It had been reported that Michael Moore was going to make a sequel to the biggest-grossing documentary of all-time, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” before the presidential election in November. That doesn’t give him much time, I thought. Well, it turns out, it’s done and … he’s giving it away. Read on in this letter from Moore himself and check out the trailer at the bottom of this post:

Friends,

As you may have heard, I’ve decided to make my new film, “Slacker Uprising,” available for free to everyone in the United States and Canada. It is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet — legally. I am doing this for two reasons:

1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, “Roger & Me,” so I’d like to give those of you who’ve supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and

2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th.

“Slacker Uprising” takes place in the wake of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.)

What I encountered during the tour and the filming was both inspiring and frightening, so I thought, hey, this might make for a funny and enlightening movie! Each night, thousands would show up to volunteer in the Slacker Army against Bush. This drove local Republicans nuts. In one state they tried to have me arrested. At two colleges, rich donors offered to donate more money to the college if they would ban me from campus. Nearly a half-dozen universities kept the Slacker Uprising tour off their campuses. But there was no stopping this movement. By the time we got to Florida, 16,000 people a night were showing up.

It was clear that young people were the ones who were going to save the day — just as they are in this year’s election.

On Tuesday, September 23rd, you will be able to stream, download, or burn a DVD of “Slacker Uprising,” free of charge. The distribution is being organized by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films (they’re the great people behind “OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” and “WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price”).

To sign up for the download of “Slacker Uprising,” click here. You have my blanket permission to share the movie with your friends, to set up screenings in your communities or theaters, to show it on your campuses — all at no charge. I encourage you to rally voters with it, to raise funds for your favorite candidates, to air it on your local cable access channels or web broadcasts. You can also click here to request a free DVD of “Slacker Uprising” for your school or university library.

As I said, this is a movie for you, my fans — a little 97-minute digital treat that I think you’ll really enjoy. I hope you’ll check out SlackerUprising.com and download it a week from today, next Tuesday, September 23rd.

Thanks again for coming to my movies all these years. It’s meant a lot to me. I feel very privileged and blessed, and I am honored to be in this “virtual” community with you as we try to reclaim our beloved country.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. The world premiere of “Slacker Uprising” will take place in one of the great slacker capitals of this country, Ann Arbor, Michigan, this Thursday at 5pm at the historic Michigan Theater. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’re in the neighborhood, hope to see you there!

P.P.S. If you live outside the U.S. and Canada, I’m sorry that I don’t own the rights to make this film available to you for free. But it will be coming to a theater, video store or television network near you soon.

P.P.P.S. If you are not part of the “downloadable” generation, I am making a low-cost DVD of “Slacker Uprising” available at Amazon, Netflix and your local stores in October.

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Seventeen years after “Point Break” washed up in movie theaters, surf’s up for the sequel! Are they kidding? I cant imagine it will star either Keanu Reeves or Patrick Swayze. From the Hollywood Reporter: “Point Break: Indo,” with Jan de Bont aboard to direct. An Asia-based follow-up to director Kathryn Bigelow’s original, which starred Reeves as an FBI agent casing a gang of surfer bank robbers. The new film will take place 20 years after the disappearance of one of the criminal surfers (Swayze).

The Latino Review isn’t completely sure, but either Nightcrawler or Beast will be making an appearance in the upcoming X-Men origins movie “Magneto.”

Here’s some bizarro news from Variety: Werner Herzog is directing a remake of Abel Ferrara’s NC-17 “Bad Lieutenant” with Nicolas Cage in the Harvey Keitel title role. My first question is why remake a badass contemporary movie. Does it really need updating? On the other hand, it’s Herzog, so I’m intruiged. Looks like Herzog is also teaming up with David Lynch!

Couldn’t every documentary by Michael Moore be considered a sequel to the one before it? I mean, they all give us one man’s POV on current events, right? /film is reporting that a sequel to the $200 million-grossing “Fahrenheit 9/11″ is on the way. Details are being kept tightly under wraps but Vantage Paramount, who’s distributing the movie, claims it has “global appeal”. All we know is the sequel will pick up where “Fahrenheit 9/11″ left off.

“Transformers 2″ and the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson effort “tintin” are both getting 3D releases, according to Comics2Film.

If you read Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” book when you were a kid, then you are as pumped for Spike Jonze’s film adaptation. Here is a peek at one of the creatures from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, courtesy Kanye West’s blog (?). 

Fantasy author J. Scott Savage quoted me in a recent blog where he tries to understand why “Speed Racer” tanked so hard at the box office. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who appreciates artists that try to break new ground. Too many people in this country can’t just sit back and laugh at audacity for audacity’s sake.

SilentBobSpeaks has released the first still from Kevin Smith’s new movie, starring regular Jeff Anderson and Seth Rogen. (Big surprise: hockey!) I’ll let Smith himself tell you the rest:

Been knee-deep in “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” type stuff, preparing for our first official test screening on Tuesday night (somewhere in the midwest). The flick’s current running time is 1:45, so we’ll see if putting it in front of an audience sheds light on any further possible cuts. Fingers crossed the flick plays great.

When I get back from the trip back east, I think I’ll be ready to post the first internet-only “Zack and Miri” teaser. I’ll let you know when it goes live at www.quickstopentertainment.com (home of SModcast).

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