 OCT 18 - Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile is
being turned into a Hollywood movie and has a star-studded
crew at its helm.
It's still not known who will play the roles of Gen.
Zia-ul-Haq and Gen. Akhtar Abdul Rahman; both of whom are
the key characters in the story. But, multiple Academy Award
winner Tom Hanks has signed on to play the lead role of the
colorful Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who was pivotal
in creating and sustaining US support for Pakistan during
the Afghanistan war.
Because of Wilson's role in the Soviet's defeat in
Afghanistan, he was declared an "Honorable Colleague" of the
CIA, an award never before given anyone outside the service.
Julia Roberts, also an Academy Award winner is slated to
play the role of Joanne Herring, a right-wing Houston
socialite who was a close friend and confidant of President
Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and the then Honorary Consul General of
Pakistan in Houston.
The book tells, to quote the book jacket - "the
extraordinary story of the largest covert operation in
history." Someone rightly says "Tom Clancy's fiction pales
in comparison with the amazing, mesmerizing story told by
George Crile."
Hanks will play a congressman whose penchant for booze and
women earned him the nickname Good Time Charlie. He watched
his political career almost go down the drain in the early
1980s when he was caught in a hot tub tryst with two
cocaine-sniffing showgirls in Las Vegas. He survived the
scandal and ended up overseeing the largest and most
successful covert CIA operation in history; his efforts to
fund resistance fighters in Afghanistan hastened the fall of
the Iron Curtain.
Universal Studios has tentatively set its release in 2007. |
