Upcoming Screenings Also Set for U.S. Congress, United Nations, Berlin Film Festival

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirteen Days, the critically acclaimed dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis staring Kevin Costner, will be the first film screened by President and Mrs. George W. Bush at the White House. The screening will take place on Thursday, February 1, New Line Cinema and Beacon Pictures jointly announced today. Guests at the screening will include members of the Kennedy family, as well as members of Congress and personal friends of the President and First Lady.

Next Tuesday, February 6, the film will be screened for members of the House and Senate at the Library of Congress. The screening is hosted by the Global Security Institute, in cooperation with Representatives Edward J. Markey (D-MA.) and Christopher Shays (R-CT.), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following the screening, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara will reflect on his memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and his views on the ongoing nuclear threat.

Thirteen Days will also screen at the United Nations later in February, at an event hosted by the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs, in conjunction with Lawyers Alliance for World Security. Ted Sorensen, who was Special Counsel and a close aide to President John F. Kennedy, will address the audience after the screening.

Thirteen Days will also have its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on February 13, and will be shown at a screening and seminar at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government on February 21.

"We wanted to make Thirteen Days dramatic and entertaining," said Producer and Beacon CEO Armyan Bernstein. "But we also intended that the timely and important themes of the film be seen and discussed in settings where policy and public opinion are actively shaped. The issues of nuclear proliferation and the world-wide nuclear threat are as real today as they were in 1962, and we hope that these screenings at the White House, Capitol Hill, Berlin, the United Nations, Harvard and elsewhere will contribute to the public discourse on nuclear issues. We are especially honored that President Bush has chosen our film to be the first to be shown at the White House."

As part of this outreach campaign, New Line Cinema and Beacon are making the film available to other policy forums such as World Affairs Councils in major cities. The film has already been screened at the prestigious Council of Foreign Relations in New York City, and in Washington, DC under the auspices of Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center.

Beacon and New Line Cinema have also joined with Cuban Missile Crisis scholar and Harvard University professor Graham Allison in shaping a web-site devoted to the Cuban Missile Crisis and to the ongoing issues raised by the film (http://www.thirteen-days.com/).

"Through Thirteen Days, a new generation is discovering how close the world came to an unthinkable nuclear catastrophe," said New Line Cinema President and COO Michael Lynne. "New Line Cinema is particularly proud that the White House has chosen to screen this memorable and thought-provoking motion picture."

"Taken together with these public event screenings, and starting with this special White House invitation, we hope to make a real contribution to awareness of the history of the crisis and the ongoing debate on the subject of nuclear proliferation," says producer Peter O. Almond. "Thirteen Days dramatizes the events of the Cuban missile crisis, and shows President Kennedy to be a true hero of the crisis when the world stood at the brink of nuclear war. We hope that some of the audience -- especially young people -- will want to learn more about the crisis and related issues, and will find transcripts and documents of interest in the various web-site links."

The film's director, Roger Donaldson, will present Thirteen Days at the Berlin Film Festival. "It is more than fitting for Thirteen Days to be shown in Berlin," Donaldson said. "The people of Berlin were on the front line of the Cold War. President Kennedy and his advisors kept a steady eye on that endangered city throughout the crisis because a further mis-step on Cuba likely would have caused a Soviet move on West Berlin and could well have precipitated a nuclear war."

Thirteen Days, produced by Beacon Pictures and released by New Line Cinema, opened nationwide on January 12. The film is produced by Armyan Bernstein, Peter O. Almond and Kevin Costner, and is written by David Self. The screenplay draws on "The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis," edited by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow.

The film features a memorable ensemble that includes Kevin Costner as presidential aide Kenny O'Donnell, Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy and Steven Culp as Robert F. Kennedy.