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19th Mar 2017

Louis Theroux reveals details about the one documentary that he couldn’t make

Paul Moore

We’re also getting a new Louis Theroux film.

During his recent Reddit AMA, Louis Theroux told us about a few of the subjects that he would love to film a documentary about and as we all know, the Islamic State is one area that he’s fascinated by.

Despite his interest, security reasons have been the main reason why the talented broadcaster has yet to examine the topic of ISIS.

With My Scientology Movie being released in the US, the documentarian sat down with Ash Tulett to discuss his career and future projects.

During their chat, Theroux revealed details about a documentary on ISIS “that fizzled out, but I’d still love to do it.”

“There’s lots of subjects that I feel I haven’t gotten around to. For me, I suppose a big one would be Islamism. That far-out wing that draws strands of Islam and turns it into a poisonous ideology that justifies bombings of civilians. It’s in someways one of the big stories of our time, but it also fits in with the things that I’ve been curious about over the last 15-20 years.”

He adds “it has to do with beliefs that seem irrational, behaviours that are outside the mainstream or deeply taboo. If you subtracted the possibility of having me head chopped off, I would be fascinated to go into Iraq and Syria to find out what’s going on over there.”

Theroux stated that he has already taken the first steps towards making this documentary.

“I tried last year to begin making a film with some British Muslims who were more or less sympathetic to what ISIS were doing. I think, because it was such a period of heightened sensitivities, that it was very hard to build trust with the contributors and there was also an awareness that anything they might say. If they were candid about it, they’d be locked up for glorified terrorism. In fact, two of them were locked up, but not for anything that they said to us.”

“That fizzled out, but I’d still love to do it,” he said.

In a very interesting chat, Theroux also stated that he’d give Donald Trump a “fair hearing” before revealing that that he’ll be starting work on another film in the near future.

“The important thing is that the backers made some money back and said that I can do another one (film). So, I have to figure out what my next film is.”

When asked for more details about this new film, Theroux jokingly said that he’s fascinated by things that are “extreme, weird or involve emotional angst. What about inside the Daily Mail?”

Here are the interviews in full.

Clips via –Ash Tulett