,” the tale of what was happening behind the scenes as banks folded, industry staggered and the housing market crumbled.
Based on the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the film is directed by Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”) with a roster of heavy hitting stars like James Wood, William Hurt, Topher Grace, Tony Shalhoub and Matthew Modine.
“I think that this story and this particular film and the book was really an opportunity to try to take the public inside the room so they could see what happened, so they could actually see the decisions that were made and what the opportunities were and the choices were that they actually had,” says Sorkin.
“In hindsight, everything looks black-and-white. But with 20/20 hindsight, it’s different. When you’re actually there, the choices were very different. And I think that this particular project really puts a focus on that. You get to see really what we were up against and how this was perhaps the most catastrophic thing that had happened in our economy since the Great Depression and that we were really on the edge. People don’t really appreciate often how close to the edge we really were,” he says.
Hurt portrays Henry Paulson, secretary of the Treasury and former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “I got to play a guy who crosses the line from the private sector to the public sector,” he says.
“And they’re different jobs. You do different things in different contexts. So that was one of the most interesting parts for me, is Paulson who is a street fighter … a guy who is not used to hearing ‘no’ in the street, to a guy who is working now for the American people. And what do you do in relationship to that responsibility?”
Hurt spent considerable time with Paulson. “He was very generous with his time, for a lot of reasons. So that was utterly fascinating for me. And he was open, I think. So that was a thrill. And to be able to ask some very pointed questions and get some very direct answers about those questions was, this is a sideline, but it was thrilling, just wonderful for me.”
Usually Hurt avoids portraying real people. “But what made this project so fascinating and imperative to me was that the events affect the life of everybody on the planet and will continue to. So that raised the level of interest and the applicability of the subject to an acceptable artistic level.”