Stone plans bin Laden film

2006-10-17 10:09

Los Angeles - Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone plans to follow up World Trade Center by tackling America's post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, it was reported on Monday.

Movie industry journal Variety reported that the controversial director wants to make a film based on the memoir Jawbreaker by Gary Bernsten, the CIA's pointman in Afghanistan during the invasion.

Variety said Stone and Paramount pictures had acquired the rights to Jawbreaker several months ago but kept silent about the deal because they did not want to derail the publicity campaign for World Trade Center.

World Trade Center, which deals with the collapse of the twin towers in New York, has earned favourable reviews and $125m worldwide since its release earlier this year.

"This will be partly about the ground war in Afghanistan, among other things," Stone told Variety.

He said he had been "discreet" about the movie because he didn't want World Trade Center to be unnecessarily affected by politics surrounding the war.

Stone, famed for hard-hitting and often controversial movies including Platoon, Born on the fourth of July and JFK, deliberately shied away from making political points in World Trade Center.

But while Variety said Stone recognised it will be difficult to avoid controversy, the director said he intended to make the film of Bernsten's memoir "a compelling drama, not a polemic".

- AFP