Seduced and Abandoned: a sly look at money grubbing

Seduced and Abandoned is director James Toback’s (The Pickup Artist, Tyson) documentary about that overlooked aspect of filmmaking: the pitch.  The camera follows Toback and his star Alec Baldwin through the Cannes Film Festival as they try to get funding for their new movie. The project they are pitching is Last Tango in Tikrit.  One can only imagine…

Toback is shameless in his pursuit of backers: “250 years from now, the only reason anyone will know your name is when it rolls on the screen as producer of my movie”.  When Toback and Baldwin learn that a young actor-wannabe has a very rich dad, they pounce and dangle a newly written role for the son.   Toback is willing to dump Neve Campbell for a younger box office hottie and to change the plot from a Middle East story  so he can shoot in the US.  It’s all very sly.

Seduced and Abandoned is playing on HBO.  Here’s the teaser.