Osama Bin Laden Movie Projects Already Underway

Osama Bin Laden Movie Projects Already Underway

Published: May 02, 2011 @ 3:21 pm
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By Joshua L. Weinstein

It's the stuff movies are made of.

In fact, before a team of Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden Sunday, Hollywood was working on its own versions of the terrorist's demise.

Of course now that the SEALs have provided a dramatic ending to the story, future projects are inevitable.

Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal had been working on a thriller about a special forces mission -- much like Sunday's successful one -- to capture bin Laden. In their version, bin Laden was in the mountains, rather than in a villa near the capital of Pakistan.

Bigelow, who won the Academy Award for directing the 2008 "The Hurt Locker," had begun casting the picture.

Oliver Stone had been developing "Jawbreaker," based on Gary Bernsten's memoir, "Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander."

That film is at Paramount.

In 2008, George Clooney's company optioned "The Challenge," Jonathan Mahler's book about bin Laden's bodyguard and driver. In 2009, it was reported that Warner Bros. hired Aaron Sorkin to write the screen adaptation.

Tags: bin laden, jawbreaker, Kathryn Bigelow, kill bin laden, Movies, the challenge
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