A moonlighting Mayor?
Bloomberg describes 'Focus' as his first and last foray into filmmaking
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But there's a historical wrinkle to the race that's been ignored thus far by all but a few members of the film biz.
If Michael Bloomberg beats Mark Green, it could be the first time New Yorkers vote into office the producer of a feature film unspooling in theaters around town.
Media tycoon Bloomberg is the exec producer of Neal Slavin's "Focus," just released by Paramount Classics. Based on Arthur Miller's 1945 novel about anti-Semitism, the pic stars William H. Macy and Laura Dern as a Brooklyn couple mistaken for Jews and harassed by their bigoted neighbors.
Slavin, a friend of Bloomberg's, initially approached the mogul with the idea. Bloomberg liked the book, and decided it was an important subject, according to a source close to Bloomberg.
Given Bloomberg's far-flung media interests -- he owns 10 TV networks around the world -- and his philanthropic activities (he's on the board of New York's Jewish Museum, among other things), it's hardly surprising he'd seize upon this project as an opportunity to dabble in the film biz.
Even so, Bloomberg has described the project as his first and last foray into filmmaking.
