Inside Move: Rx from 'John Q.'
Pic has its finger on pulse of health care
New Line's "John Q." does that and much more. The Denzel Washington starrer also features a video montage of celebrities stumping for the cause -- one of whom is late director Ted Demme.
Last month, the 38-year-old Demme died of a heart attack while playing basketball. The film's focus is on a heart transplant operation for a boy who collapses during a baseball game. Tests recently revealed Demme had cocaine in his system when he died.
Demme appears in a series of video clips that cap the pic, as do Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, Jay Leno and Bill Maher. Most get "as themselves" credits.
The script for "John Q.," a hostage drama that updates "Dog Day Afternoon" with an "ER"-like theme, was written in 1993, when health care was a pressing issue.
New Line declines to address the subject of Demme or the film's final scenes. A publicist for "John Q" director Nick Cassavetes says he refuses to comment on what she terms a "personal matter."
