Four Years Later, Studios Tackle 9/11
Miniseries, Flight 93 Dramas
Use U.S. Report as Source;
Lining Up Keitel and Cage
By JOHN LIPPMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 12, 2005; Page W1
The 600-plus-page tome of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States hardly seems the kind of book that producers would scramble to put on the screen.
But the U.S. government's 9/11 commission report has become one of the hottest literary properties in Hollywood. It serves as a major source for at least three TV and film projects -- "The Flight That Fought Back," airing next month on cable TV's Discovery Channel, as well as a yet-untitled movie on cable's A&E network and a miniseries on ABC. The projects have led to discussions -- sometimes delicate -- with families of the hijacking victims.
The projects mark a shift for Hollywood. For four years following Sept. 11, television and movie studios steered clear of dramatizing the events of that day, even as scores of books were devoted to the attacks. At least one 9/11 project fell by the wayside: NBC had a $40 million, eight-hour miniseries in the works, including dramatizations of the hijackings, but budget cutbacks caused the network to put the project on indefinite hold. (NBC declined to comment.) Now, there is a broader effort to dramatize the events, also including a project by Oliver Stone, director of "Platoon." Mr. Stone's movie, due next year and starring Nicolas Cage, will tell the story of two transit cops trapped underneath the collapsed World Trade Center towers.
Though a story about how terrorists manage to slip into the U.S. and carry out assaults might be the stuff of a typical Hollywood thriller, the wounds on the national psyche have been too painful for producers to touch. "It's just been too sensitive," says David Gerber, producer of A&E's movie, about the struggles on board United Airlines Flight 93 that ended in a crash in Pennsylvania. "It's a great story, but [the networks] were not sure how it could be handled in a proper manner."
Studios say that has changed in part because details of the hijackings, as outlined in the government's narrative -- "The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" -- provide producers and filmmakers alike with a factual base for dramatizations. "I have been pitched a thousand of these projects," says Quinn Taylor, senior vice president of movies and miniseries for ABC. But with a fully detailed version of the story unavailable, "our fear had been of doing something fictional," he says. Then a friend suggested at dinner that Mr. Taylor take a look at the 9/11 report because it read like a Tom Clancy novel. Mr. Taylor bought the book and found a credible source for a narrative. "It's a daunting thing," he says, "but it reads like a movie."
DAYS THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY
[Days That Will Live in Infamy]
The first wave of movies and shows dramatizing 9/11 and the events leading up to the attacks is under way four years after the event. It includes:
• "The Flight That Fought Back," the Discovery Channel's 90-minute docudrama, will air Sept. 11. The film combines interviews with family members of passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, with 45 minutes of dramatized scenes aboard the flight itself. "We mixed up some less well-known stories with well-known" ones, says producer Phil Craig.
• ABC's six-hour miniseries just began filming in Toronto, and will air over three nights in the upcoming season. The first two hours trace the investigation into the 1993 bombing of World Trade Center. The second episode begins with the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The third episode depicts the planning leading up to the 9/11 attacks. Cast includes Harvey Keitel, Amy Madigan and Stephen Root as former White House terrorism adviser Richard Clarke.
• A&E's "Flight 93" (a working title) will be directed by Peter Markle, who also directed the TV movies "Faith of My Fathers," based on Sen. John McCain's autobiography, and "Saving Jessica Lynch," about the rescue of the soldier during the Iraq war. Casting is under way.
One cost that adapters of the 9/11 report can avoid: It's a public document, so they don't have to acquire rights to it. (Rights can cost as much as several million dollars for a best seller, though the price is usually far lower.) Producers also sometimes pay to acquire people's life stories, but ABC, A&E and the Discovery Channel all say they aren't paying the families of 9/11 victims for cooperation with the projects. In fact, their producers seem to be trying to avoid an appearance of overcommercialization. The Discovery Channel plans to run its show without commercial interruptions, and ABC says various formats for its miniseries, such as having a single sponsor or commercial-free showings, are under consideration.
For its project this coming season (title and date to be announced), ABC has hired screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh, a writer on the recent miniseries "Into the West." His script draws from the 9/11 report and two books, including "The Cell," former journalist John Miller's book about John O'Neill, a former FBI counterterrorism expert killed in the WTC attacks. Mr. O'Neill will be played by Harvey Keitel.
Portraying Tenet, Cheney
ABC's docudrama (with a $38 million budget, large for TV but small for a Hollywood film) opens with hijackers boarding a plane on Sept. 11, then moves to flashbacks, Mr. Taylor says. Except for one composite character, the rest of the 180 roles are based on real people, from former CIA director George Tenet to Vice President Cheney. Osama Bin Laden and Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush won't be portrayed: "We felt any dramatization would trivialize them," says producer Marc Platt.
A&E is casting its Flight 93 docudrama, which it has budgeted at $5 million and plans to run in the first quarter of 2006. The film will take place mostly in real time, says Delia Fine, vice president of film and drama at the cable channel and the movie's executive producer. Ms. Fine says the filmmakers are relying as much as possible on details from the 9/11 report but also are using interviews with family members of the passengers. The script won't stick purely to the record, she adds. It includes, for example, some fictionalized cellphone conversations by passengers. "We're still wrestling with some of those issues," Ms. Fine says. "We want to be very careful of what we don't know."
As for the Discovery Channel, its "The Flight That Fought Back" airs Sept. 11. The 90-minute drama about Flight 93 includes actual interviews with families of the passengers as well as 45 minutes of dramatized scenes of the hijacking. Producer Phil Craig says much of the dialogue is from published transcripts of the cockpit voice recorders (the entire transcript has never been released). He adds that one of the aims is to highlight some of the lesser-known passengers: "We think of this primarily as a work of journalism."
[The Discovery Channel's 'The Flight That Fought Back']
The Discovery Channel's 'The Flight That Fought Back'
To get more of the facts, the makers of "The Flight That Fought Back" connected with many of the passenger families through the National Organization of Victim Assistance as well as several groups connected with Flight 93 families. One passenger, Honor Elizabeth Waino, worked for the Discovery Channel's retail division. At a recent press event in Los Angeles, family members of Ms. Waino praised the docudrama.
Fictional Adjustments
Dealing with the families and other persons close to the victims also has meant some fictional adjustments, Mr. Craig says. The pastor of one passenger believed he would have led other passengers in prayer during the hijacking. The brother of a victim dreamed that the passenger broke into the cockpit and charged the hijackers, though it isn't known whether the passengers ever actually gained access to the cabin. Both ideas became part of the script.
Mr. Craig says that such instances in the docudrama are clearly identified as "impressionistic" and an "interpretation." "We're trying to be honest in what we don't know," he says. "The final climax is unclear." The Discovery Channel plans to donate to the Flight 93 National Memorial Fund all proceeds of DVDs of its movie, and part of its retail sales during the week of Sept. 11.
Mr. Craig says the docudrama has the support of most of the family members of the 40 passengers and crew who died on the flight. Hamilton Peterson, the president of Families of Flight 93, whose father and stepmother were on the flight, says he can't speak for the group, but says he was personally impressed with the Discovery Channel's willingness to incorporate family ideas. Deborah Borza -- mother of passenger Deora Bodley, a 20-year-old college student -- met in May in San Francisco with producers of the Discovery Channel film. Ms. Borza says she is heartened about the 9/11 projects because they will showcase and honor the lives of those who died that day. "There are thousands of stories to tell," she says. The dozen or so families at the San Francisco meeting voiced "concerns and opinions," she says, and came away thinking the producers "want to do the best they can" in presenting an accurate picture.
Lisa Beamer, for one, wasn't there. She is the wife of passenger Todd Beamer, who was heard over a cellphone saying, "Let's roll." The phrase has come to epitomize the courage of the passengers who fought back. (Ms. Beamer has written a book about her experiences.) Mr. Craig says that when it came to the docudrama, Ms. Beamer preferred to stay uninvolved. Ms. Beamer didn't return calls for comment. |
