Well, you just had to know that a movie (or two or three) about Osama bin Laden is already in the works. I posted a note about the idea on Facebook the morning after his death, and sure enough, the Interwebs were already abuzz. My FB buddies and I picked out a few cast members, including Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Kevin McKidd, Denzel Washington and Kiefer Sutherland.
Vanity Fair has started their own cast list, including Cate Blanchett as “inconsequential momentary distraction Donald Trump.” Get it? Because she has some experience playing guys, like she did in ‘[amazon_link id=”B0013D8L7C” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]I’m Not There[/amazon_link].’ And she sort of does look a teensy bit like Trump (sorry, Cate).
And CIA director Leon Panetta has already suggested that Al Pacino should play him. I’m thinking Panetta might be one of those guys who looks in the mirror and sees something totally different than the rest of us see. Or maybe he said it as a joke.
Anyway, you can’t blame Hollywood. It’s a movie made in heaven, complete with a maniacal terrorist who’s killed thousands of innocent people, several U.S. Presidential terms spanning decades, and a team of Navy SEALS storming a bunker masquerading as a mansion.
And when I saw that photo of the White House staff watching the action as it happened, I looked at my family and said, ‘Wow, it’s just like the war room on ‘[amazon_link id=”B0044E9JU0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]24[/amazon_link]’!”
Here’s a quick rundown on three Osama bin Laden (or if you’re Fox News, Usama bin Laden) movies possibly coming our way:
- Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal have been working on a thriller about a special forces mission to capture bin Laden. In their version, however, bin Laden was in the mountains, rather than in a villa near the capital of Pakistan. Bigelow, who won an Oscar for directing 2008’s ‘[amazon_link id=”B00275EGX8″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Hurt Locker[/amazon_link],’ has already begun casting the film. Hopefully, it’ll be a little livelier than ‘The Hurt Locker,’ which I’ve yet to get through without falling asleep.
- Oliver Stone has been developing ‘Jawbreaker’ at Paramount, based on Gary Bernsten’s memoir, ‘[amazon_link id=”0307351068″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA’s Key Field Commander[/amazon_link].’
- In 2008, George Clooney’s company optioned ‘[amazon_link id=”B004KAB8HA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Challenge[/amazon_link],’ Jonathan Mahler’s book about two lawyers, the Constitution and Guantanamo Bay. In 2009, it was reported that Warner Bros. hired Aaron Sorkin to write the screen adaptation.
Any thoughts on these projects? Or is it the usual Hollywood overkill?
*In the White House Photo, seated, from left: Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command; Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Standing, from left: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
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