Hollywood To Do Movie On Seattle's WTO Fiasco

Sometime in the mid nineties when Seattle was surfing atop the Microsoft wave, the TV show Frasier decided to shoot on location up here. The show had Seattle based Frasier Crane and his brother Niles get mugged somewhere in downtown Seattle. Some of our city fathers cried foul, they did not want to see what they thought was the Emerald City's prestige image soiled by the depiction of crime on her streets.
If that image really ever existed, it was shattered a few years later when thousands of protestors took to Seattle's Streets during the conference of the World Trade Organization in 1999. I worked in Downtown Seattle at the time and for that entire week it felt like I was in a war zone. I remember watching on Television in absolute disgust as punk kids where shown breaking windows and burning waste paper bins. I remember the Sheriff Dave Reichert (in front of a running camera of course) jumping out of his limo in true Leslie Nielson style to arrest a protester. I remember how tough it was to get a bus home on one particularly scary night.
Things have come full circle as the Seattle Times reports that a movie is in the works that reenacts that fateful week. Charlize Theron, an Oscar winner in 2003 will have a starting role as an innocent bystander who becomes the protagonist of the movie. Susan Sarandon is slated to play a journalist who is sympathetic to the protestors.
Theron's boyfriend Stuart Townsend is writing and directing the movie which is scheduled to start shooting in Vancouver next month.

Battle In Seattle--The Movie

Battle In Seattle, had Oliver Stone attacked this project it may have been a blockbuster hit. It is a frighteningly accurate portrayal of 1999 riots that disrupted the WTO Conference in Downtown Seattle directed by Stuart Townsend. Although the disclaimer says that any portrayal of characters is purely fictional, Ray Liotta, as mayor delivers a spot-on performance as Seattle's mayor. On the other hand, the actor who portray Washington's governor, bore no resemblance and was a rather mean spirited portrayal of Gary Locke. At seen that his home the most, where the shopper who were stranded downtown and could not find a way to get out of the melee. Working downtown at the time, I thought that I was going to be stranded, but finally retreated to the bus tunnel, where I was able to board a bus to Renton. It was a terrifying experience.