"Pumping Iron" documentarian to make Kerry movie

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/17/kerry.movie.tm/index.html

The documentary filmmaker who propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger to fame with the 1977 movie Pumping Iron, Butler is hoping he will have crafted the definitive answer onto 90 minutes of celluloid in time to hit theaters by late summer.

The film will be loosely based on Tour of Duty, Douglas Brinkley's admiring biography of Kerry's years as a boat captain in Vietnam and then as an antiwar protester.

But Butler brings more to the $1.3 million project than his cinematic skills. A close friend of the Senator's for four decades -- he even served as press secretary for Kerry's failed 1972 congressional campaign -- Butler has photographed Kerry almost obsessively. He has collected more than 6,000 photos over the years...