'Zero Dark Thirty' Filmmakers Eye Movie On Freed POW Bowe Bergdahl
By Mike Fleming Jr.
EXCLUSIVE: Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer/producer Mark Boal, the team behind the Oscar winning The Hurt Locker and Oscar nominated Zero Dark Thirty, are in the early stage planning on another timely Middle East-set feature project. They are developing a feature based on the story of Bowe Bergdahl, the Army soldier captured and held prisoner for five years by the Taliban after he left the base in Afghanistan. The project is taking root with Boal’s recently launched Page One shingle, which has backing from Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. She produced Zero Dark Thirty with Boal and Bigelow, and will get first look at the script that Boal will write.
I’m not exactly sure what form the movie will take, but I’ve heard that the filmmakers have quietly been tracking the story for several years with a possible movie in mind. Bigelow and Boal have proven very changeable and able to adapt to developments in real time. They were ready to shop a script about a futile search for Bin Laden when President Obama announced that SEAL Team Six had killed the Al-Qaeda leader. Boal, a well-connected journalist who embedded with troops in the Middle East, went back to his sources, altered course and he and Bigelow told the story of the painstaking but ultimately successful hunt for the 9/11 mastermind.
They also weathered the sting of three U.S. Senators—including Senator John McCain—who excoriated the film for its insinuation that torture rooted out intelligence that led to the location of Bin Laden. It certainly hurt the film’s chances for a Best Picture Oscar; Bigelow was inexplicably ignored by Academy voters in the Best Director category.
Bergdahl is certainly another hot-button topic, but rife with high drama. An idealistic young man who was home schooled by his religious parents in Idaho, Bergdahl tried to join the French Foreign Legion and spent time at a Buddhist monastery before joining the Army. Not long after being deployed in Afghanistan, he became disillusioned with the bureaucracy and what he saw as incompetence of those around him. He reportedly left the base, wandering around until he was captured by the Taliban. He spent five years as the lone U.S. soldier in captivity, until he was traded for five Taliban higher-ups held at Guantanamo Bay. Some military men have charged he was a deserter and should not have been swapped for five dangerous Taliban operatives. On Capitol Hill, McCain has been among the chorus of pols excoriating the secret deal negotiated by the White House. The drama is still unfolding as the freed soldier attempts to reintegrate into society.
Related: Pair Of Hunt For Bin Laden Projects Could Be Timeliest Movies In Hollywood Now
This becomes the second film in development on a topical issue still playing out. Oliver Stone is planning a feature about whistle blower Edward Snowden, who leaked reams of classified documents and is now in Russia.
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