So, why has David Mamet not directed a film in over 15 years? Well, for one, he outed himself as a Republican 10 years ago. His famous, or infamous, reasoning included this line:
In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.
Mamet then told The Guardian in 2022 that “Trump did a good job” as president, and that he didn’t disagree that the 2020 election was fraudulent. The fact that he’s managed to get a new movie going is impressive.
Last June, I had reported that Mamet was working on a new film. It was then called “2 Days/1963”, a drama about how notorious Chicago mobster Sam Giancana arranged the assassination of President John F Kennedy as revenge for trying to bring down organized crime, this after the mob helped put JFK in the White House.
The title has changed, it’s now ”Assassination.” The cast assembled is … interesting: Al Pacino, Viggo Mortensen, John Travolta, Courtney Love, and Shia La Beouf.
It’s about time Mamet made a new movie. The 75-year-old writer-director, not to mention legendary playwright, hasn’t directed one since his underrated 2008 MMA film “Redbelt.”
The JFK assassination is the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories, but Mamet, and plenty of others, believe this was what sealed JFK’s untimely fate. The Chicago Mob narrative was even featured in Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”
Mamet, who was twice Oscar-nominated and also won the Pulitzer Prize, will pen the script. Bonnie Giancana, daughter of the late mobster, will be a consultant and executive producer.
He is known for his wittily acidic dialogue. In fact, a term was invented for his style of writing: “Mamet speak.”
Mamet's style of writing is cynical, edgy, street and precisely crafted for effect. It can be seen and heard in some of his better-known works, those include “House of Games”, “Homicide”, “Glengary Glen Ross”, “Wag the Dog”, “The Spanish Prisoner” and “Heist.”