News

CNN Cancels Hillary Documentary

by Meredith Turits

That highly anticipated CNN documentary of Hillary Clinton for which you've been so patiently waiting? It isn't coming. Variety reports that CNN has canceled production of the film after director Charles Ferguson withdrew his name from the project due to pressure from both sides of the political aisle. A spokesperson from CNN Worldwide has said they won't be looking to fill his post, instead putting the kibosh on the entire doc.

Ferguson wrote a post on the Huffington Post's blog Monday morning, "Why I Am Cancelling My Documentary on Hillary Clinton" in which he lays out the many reasons he withdrew from the project, citing that no one in either party whom he approached "was interested in helping me make this film". Ferguson concluded:

Neither political party wanted the film made. After painful reflection, I decided that I couldn't make a film of which I would be proud. And so I'm cancelling.

This announcement will come as good news for the RNC, who unanimously passed a resolution last month to prevent CNN (and NBC, who'd planned a Clinton biopic) from hosting Republican primary debates unless the channel agreed to cancel its project about Clinton. Fox Television Studios, the company behind NBC's project, nixed their plans just hours after the vote.