
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994                   TAG: 9403090095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

FILMMAKER WILL CHRONICLE U.S. SENATE CAMPAIGN

One of the producers of "The War Room," a behind-the-scenes documentary of President Clinton's 1992 campaign, is making a similar film of the U.S. Senate race in Virginia.

R.J. Cutler was one of three producers of "War Room," which followed senior strategist James Carville and communications director George Stephanopoulos from the New Hampshire primaries to election night. The film has been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary.

Cutler and David Van Taylor, a documentary director and producer, are developing the Virginia project.

"This is classic, mythic high drama in the political form," Cutler said. "Sometimes you hear about it, and we're about to see it happen."

They have requested insiders' access to the campaigns of Democratic incumbent Charles Robb and Oliver North, who is running for the Republican nomination.

Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute is challenging Robb in a June 14 primary, and Jim Miller, a Reagan administration budget director, is running against North for the GOP nomination to be decided at a June 4 convention. The filmmakers are hoping for a Robb-North showdown.

"If this election shapes up as a race between Robb and North, it is going to represent a struggle for the moral identity of Virginia," Van Taylor said. "This is a particularly cogent example of how the culture wars get worked out in the electorate."

North was tried and convicted of three felonies in the Iran-Contra scandal. The convictions later were set aside and eventually dismissed because prosecutors were unable to show that North's trial was free of taint from his immunized congressional testimony in 1987. Robb faces attacks on his character stemming from allegations that he had an affair and attended parties where drugs were used. Robb has repeatedly denied the allegations.

"They're coming from two completely different ideological camps, and really two different views of the world," Van Taylor said. "I don't think there's much overlap between people who think highly of one and highly of the other."

One of the themes Cutler and Van Taylor plan to pursue is the media, which they say will be almost a third player in the race.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB