You may remember a little New York Times article hitting the news stands a few years ago that basically said that the Bush administration had lied about there being WMD.
What happened afterwards to the person who wrote that story and his wife is slightly lesser known; Joseph Wilson’s CIA agent wife Valerie Plame was outed to the media by angry anonimous White House officials in a frantic attempt to discredit Wilson.
Now their story will be told by Warner Brothers. The good people over at monstersandcritics.com give us more:
The studio, reports Variety, is developing a feature film drama on the lives of Valerie Plame and Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the married couple whose lives were turned upside down by administration insiders and key journalists…The film will be a co-production between Weed Road’s Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions. Jez and John Butterworth are writing the screenplay, reports Variety. The studio also will use Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game,” if the CIA permits her to publish it.
IF the CIA permits her to publish. That must be hard to swallow for Plame, she and her husband are presently suing Dick Cheney, and the CIA and going to be going over her memoir to make sure there isn’t anything that could threaten national security, like that isn’t a conflict of interest.
I am very interested in this story, it needs to be told. It is insane what has happened to this couple. The director talked a bit about the respect that Plame still gives to her country, even though she has gotten little back.
Jerry Zucker said to Variety. “Valerie has been incredibly careful with what she tells us, it’s almost like she is still working for the CIA. The biggest element of the movie to us is the story of two people who spent their lives in service of their government, and were then betrayed by that government.”
I want to see this movie, but more importantly, I want this movie to be seen. The sooner this comes out the better in my opinion. The M&C article also said that the writers are going to be gathering a lot of the information for the script through news articles so even if Plame’s own memoir is white washed by the CIA there is a lot of public knowledge that should keep this film from being soft. I hope it hits hard.
It would be great it the film had a The Insider or Goodnight and Good Luck feel to it. This movie should show grit. I have no idea who they will cast for Plame and Wilson. Looks wise Naomi Watts could certainly play her (of course her new pregnancy may deter casting), for her husband (who is a lot older than her) we could get Alec Baldwin.
Whoever they cast though I will be seeing this film, the story is far to important to ignore
