‘Without any assistance from the military, then naturally, anything can happen’ – DOD File on Ice Station Zebra
The production of Ice Station Zebra is a great case study in just how much influence the Pentagon can have...
Documents
‘All Assistance is Provided at No Cost to You’ – FBI Letter to Martin Scorcese
In late 2009 the FBI got wind of the fact that Martin Scorcese was developing The Wolf of Wall Street,...
‘We Trust the Box Office Becomes a Bell Ringer’ – Pentagon memo on Top Gun
Top Gun was an enormous critical and commercial success and helped redefine the military-supported movie. It is not quite a...
The US Military Celebrate Captain Marvel as ‘the film girls need’
The US military, particularly the Air Force, invested a lot of time and resources in helping make Captain Marvel, and...
The CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office and Ice Station Zebra
The 1968 spy and counterspy classic Ice Station Zebra was inspired by a real life event during the CIA/Air Force...
How (and why) the Pentagon Rewrote Dennis the Menace
Of all the many, many, many projects the Pentagon has supported, one of the most surprising and seemingly innocent is...
Why the Pentagon Rejected Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
In early 1977 the producers of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes approached the Pentagon about filming a couple of brief...
When the US Army Decided a Chin Strap was More Important Than the Death of One of Their Soldiers
The US Army provided extensive support to the National Geographic film series The Long Road Home, supposedly to ensure it depicted the real-life battle of Sadr City in a 'reasonably realistic' way. But Army emails that I obtained under FOIA show they were more concerned with the fact that a helmet chin strap was wrong in one scene than in the fact the series depicted the death of a soldier who actually died later in another mission.
How and Why the FBI Rewrite Hollywood Movies
Just like other government agencies the FBI are deeply involved in the entertainment industry, collaborating with film andTV producers to...
FBI Releases Almost Entirely Redacted File on Burn Notice
The FBI recently released a tranche of documents on the USA Network TV series Burn Notice. While most of the...