Shock of the Week: Protests Planned for "Che" Premiere in Miami Tomorrow

Let's do a little thought experiment here. Say you're a director, and you're trying to market a new four hour long epic that's was derided by Variety as "a commercial impossibility" after its debut at Cannes.

You need to stir up a little hype, a little press. Get the kids excited. Oh, and did we mention that the epic is about uber-polarizing Cuban revolutionary and world-wide T-shirt icon Che Guevara?  So what are you going to do?

Short of staging a guerilla premiere in downtown Havana, Riptide's going to guess the next-best option is a screening in the heart of right-wing Cuban nationalism -- good ol' Miami.

Maybe Riptide's logic is all wrong, but Steven Soderbergh seems like a very bright guy. And tomorrow night, he's coming to Miami Beach's Byron Carlyle Theater with star Benecio del Toro to screen said new epic, "Guerilla."

And, shocker of shockers, everyone's favorite Cuban shit-disturbers Vigilia Mambisa are going to be all over this thing. According to babalublog , Vigilia put out a call today for protesters to meet at Versailles Restaurant a couple hours before the show for a caravan to the theater, where they "will demonstrate with all our Cuban legacy our repudiation and condemnation of this new affront and act of aggression in the name of all those that have died."

Riptide is certain that Soderbergh is horrified -- horrified -- that this kind of attention is coming down upon his film.

-- Tim Elfrink