Summary

Imagine a country where the President doesn’t read the newspaper, the government goes to war for all the wrong reasons and more votes are cast for the next pop music star than for the next president. Welcome to your American Dreamz. This spring, filmmaker PAUL WEITZ (writer/director of In Good Company, co-director/ Academy Award-nominated co-screenwriter of About a Boy and co-director of American Pie) turns his camera on a nation obsessed with instant fame, immediate celebrity and disposable hype culture. In this darkly humorous satire, Weitz follows the intersection of juggernaut reality show “American Dreamz” hopefuls, a clueless American President who is attempting to get back in touch with reality and a hapless terrorist charged to upend American politics by blowing up the free world’s leader on the country’s most popular television program. Set in a world where prepackaged pop culture and government rhetoric begin to feel startlingly similar, the film questions a reality in which the President is completely ineffective while the country grows more and more obsessed with an aspirational television contest. Weitz satirically ponders a culture that could lead a dewy-eyed, seemingly innocent talent-show contestant to become more manipulative than a splintercell terrorist -- in the name of chasing a dream. Acting in American Dreamz is an impressive roster of talent including HUGH GRANT (About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary), DENNIS QUAID (In Good Company, The Rookie), MANDY MOORE (Saved!, A Walk to Remember), MARCIA GAY HARDEN (Mystic River, Pollock), CHRIS KLEIN (Just Friends, American Pie), JENNIFER COOLIDGE (Legally Blonde, American Pie) and WILLEM DAFOE (Spider-Man, Inside Man). Rounding off the acting set are young comic thespians JUDY GREER (13 Going on 30), JOHN CHO (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) and SETH MEYERS (Saturday Night Live). They are joined by multiple actors with impeccable comic timing, including Academy Award-nominated actress SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO (House of Sand and Fog), and newcomers SAM GOLZARI and TONY YALDA. On the morning of his reelection, President Joe Staton (Dennis Quaid) decides to read the newspaper for the first time in four years, starting him down a slippery slope in the eyes of both his doting First Lady (Marcia Gay Harden) and his manipulative Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe). Holed up in pajamas in his bedroom, the President begins obsessively reading and reexamining his formerly black-and-white view of the world, shocked at what he is discovering. Frightened by his boss’ apparent nervous breakdown -- and plummeting approval rating -- the Chief pushes him back into the spotlight by booking him as a guest judge on a TV ratings beast: weekly talent show “American Dreamz.” America just can’t seem to get enough of “American Dreamz,” hosted by self-aggrandizing, self-loathing Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), ever on the lookout for the next insta-celebrity. Tired of the same boring guests season after season, Tweed decides to up this year’s ante by recruiting a crop of bizarre hopefuls that includes Sally (Mandy Moore), a conniving steel magnolia with a devoted, dopey veteran boyfriend (Chris Klein) and fame-obsessed momager Martha (Jennifer Coolidge); Omer (SAM GOLZARI), a recent immigrant and bumbling, show-tune singing / would-be terrorist awaiting activation; and Sholem (ADAM BUSCH), an Orthodox cantor whose goofy raps were tailor-made for unscripted television. Guided to the final round by Tweed, his show producers Accordo and Ittles (Judy Greer and John Cho) and her eat-his-own-young agent Chet (Seth Meyers), Sally manages to claw her way to the center of the nation’s conscience -- only to find her path to winning “American Dreamz” threatened by lovable immigrant Omer. A reluctant contestant who just wants to fit in his new home country, Omer is told by his secret terrorist training camp operatives to make his way to the finals and detonate a bomb that will destroy the increased-approval-rating-seeking guest judge President Staton -- thereby striking a blow to both the bull’s-eye of hedonistic American culture and political stability in our region. With everything riding on the biggest show of the year for Staton, Tweed and the two hopefuls, the stage is finally set for an explosive showdown our pop-fed nation will never forget.