David Ignatius Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm still reeling from Body of Lies' remarkable box office flameout. The $70-million, Ridley Scott-directed, heavily-advertised spy thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe opened three weekends ago to third place and 12.8 million dollars, and will struggle to get to $35 million domestic by the end of its theatrical run. What the hell happened? A B-grade Jack Ryan movie with Ben Affleck can make almost four times that, and a film with this sort of pedigree winds up dead on arrival?

The answer, of course, is that The Sum of All Fears isn't the proper point of comparison. Because it turns out that Body of Lies isn't much of a "spy thriller" after all. Writing Part One of this column back in the summer, I mused that Scott and screenwriter William Monahan were going to have a tough time making author David Ignatius's ultra-realistic depiction of CIA grunt work into compelling pop cinema. I was probably right, because they didn't really bother. They responded to the problem by making the film less crackerjack and more political; less exciting, perhaps, but smarter, sadder. In doing so, they threw their lot in with the sorry batch of Iraq War films rather than Jack Ryan. It was a bold choice that resulted in one of the best movies of the year – and a resounding commercial failure.

Politically, Ignatius' novel more or less kept its head down. There was certainly a sense that Roger Ferris, the protagonist played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film, was frustrated with constant, counterproductive interference by his US-stationed superior Ed Hoffman (Crowe), but the subtext of this, if any, was soft: the problem wasn't any systemic defect but rather just that Hoffman was an insufferable micromanager. The book mostly concentrated on the fascinating (albeit not terribly cinematic) nitty-gritty of CIA field work in the Middle East.

I found myself asking one simple question during Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, a well-shot, big-name intelligence thriller that sees Leonardo DiCaprio's CIA man caught up in action in the Middle East -- namely, what is Body of Lies for? I don't mean that in the sense of asking what it supports or believes in -- although, with the film's mix of Hollywood heroics and sneering cynicism, you're certainly left with that question -- but rather in the sense of asking what it is that Body of Lies means to accomplish or communicate. Part of the film feels like an attempt at a sprawling, globe-trotting story of realpolitik and moral complexity, in the mold of Syriana or Scott's own Black Hawk Down; other parts feel like Dolby-pumped slam-bang action, in the mold of Tony Scott's Spy Game or the Bourne Films. And some of Body of Lies feels like a weird, surreal workplace satire, with DiCaprio's on-the-ground intelligence agent fighting, fussing and feuding with his D.C.-based superior Russell Crowe; if you hate having your boss hover over your shoulder second-guessing you, imagine how it feels to have your boss looking over your shoulder second-guessing you from orbit via satellite.

Adapted from David Ignatius' novel by The Departed screenwriter William Monahan, Body of Lies follows DiCaprio's Roger Ferris through a series of run-and-gun intelligence-gathering missions that start in Iraq and travel the globe in the name of penetrating, and breaking, a terror ring operating on a global level. Ferris works for Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe, beefy and drawling), who runs his section of the CIA with a true believer's fervor. Speaking to a group of political staff and elected officials, Hoffman tries to get everyone in line by getting everyone scared: "Our world as we know it is much simpler... to put to an end than you might think." Ed knows that in an age of asymmetrical warfare, America's seemingly unsophisticated opponents have big advantages; you can't tap someone's phone if they don't have one, can't crack their e-mail if it doesn't exist.

Thanks to Bourne, the spy-fi genre is alive and well and every studio is on the lookout for a franchise of their own -- even Disney. Variety reports that super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer (along with the Mouse) has purchased the screen rights to David Ignatius' spy thriller, The Increment. Ignatius is an associate editor for The Washington Post and Increment will be his seventh novel. An adaptation of his 2007 book, Body of Lies, has already finished shooting with Ridley Scott at the helm, and Leonardo DiCaprio starring as a CIA agent hot on the tail of a terrorist.

The Increment centers on a "shadowy, elite group of British undercover intelligence operatives who are conscripted by a CIA agent to help a weapons scientist defect from Iran." Early reviews of the manuscript praised the story, citing the wealth of facts about the CIA and the international intelligence community. But insiders were shocked that Disney would want the property considering the amount of 'hot button' issues in the book, like Islamic politics and an invasion of Iran.

Ignatius' novel has not even been published yet, so it's very early days for the adaptation -- and leaving plenty of time for Disney to water down the story. In the meantime, look for Body of Lies to arrive in theaters on October 8th, 2008.

I'll admit I was surprised as the next person to hear about the possibility of a Leonardo DiCaprio movie that was not being made by Martin Scorsese. Variety has reported that DiCaprio is in talks to star in Body of Lies for Ridley Scott. The film is based on the novel by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, with a story that focuses on a CIA agent who's sent to Amman to work with Jordan's intelligence force in helping to track down an Al Qaeda leader who is planning an attack against America. The script is being adapted by William Monahan who also worked on The Departed, so it looks like DiCaprio could have at least one familiar face around on the film. Monahan has also worked for Scott before as a writer for Kingdom of Heaven and is working with DiCaprio on an American remake of Confessions of Pain.

DiCaprio is still negotiating his deal for the project, since he has a pretty packed schedule to try to fit this in. We have already had word that DiCaprio was re-uniting with his Titanic co-star Kate Winslet in the Sam Mendes film Revolutionary Road, and talks are still in progress for Scorsese and DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street (among their other project ideas.) Luckily Scott is still scouting locations in the US and in the Middle East, so Leo has some time to figure out his schedule for the next year or so.

Given the success of Syriana and the ubiquity of the Middle East in the news, it's no surprise that big studios have recently acquired a pair of projects set in that region. Oddly, Ridley Scott's fingerprints (as well as those of novelist David Ignatius) are all over both of them. The first - described by Variety as "a high priority for [Paramount]" - is The Invisible World, which Scott will direct. The film is based on a treatment by Ignatius which grew into Dana Stevens' screenplay and may prove to be a bit touchy, given that its story revolves around the kidnapping of a female journalist in Iraq.

The second project is in Warner Brothers' hands, and is at a much earlier stage of development. The studio has acquired the rights to Penetration, a novel by Ignatius about "a CIA operative's attempt to track a high-ranking terrorist in Jordan." The hope at Warners is that Scott will direct the film, once a screenplay is completed.