This sounds pretty fantastic:
Christopher Plummer, who could walk away with the first Oscar of his long career in just a few weeks, has closed a deal to star in HBO Films’ Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, which is being directed by Stephen Frears. Frank Langella also is coming on board the movie, which details the legal fight between Ali and the U.S. government when the fighter became a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. Ali was drafted into the Army in 1966 but declined to serve, citing his belief that the war was against the teachings of the Koran. When he appeared at an armed services induction in 1967 and refused to step forward when his name was called, he was arrested. After being found guilty, a series of appeals were fought and the case wound its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 (Clay v United States). Ali persevered, mainly due to the prevailing anti-Vietnam winds, and also managed to throw out provocative lines into the mainstream such as “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me N—–.”
Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan are obviously not perfectly parallel wars, whether it’s the way and the reasons we got into each conflict or the abolition of the draft. But finding an alternate way to discuss the question of Muslim loyalty to the United States and the role of Islam in public life is a really smart thing to do right now. I’ll be fascinated to see how it turns out.
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