Warner Home Video has plans to release a 20th anniversary edition of the feature film "Hanoi Hilton" on Veteran's Day, November 11th, but has forbidden the film's director from screening either the film or a "bonus feature" interview he conducted with presidential candidate John McCain until after Election Day, Jeffrey Ressner reports from Los Angeles:

According to the film's writer-director Lionel Chetwynd, a longtime Hollywood figure and one of the elder statesmen of the small but tightly knit conservative community there, he received a letter recently from a Warner's publicist in response to a request he made to screen the video for friends and associates. Not only was he informed that there was no publicity budget for the re-release, but he was told in no uncertain words that showing either the film or the McCain footage was "prohibited."

Since last week, Chetwynd and his attorney have been trying to get to the bottom of the situation, to no avail. Chetwynd was reportedly told that the studio didn't want to affect the election in any way, which seems a bit far-fetched considering the impact a bonus feature might have on a national presidential election. The film is a fictional retelling about American POWs held at the infamous North Vietnamese prison where McCain and others were kept during the war, and features a number of composite characters based on real-life prisoners Chetwynd interviewed.

The writer-director had spoken with McCain before making the film, and recently interviewed him in late May for the upcoming DVD. According to one person who has seen the edited bonus footage, McCain doesn't say anything that could be considered "groundbreaking" or "controversial."