valerie plame Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, Erik got Nicole Kidman right as the actress who will play Valerie Plame, outed CIA agent, in the upcoming biopic, but it looks like director Doug Liman has other ideas for Joe Wilson, her husband -- the man who wrote the famous op-ed piece "What I Didn't Find in Africa." It's not Richard Gere. Instead, Liman talked with MTV and says that he wants Russell Crowe for the role.

His reasoning: "If you've met Joe, he's a really strong guy. I've never met an actor stronger than Russell Crowe." Liman goes on to say: "It's the Valerie Plame story, but you wouldn't know it when Joe's around. I met with [Russell] for Bourne Identity, and I was terrified. The whole time I was in the room with him I was just scared of him. This is a scary dude! And Joe is kind of like that."

Russell would definitely need to clean up and be aged a bit for the gig, but I guess he could pull it off. However, I wonder if Liman is focusing too much on the scary aspect. Strong and terrifying aren't really the same thing. But we're in a movie world where Josh Brolin is Dubya, so anything is possible.

Back when I first wrote about the planned Valerie Plame biopic, I said that I expected Nicole Kidman to be an immediate frontrunner to play Plame. And -- whaddya know -- today MTV Movies Blog found out the actress has, indeed, landed the part. Not only that, but they found out from the man directing the film -- none other than Doug Liman. Oh yes. It's on! Last March, Warner Bros. snagged the life rights for Plame and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson after "someone" outed Plame as a CIA agent following an op-ed piece in the New York Times her husband wrote in which he attacked the Bush administration. Hmmm ...

Liman admitted that Kidman was supposed to star in Mr. and Mrs. Smith as the latter, and that "we owe a movie together. That's an unrequited thing between me and an actor where I fell in love with them for a role and never get to consummate it." On how he plans to tell the highly-publicized story (remember "Scooter" Libby?), Liman said, "I have a really, really insane take on how to tell it. It's so outrageous. Ultimately, I'd be doing something no one has ever done before. Therefore it's automatically appealing to me. I'm just starting to explore whether [what I have in mind] is even possible to do." There's been no official announcement yet; last we heard the studio was jumping through some hoops in order to get this on the big screen, but it certainly appears as if it's moving along just fine. Doug Liman and Nicole Kidman? Next up, my prediction for Wilson is going to Richard Gere. What do you think about that pairing ... for this story?

I'm excited enough that Rod Lurie is returning to politics with Nothing but the Truth, a film loosely associated with the story of Valerie Plame. But I'm becoming more excited that it will feature a wide range of talented actors, from Kate Beckinsdale to Alan Alda to Matt Dillon to Vera Farmiga to David Schwimmer to Edie Falco to Harry Lennix to the just-announced Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Basset and Wyle join the ensemble as supportive figures. Bassett is to play editor-in-chief to Beckinsdale's reporter and Wyle is to play the lawyer defending Beckinsdale's character, who ends up in jail for not revealing a source.

More than 13 years after being nominated for an Oscar (for What's Love Got to Do with It), I'm happy to see Bassett getting more meaty roles. In addition to this part, which will probably be too small to garner too much recognition, she is set to star opposite Don Cheadle as the titular wife in the biopic Toussaint, and she's sure to be seen by millions and millions in Tyler Perry's next movie, Meet the Browns. Wyle, too, is deserving of making his mark on the big screen now that he's done playing Dr. Carter on E.R. Coming up for him is a father role in the 1963-set coming-of-age film Boy of Pigs and his directorial debut, a romantic comedy titled Prince Test.

The interesting thing about Nothing but the Truth is it somewhat seems to combine Lurie's The Contender (possibly my favorite political film ever), which also focused on a woman under heavy scrutiny, and his recent box office disappointment Resurrecting the Champ, which similarly dealt with the world of journalism. For the sake of this great cast, I hope Nothing but the Truth is closer to the success level of the former.

In just over a month, Rod Lurie is Resurrecting the Champ, he has got a remake of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs on the way and now he's gearing up to direct another script of his -- something more like The Contender and less like raping violence. The film is called Nothing but the Truth (get the reference?), and it's a drama about a Washington D.C.-based female reporter who outs a CIA agent and is sent to prison for not revealing her source. Now that should definitely sound familiar -- the film is paralleling the case of Valerie Plame, whose CIA agent status was exposed after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an opinion piece that criticized the Bush administration.

While the cast has not been finalized, a number of actors are in talks -- a collection of which would make a sweet pot of political drama. If all of the talks work out -- Kate Beckinsale would be the journalist, Matt Dillon would step up as the prosecutor, Vera Farmiga would be the CIA agent, Edie Falco would be the editor of the paper that publishes the story and as a wonderful cherry to the selection, Alan Alda would play the attorney trying to free Beckinsale from jail. That's more than enough to hook me, and I'd love to see more serious Beckinsale, free from the action and thrills. The question that remains -- will we get a commutation-gathering Scooter Libby in a sequel?

By now, I'm sure you've all heard the names Valerie Plame and Ambassador Joseph Wilson; Plame was outed as a CIA agent by White House officials following an op-ed piece in the New York Times written by her husband, Wilson, in which he attacked the Bush administration for manipulating intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the current Iraq invasion. It's juicy stuff -- and now that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is on trial defending accusations that he lied to FBI agents investigating the leak -- Warner Bros. has decided to snag the life rights of Plame and Wilson for -- you guessed it -- a delicious Hollywood movie.

Ah, but here's the catch: studio wants to use Plame's upcoming memoir Fair Game for the film, however before it's published the CIA has to approve. As Variety points out, it's ironic that the same government who outed her -- threatening the safety of herself and her family -- can also prevent her from telling the story. Set up as a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Zucker Productions, producers Jerry and Janet Zucker feel there's more than enough scandal currently out in the media that, while the memoir would be added incentive, it's not a make or break situation. But is it worthy of the big screen treatment? The last two CIA-related pics to hit theaters, The Good Shepherd and Breach, barely made a dent at the box office; these days, it seems folks want their CIA agents to shoot bad guys and blow things up, while bedding a number of beautiful women. Has real life become too boring? Jez and John Butterworth will pen the script, having just completed work on Spike Lee's James Brown biopic, Superbad.

I'd like to think pic's box office draw will rely heavily on its cast, but De Niro had Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie for Shepherd, yet the film still didn't attract a mass audience. I immediately expect Nicole Kidman or Diane Lane to be a frontrunners for Plame, and perhaps Richard Gere for Wilson -- but is this material worthy of a Hollywood picture or more made-for-TV?