Paramount Hires Path to 9/11 Writer For Movie On ‘The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden’
Paramount Hires Path to 9/11 Writer For Movie On ‘The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden’
Cyrus Nowresteh wrote ABC’s docudrama “The Path to 9/11.” Norwresteh maintained the movie was “an objective telling of the events of 9/11.” But his script contained several glaring inaccuracies, all of which shifted blame to the Clinton administration. Nearly 100,000 people contacted ABC to protest the film.
Now Paramount Pictures and Oliver Stone have signed up Norwresteh to write another movie about 9/11. Variety has the details:
After steering clear of political controversy with 9/11 heroism tale “World Trade Center,” Oliver Stone and Paramount Pictures are venturing into edgier territory with “Jawbreaker.” Pic will focus on America’s response to the terrorist attacks with the invasion of Afghanistan and hunt for 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden.
Cyrus Nowrasteh, whose most recent credit was the controversial ABC miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” is set to write a second draft of “Jawbreaker.”
The movie is to be based on a book, also called “Jawbreaker,” that blames the Clinton administration for failing to capture Bin Laden and praises President Bush:
In a memoir heavily vetted by the CIA (there are pages of blacked-out lines), Bernsten details feeling stymied by bureaucrats in President Bill Clinton’s administration who prevented operatives from engaging a growingly malicious Al Qaeda and Bin Laden presence. While Bernsten describes how he and his cohorts were stunningly told to stand down when they had Bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora, he writes approvingly of President George W. Bush’s handling of the invasion.
Nowrasteh is an avowed conservative activist. Last year, he spoke on a panel titled, “Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood’s Next Paradigm Shift.” When confronted with his bias, Nowrasteh lied about his political leanings in the Wall Street Journal.
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That dang liberal media is at it again!
October 16th, 2006 at 10:11 amOh, that liberal Hollywood.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:12 amAh, Jeebus….
It’s Zoolander again.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:12 amClinton, Clinton, Clinton…
Words like pathetic no longer suffice to characterize the no-responsibility right wing.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:13 amJust let us know when this movie airs — I’ll stay off TP for a couple weeks. Thanks…
October 16th, 2006 at 10:14 amOliver Stone, you are dead to me.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:14 amI will never see another film of yours in a theater. I will never purchase a film with your name on it again–past or present. I will never rent another film with your name on it from my local movie place.
I hope you have enough cash, as it could take years for the stink to wear off you. Maybe you and Mel Gibson could get together and work on something.
Isn’t it fitting that the man known for making movies with questionable historical details about very historical characters and events has hired the goof that wrote the ABC disaster on 9/11? To think the right wing has been nearly hysterical about Oliver Stones’ loose interpretation of historical events for years. Now it looks like it’s the left’s turn at being subject to his less than sharp focus.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:18 amStone: “I’m not looking to make a political movie, but it always seems to come down to that with me.”
October 16th, 2006 at 10:23 amHollywood knows that the controversy over the film means free publicity for it, something that no amount of advertizong can buy.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:30 amhopefully this movie will also demonstrate how bin Laden was cornered at Tora Bora, then we turned around and walked away…
October 16th, 2006 at 10:30 amOKAY, if Oliver Stone makes a movie supporting the Reich Wing, then I knoiw the stories of GOP death squads are true. GOD help us…
October 16th, 2006 at 10:33 am[…] Original post by Judd Read More… […]
October 16th, 2006 at 10:36 amWhy does Oliver Stone hate America? Okay I don’t like to resort to that type of discourse but somebody was gonna come on here asking it, so let’s get it outta the way. But seriously, when will the nonsense about the SCLM end?
October 16th, 2006 at 10:38 amThis lying complicitous persian shitbag should be strung up by his nuts and burned alive for his actions.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:39 amWho’s dick did he suck to get the job??
George Bush’s??? Or did Mark Foley get to lick his balls.
I have always suspected that Stone is just a publicity-seeking opportunist. No surprise there, he is from Hollywood.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:40 amAs if “The Path to 911″ was not unwatchable. Whoopie another boring movie.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:45 amWell, they wanted a complete fiction writer didn’t they, considering that the “hunt” was completely fictitious to begin with, right?
I didn’t watch the last piece of shit this bozo wrote and have had every ABC/Disney station permanently blocked since, so I sure as hell won’t be going to see this one either!
It will also take a long series of very good movies before Paramount gets off my shit list, too. I don’t recall the last Paramount movie I bought, but it’ll be a l-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-g time before I buy another.
I tend to vote with my wallet.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:46 amHe’ll tell the truth about Clinton’s failures again; Judd hates the truth.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:46 amWho would hire that clown? Only the GOP would want that creep to write another puff piece screenplay for a propaganda flick!
October 16th, 2006 at 10:57 amNote: I have to keep resetting my text enlarge tab for TP threads, so the font has been made smaller by TP staff or a glitch that remains?!
October 16th, 2006 at 11:00 amUmm, if you’ve actually read Jawbreaker (or what was left after redactions) you’d see that Bernsten was brutally honest with both Bush and Clinton. He revealed that Osama was lost at Tora Bora after his requests for Army rangers were sat on (it was later revealed in a NYTimes article that Cheney never told Bush about the request) and that shifting priorites from Afganastan to Iraq hurt our cause greatly. So I would hardly saw that Bernsten is a Bush defender.
But I am worried now that the guy from “path to 9/11″ and oliver stone are involved…
October 16th, 2006 at 11:00 amThe executive producer of Path to 911 is Marc Platt, is an avowed liberal activist and a Democrat. Why doesn’t Judd attack him? As executive producer he certainly had more say in the production of Path to 911.
Why ignore this? Because it doesn’t fit with your argument. More transparent lying by ommission from TP.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:07 amIt’s the “Ministry of Truth” at work.
You can’t change history, but you can rewrite it.
Repeatedly, unfortunately.
Later,
Ranger Jay
October 16th, 2006 at 11:08 amWhat, Oliver Stone wasn’t available?
October 16th, 2006 at 11:09 amwrote too fast. I see Mr. Stone is involved. greeaaat.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:11 amProgressive Liberals can’t force Oliver Stone or Paramount Pictures to do the right thing by ONLY writing, calling or emailing them…
…let them spend millions on a lie, by a psychotic right wing, inbred TRAITOR (Nowresteh)…
…then BOYCOTT that and ALL other Paramount picture films…
…also…
…stop patronizing Disney and ABC, and inb’RED’ states…
…vacation in and buy BLUE!
…in other words…
…PROTEST with our DOLLARS and SENSE…
October 16th, 2006 at 11:12 amGreat idea paramount. Create the controversy before the movie even goes into production.
I love how marketing has become so transparent.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:15 amI read that book and thought it was good. I don’t think they overly blamed Clinton, but what I found amazing was the complete screwups by the administration and the guys on the ground frustrations with BushCo.
Too bad its going to be told wrong again. What was Stone thinking pairing up with this moron?
October 16th, 2006 at 11:15 amMovie will start with Bush preparing “rubble speech”….
I will guaranteee the movie will end with a STAR WARS like face to face battle between Bush & Osama…..Bush will win and we will all be saved……
(time compression is soooooooooooo handy)
Movie WILL NOT have Tora Bora scene…
October 16th, 2006 at 11:17 amBesides being the title of a cheesy 1999 film, “Jawbreaker” (http://imdb.com/title/tt0155776/) is a LONG way from being produced. Things are in the ‘pitching and deal’ stage right now and most concepts, ideas, and scenarios never get put on film in this town. When you see it, believe it.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:17 amI can’t wait to see this wingnut’s revisionist history propaganda film about Osama Bin Laden.
By the time he’s done with his version of history, we’ll learn that our hero and savior George W. Bush captured OBL on September 10th 2001, averting the whole 9/11 tragedy and bringing Peace on Earth (falalalala-lala-la-la-la).
The crashing towers of the World Trade Center and the burning Pentagon was all just a bad dream brought on by Post Clinton Traumatic Stress Disorder and indigestion.
As for Oliver Stone’s involvement with this charlatan: WTF? Has he completely lost his mind? Does his credibility no long mean anything to him?
October 16th, 2006 at 11:27 amI really thought that Oliver Stone had more class than that.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:28 amIt will be a Jawbreaker all right…you’ll break your jaw yawning from the all the psychophantic blame-storming and finger pointing rather than actually having a movie about an adminstration that takes responsibility for its actions and GETS THE JOB DONE. Mission NOT accomplished, just ask the several thousand US dead and the tens of thousands of Iraqis caught in the crossfire.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:32 am15 years ago, this guy got the cleaning lady pregnant. It was his first time.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:36 amThis is the same guy who wrote and directed “Salvador” which was a great film about US involvement in El Salvador during the Reagan administration.
To go from “Salvador” to possibly making a film with that hack Cyrus Nowresteh is shameful.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:40 amLet’s just hope the Democrats take at least one house of Congress and block, if not outright punish, this sort of corporate malfeasance. It’s one thing to state all sides of an issue and upset everyone. It’s criminal for a corporation that’s mostly a monopoly to push out one-sided propaganda. And to do it knowingly (given the writer’s background).
Then again, the writer is a lousy writer as writers go so Paramount deserves to waste their millions on crap.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:41 am#9 - That’s for sure. Money can’t buy free advertising.
What has happened to Oliver Stone? Seems to me he’s been defanged by the JFK backlash. It’s his own fault for making a bad filim that only preaches to the converted.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:42 amLet the guy make the movie and then judge it. I don’t agree with the Clinton bashing, but from what I’ve seen and read this might actually be a good movie.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:46 amWhat’s the big deal, Clinton or Bush? Bush maintains he doesn’t even think about bin Laden.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:50 amIs this really accurate?:
“The movie is to be based on a book, also called “Jawbreaker,†that blames the Clinton administration for failing to capture Bin Laden and praises President Bush:”
Everything I’ve read or heard (I haven’t read it myself) about Jawbreaker is that it blames the Bush administration for failing to capture Bin Laden when they had the chance at Tora Bora.
Here are some quotes from reviewers of the book:
“Only at the very end of the book do we find that second guessing on the part of the White House or Pentagon may have cost us the opportunity to kill Bin Laden at the end of the Afghan war. ”
“Berntsen describes how they let Osama Bin Laden escape and … we still haven’t caught him…”
Now, I don’t doubt that Nowrseteh could twist this around to suit his agenda, but the book Jawbreaker doesn’t really seem to blame Clinton based on what I’ve read about it…
October 16th, 2006 at 11:51 am#40 “White House or Pentagon may have cost us the opportunity to kill Bin Laden at the end of the Afghan war. â€
Wow, I’m sure glad the Afghan war is over. That reviewer must have got his information from Rove.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:59 amWho do they really think they are fooling anymore? The pathetic, pathological, 10% of Americans that would literaly follow the Neocons into hell?
Nobody with any brains believes this non-sense anymore.
Tuesday, Bush signs into ‘law’ the military commisions act, that effectively neuters the Bill of Rights. If you cannot grasp the connection between the usurpation of our Civil liberties and the catalyst (911), then I feel sorry for you. You are in for a very short, sharp, shock.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:03 pmWhen is this moving going to come out? Not sure if it’s a good thing to be touting the elusiveness of OBL. It doesn’t matter which admin. did a worse job in catching him. He’s still not caught. Why show the extreme Islamic elements a rallying cry for their cause?
The finger can be pointed all day long. The bottom line is OBL has not been caught. I don’t think this is a good idea.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:19 pmReady for 2008. This is not a coincidence.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:23 pmBush didn’t send the Special Forces into Tora Bora at the final push to capture OBL, because Clinton would have.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:26 pmHellinahandbasket: I suspect that “extreme Islamic elements” already know that Osama attacked the greatest millitary power in the history of the world and is still running free, (Thank you Mr. Bush) but that’s not their rallying cry now. Right now the rallying cry is IRAQ. (Thanks again Mr. Bush.)
October 16th, 2006 at 12:36 pmThey’ll show it at the 2008 wake for the Republican party.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:42 pmWasn’t Cyrus Nowresteh’s last project a commercial failure? Does he have any successes under his belt?
Or is Stone hiring a real writer and Cyrus Nowresteh is the “official” writer to get publicity?
October 16th, 2006 at 12:46 pmCyrus Nowresteh should change his name to Cyrus Nowtrash. It’s a lot easier to spell.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:56 pmWhy do you call that trashy piece of libel a docudrama?
October 16th, 2006 at 1:02 pm[…] Maybe it’s a kind of tit-for-tat after someone made a whole TV series out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but now we have The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden, by our favorite TV series writer. Oh, God. […]
October 16th, 2006 at 1:16 pmThe executive producer of Path to 911 is Marc Platt, is an avowed liberal activist and a Democrat. Why doesn’t Judd attack him? As executive producer he certainly had more say in the production of Path to 911.
Why ignore this? Because it doesn’t fit with your argument. More transparent lying by ommission from TP.
Comment by memphis minnie — October 16, 2006 @ 11:07 am
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the producer just makes sure the actors act, the sets are constructed, and all of the managerial stuff gets handled. He makes sure the story he’s given gets told. The writer is the one that directs where the story goes, and is ultimately responsible for the fact checking.
From the actual story, since you seem not to have read it:
Cyrus Nowrasteh, whose most recent credit was the controversial ABC miniseries “The Path to 9/11,†is set to write a second draft of “Jawbreaker.â€
Nowrasteh is the one deciding the direction of the story, so of course the emphasis is on him. Your redirection is nonsensical when you take into account the structure of how productions like these are created.
October 16th, 2006 at 1:25 pmSorry to distract, but Lieberman/Lamont (and some other guy) are debating live right now:
http://www.nbc30.com/video/9433345/index.html
October 16th, 2006 at 1:31 pmHas any president in American history ever blamed so much on his predecessor as Bush?
By the way, Stone’s “World Trade Center” was most definitely partisan: At the end, Stone attempts to portray the invasion of Iraq as a legitimate response to 9/11.
BigCynic.com
Why Bush won’t attack North Korea–but Iran may still have “freedom” in its future
October 16th, 2006 at 1:38 pmWhat are we worried about? It’s sure to suck.
October 16th, 2006 at 1:39 pmAh yes, Cyrus Nowrasteh — a proud product of the Madison, WI public schools. One more reason Madison is always characterized as “x square miles surrounded by reality” (though usually this is a swipe at the city’s alleged liberalism). The question is, what is x?
October 16th, 2006 at 2:22 pmSo now Oliver Stone is part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy becuase he’s not toting your company line?
October 16th, 2006 at 2:23 pmMaybe we could suggest to Oliver a little fact-checking before he begins production on a given scene.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:38 pmRelax people. I’ve worked with Oliver Stone, our kids went to the same grammar and high school, and I know the guy. There’s no way he makes a film complimentary to the right wing.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:43 pmSimply said, “Americans love to buy into lies”. It’s a simple sell. Now, that’s American, these days.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:43 pmThis is Cyrus attempt to regain his credibility, and claim that what he writes is “balanced.” Plus he may need the dough to cover himself from the impending slander and defamation suits.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:52 pmtwobuns #57
These days…
…either you’re with us…
…or “ag’in” us…
…REALLY…
October 16th, 2006 at 3:32 pmThis should be a short flick… sadist Bush gave up hunting for Osama within a year after 9/11. Or maybe this is another opportunity to blame President Clinton. Personally, I think President Clinton was responsible for the war of 1812… it’s all his fault.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:42 pmWell, they wanted a complete fiction writer didn’t they, considering that the “hunt†was completely fictitious to begin with, right?
Bill - you are absolutely right about that. Wonder if there will be any history about how daddy Bush helped to provide weapons to Osama.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:46 pmHoward Dean…
I wasn’t a Deaniac. Wesley Clark was more my type of candidate, as he had a long term plan to rehabilitate much of the country’s educational, manufacturing and electrical infrastructure among many other ideas. But in one debate Dean stunned me. He wa…
October 16th, 2006 at 3:47 pmStone’s got some ’splaining to do.
I saw Stone and David Corn speak here in Los Angeles a year or two ago, and Stone was BY FAR the more alert to the situation, while Corn was still fostering the supposed justification for the illegal Iraq invasion.
Stone seemed to be aware of the facts — but since that time, maybe Bill Clinton convinced him to hide his shame in a sheepskin like Bill does.
Either that, or they killed his poodle and left the head in his bed.
Other people are taking risks in the streets protesting this bs, but Stone is apparently too busy making money on LIES.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:51 pmTry reading Berntsen’s book before you make inaccurate claims. Gary is quite clear that the failure to capture Bin Laden happened under George Bush and was a direct consequence of Tommy Franks and Dell Dailey refusing to deploy a blocking force to Tora Bora. For Christ’s sake, get your facts right.
October 16th, 2006 at 4:12 pmWell it wasn’t a surprise that Paramount would hire this scumbag to write more fiction to blame Clinton but what shock me is that Oliver Stone is connected to this. “JFK” is one of my favorite movies of all time, this is heart breaking to hear Stone wants to be part of this. Sumner Redstone (Head Of Parmount & Viacom) sided with President Bush when Dan Rather reported that Bush avoided serving his country during the Vietnam War. Redstone is scum.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:39 pmI took tennis lessons from his brother, back when he and Cyrus were staying in Madison… I don’t recall the family notifying me that I’d be forever linked to a total douchebag (his brother was a really nice guy and a good tennis coach, for the record).
October 16th, 2006 at 6:17 pmGosh, I hope they can slap it together for viewing by November 5th.
October 16th, 2006 at 6:42 pmThat way we have a twofer, Hussein’s unpredictable sentence and this instant classic.
this guy’s just over-compensating for his freaky looking lips!
October 16th, 2006 at 8:17 pmI just love how liberals think making a movie about the assassination is ok but just let someone make a docudrama about the truth behind 9/11 and all hell breaks loose!
October 16th, 2006 at 9:11 pmthis guy’s just over-compensating for his freaky looking lips!
October 16th, 2006 at 9:12 pmJudd quotes:
Bernsten details feeling stymied by bureaucrats in President Bill Clinton’s administration who prevented operatives from engaging a growingly malicious Al Qaeda and Bin Laden presence.
Correct. Jawbreaker criticises Clinton’s insistance on requiring the CIA to come up with “jury-proof” evidence of guilt before he would respond to terrorist attacks.
As you made many, many references to following Clinton’s Fox news interview, Clinton pointed out the FBI did not certify that al Qaeda was behind the Cole attack until Feb-01. This however doesn’t change the fact that th Cole attack was a successful 2nd attempt at the same attack that al Qaeda attempted to carry out earlier and that intel knew an al Qaeda attack was pending the week it occurred.
By the same standard of proof the Lebanese would still be waiting for confirmation on who flattened all their buildings in July…. after Israel said they were going to flatten them and their first attempt failed.
This is a valid criticism.
You will note that it stops short of the criticism other CIA officers have levelled, particularly in regard to decisions not to kill OBL due to policial fall out and hurting relations with “friendly” princes who happened to be hanging out with OBL at the time.
Would you feel differently about the Bush administration’s failure to pull the trigger on OBL in Tora Bora if it was because some Pakistani officials were with him at the time and he didn’t want to kill these “friends” ?
Because that’s why Clinton is criticised.
While Bernsten describes how he and his cohorts were stunningly told to stand down when they had Bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora, he writes approvingly of President George W. Bush’s handling of the invasion.
Yes he does fault one aspect of that campaign and praise the other. This is because the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
The same could be said about Iraq in that the invasion was planned and executed very well but the post-invasion wasn’t planned at all and executed horrifically badly.
If your brain cannot comprehend both aspects of assessments such as these then it can’t. That’s your problem though, not Bernsten’s.
The invasion of Afghanistan and overthrow of the Taliban was one of the stand-out successes of US forces in the past century and Bush deserves absolute credit for deciding to task this to the CIA instead of the military.
The evidence of this success being reinforced by the examples of successful vs unsuccessful post-invasion operations of special forces vs army infantry in Iraq in regard to working with local inhabitants to stem off a domestic insurgency.
On the other hand, the chain of command and the specific tactical decisions which held back resources in Tora Bora which had a solid bead on OBL should indeed see the same criticism that Clinton’s chain of command has seen for doing the same thing in the same country during the 90’s.
One wonders why Judd of Thinkprogress decided to single out these assessments to inform his readers of who Bernsten is.
These assessments are quite easily understood, undeniable and salient assessments of US executive successes and failures in addressing Islamic militants from a man who has spent a couple of decades dedicating his life to that task rather than a political party or ideology.
The only way this makes any sense is if Judd assumes his readers don’t know or care enough about this history to simply misinterpret these assessments as contradictory or ideologically based.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:31 amOr more likely, that he needs assume nothing and knows that questioning what they are told to think, isn’t something Thinkprogress readers do.
Nowresteh,
October 17th, 2006 at 10:50 amKeep telling the truth my friend!
“I just love how liberals think making a movie about the assassination is ok but just let someone make a docudrama about the truth behind 9/11 and all hell breaks loose! ”
Comment by Jay — October 16, 2006 @ 9:11 pm
Couldn’t of said it better myself! :^)
October 17th, 2006 at 3:50 pmThis is very much in keeping with Stone’s history, since he’s always been fond of the whacked-out conspiracy theory.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:48 pmWell, we can all show Oliver what we think of that.
By never again watching his films.
And telling him why via email.
I sure will.
October 17th, 2006 at 9:55 pm[…] Cyrus Nowresteh, who wrote ABC’s controversial docudrama "Path to 9/11," has been hired by Paramount to write the script for a movie about the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The book Nowresteh is using as the basis for the script, like Path to 9/11, blames Clinton and praises President Bush.read more | digg story […]
October 18th, 2006 at 10:40 am[…] Paramount Hires Path to 9/11 Writer For Movie On ‘The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden’ Cyrus Nowresteh wrote ABC’s docudrama “The Path to 9/11.â€Â Norwresteh maintained the movie was “an objective telling of the events of 9/11.” But his script contained several glaring inaccuracies, all of which shifted blame to the Clinton administration. Nearly 100,000 people contacted ABC to protest the film. Now Paramount Pictures and Oliver Stone have signed up Norwresteh to write another movie about 9/11. The movie is to be based on a book, also called “Jawbreaker,†that blames the Clinton administration for failing to capture Bin Laden and praises President Bush […]
October 18th, 2006 at 8:58 pm[…] Page Summary: Create the controversy before the movie even goes into production. The pathetic, pathological, 10% of Americans that would literaly follow the Neocons into hell?Nobody with any brains believes this non-sense anymore. The writer is the one that directs where the story goes, and is ultimately responsible for the fact checking. Your redirection is nonsensical when you take into account the structure of how productions like these are created.read more | digg story […]
October 27th, 2006 at 7:15 am