Paine at the Globe

Visiting The Globe in October is a bit daunting but luck was with us. A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine, by Trevor Griffiths was an ideal production for the Globe space. What I wonder is why the extraordinary life of this revolutionary man of the people has never reached the cinema.
The Globe production is a film script which found its way to the stage having been ignored by the film industry. Am I being overly suspicious or a conspiracy theorist in suggesting that it was politically expedient for George Washington to ignore Paine’s imprisonment in revolutionary Paris and near appointment with Mme Guillotine. And that an attempt to dramatically record the life of a man who openly fought with and criticed both Franklin and Washington might not meet with public approval in the USA.
In fairness I now learn that Obama quoted Paine in his inaugural address but only this week Obama is under fire from the Right over his Nobel Peace Prize. The President may well be the heir to the Paine principals but will Barrack Obama be hounded into compromise and relative obscurity.