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Doug Liman Jumps Into Real-Life Spy Story? Who’s Playing Valerie Plame For Him?

Published at:  Feb 13, 2008 5:38:36 AM CST



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  • Feb 13, 2008 5:49:01 AM CST

    Let's hope it's better than Mr & Mrs Smith

    by kwisatzhaderach

    Boy, that movie sucked. It was basically a crapola version of True Lies.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 6:41:16 AM CST

    snakes on a motherfuckin plame

    by holodigm

    this'll probably be just as stupid

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 7:00:13 AM CST

    DO FLASH INSTEAD!

    by messi

    This guy needs to do The Flash. A dual story with Barry Allen and Wally West. This guy has the visual skill to bring the Fastest man alive...alive. Not some hack who did Fred Claus.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 7:13:42 AM CST

    Does anyone else get the impression...

    by knuckleduster

    ... that Liman really regrets not doing the Bourne sequels and is now desperately trying to kickstart a new franchise. First Mr & Mrs Smith, and now that awful-looking Jumper movie. Go back to low-budget filmmaking, Doug. The money's not so good, but at least you'll get your pride back.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 7:29:37 AM CST

    The Valerie Plame Story?

    by kevinwillis.net

    Is this a TV movie? Or do some Hollywood producers want to throw some money into a toilet, then flush. It's gonna be pure agitprop, and boring, besides. They haven't shot a frame of film, and I'll bet dollars to donuts both those things are true.
    Yawn.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 8:38:42 AM CST

    Does this mean that Eddy Murphy...

    by blind albino penguins

    will play Bush? I mean, he's already played an undercover white guy on SNL and a jewish guy in Coming to America. The next step is obviously to play the president. Hell, he'd be more believable than the one we have now...

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 8:41:20 AM CST

    I want to see a GW Bush biopic...

    by richard cranium

    But only if it's done in the form of a slapstick comedy.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 8:46:42 AM CST

    The true Plame story is a joke

    by gboybama

    Her status as covert desk jockey is a joke. Joe Wilson's overblown report that nobody in D.C. gave a crap about from day one is a joke. Her name was mentioned in an off the record conversation that alluded to the fact that the only reason Wilson was even sent on his fact finding trip was that his wife hooked him up with the gig. Another joke, much discussed at D.C. cocktail parties long before the dreaded leak. So, these are the issues at stake for the film. I'm sure after a Hollywood treatment, these two insignificant blips will look like martyrs to freedom and justice. Yeah, right. And who better to play Plame than the perpetually dour and self-important Kidman?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:26:31 AM CST

    Should have gotten Virginia Madsen.

    by christopher3

    There's a better resemblance between the two.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:32:31 AM CST

    Where does Shaky-Cam figure in?

    by abin sur

    It's not like Plame was some covert ninja or anything...this is going to have to be embellished to make it interesting.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:36:23 AM CST

    Oh, and Nevahagin, you're an idiot.

    by abin sur

    Alquaida? It's not a Mexican restaurant.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:45:30 AM CST

    Al-qaeda, Abin Sur

    by norrinrad

    is hard to spell, give him a break. Also, if it were a Mecican restaurant, I bet it'd be good.

    On topic: this movie will be exagerrated for dramatic effect, and anyone who actually knows the story should and probably will be pissed off.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:51:47 AM CST

    www.aint-it-liberal-propaganda.com

    by uss cygnus

    I'm going to laugh my ass off when John McCain is elected.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:56:53 AM CST

    no, Alquaida is a Mexican sports drink

    by just pillow talk

    Who's the idiot now Abin Sur?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 10:49:48 AM CST

    Zachary Quinto AS BIN LADEN

    by redfive!

    AND BRIAN COX AS DICK CHANEY.Plus you could have Jaleel White as Barak Obama.That would rule.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 11:00:50 AM CST

    Brian Cox...

    by blind albino penguins

    I can actually see him pulling off Cheney. For the last ten years, that's all he's been playing really; sweaty corrupt administation types. Just look at the Bourne series.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 11:09:09 AM CST

    This will either be complete fiction or completely boring

    by skinjob69

    There is not much story to tell in the Plame incident, so this film is going to either be a) the most boring film in ages, or b) have more 'embellishments' than a Michael Moore film. The truth on screen would be too damn boring. And yes, she was just a desk jockey. And her husband 'outed' Valerie to friends regularly, so the whole scandal (and this movie) are based on a bullshit, no substance media flail.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 11:16:44 AM CST

    Plus, Mrs. Plame aint no Nicole Kidman- f'ing Hollywood fantasy

    by skinjob69

  • Feb 13, 2008 11:24:05 AM CST

    Next Up: Scarlett Johansen plays Cindy Sheehan!!

    by skinjob69

  • Feb 13, 2008 11:45:34 AM CST

    Pillow Talk...

    by abin sur

    Touche. Oh, and Cygnus? McCain's as big a lib as Obama and Clinton - "tough on defense" does not make a conservative candidate. Sam Nunn is from my great state, and you could not find someone on either side of the aisle more attuned to the need for a strong U.S. military.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 12:13:06 PM CST

    Recipe for box office toxin

    by bswise

    Mix one fascinating, ripped-from-the-headlines story with a handful of contemporary political satire nuggets; sautee with chunks of dynamic slumming director and filet of fetching aussie actress on a losing streak; stir in a teaspoon of sorkin, a pinch of nichols, and a dash of redford for that sundance flavor; serve half-baked, trimmed to 83 minutes and slathered with spielberg sauce.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 12:26:56 PM CST

    If they've got to use an Aussie actress...

    by abin sur

    ...at least use Naomi Watts. Geez.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 12:51:54 PM CST

    Who Is Kidman Sleeping With?

    by colier rannd

    Someone has to ask this at this point. I mean, how many of her movies have failed at the box office now? I mean, the ones she's heavily starred in? I think "The Others" was her last hit and that was how long ago? Correct me if I'm wrong.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:26:43 PM CST

    Please Harry, try to stick with geek movie news that are not so

    by straighttohell

    And WeinerPenis is a genius. Lets separate the story from the partisan nonsense, huh? Let me ask you something, have you read anything about this non-story that did not come from the batshit-crazy MSM? And I'm not talking about left or right here, though it's painfully obvious which side you're coming from. I'm just talking straight facts here. Like the fact that Plame was working the desk at CIA for years when she was "outed" and couldn't have been a more visible employee of the company if she arrived at work while firing her six-shooters up in the air every morning. Her husband, who has been proven time and again to be a compulsive liar, was sent (again, without any covert status) to report on something that most people already new only because of the pull she had with the agency. All of his work was highly visible and none of it was classified.

    So, at what point does the "outing" come in here? The Bush administration decided to teach this couple a lesson for reporting something that wasn't all that much of a secret in the first place? And over information that was about as devastating to the White House as most of Sean Penn's incoherent op-ed pieces?

    And how exactly could they jeopardize the status of an CIA agent who was not even a part of any covert operations, other than making copies and filing memos?

    Perhaps, if anybody would like to make a movie about someone who actually DID blow the cover of hundreds of covert agents, resulting in many of them being executed by the enemy as a result, why not maybe like make a movie about Philip Agee (who finally had the decency to die last month) and his brave stand against security of this country? I'm sure the socialism-loving turks in Hollywood would jump at the chance.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:28:08 PM CST

    Mohammed Was A Butt-Fucking Pedophile

    by straighttohell

    Dude, I so did not see that before I posted. I guess great minds think alike, huh?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:31:15 PM CST

    Mohammed Was A Butt-Fucking Pedophile

    by straighttohell

    About WeinerPenis saying lets be non-partisan and then being completely biased.....

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:46:40 PM CST

    Valerie Plame was a Covert Agent

    by kevinwillis.net

    That developed a front company that only did one thing, as far as I know: donate to Al Gore's presidential campaign. Was that news? Nah, boring, who cares. Will that be in the movie? Hah! Will this movie tank, irrespective of the politics? You betcha."Lions for Lambs" will look like box-office gold next to this direct-to-DVD stinkbomb. Even if the story was true, we watched the frickin' news. We got the MSMs side of the story. Even if it told the true story of two media whores basking the uncritical attention of a sycophantic press, it would still be boring. They'll tatoo an American Flag on the actor playing Joe Wilson's head and wrap Nicole Kidman in a flag and play the Pledge of Allegiance through the whole thing and there will be a dramatic part where every covert agent on the planet gets brutally murdered be white extremists, thanks to Plame's outing.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:49:46 PM CST

    Didn't Valerie Plame play Miss Tessmacher in Superman?

    by abin sur

    I knew she sounded familiar!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 1:55:06 PM CST

    The True Plame Story is Fascinating

    by kevinwillis.net

    Because the partisan divide is so clear. As a rock ribbed conservative, it appears to me the lefties are swallowing something that is so irrational, inconsistent, and logic-defying that they'd batter it mercilessly, it were a comic book movie. Yet, clearly the lefties view the Plame story as an outrageous injustice perpetrated by a retarded monkey with designs on a theological dictatorship for America (and war against everyone else). Or some variation on that theme. And the folks who look at the Plame scandal and say (what is, to me, the obvious): they engineered this themselves. That entire thing was a set-up. The only "outing" happened due to the uproar of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, whoring for media time and glossy magazine spreads. And those folks aren't interested in why Wilson's report wasn't consistent with his editorial, why his editorial wasn't submitted for vetting to the CIA, how he ended up getting assigned the mission by his wife's department, their long record of Democratic activism, the company front set up by the CIA exclusively to donate money to Democratic political campaigns, Plame's long-term status as a desk jockey, and on and on and on. All of it screams: media whores! Not even partisan hacks, media whores!
    Never the less, it makes a fascinating story--not in the least due to the incredulity with which partisans on the left accept unsubstantiated assertions and deny glaring inconsistencies and omissions--but it would still be a boring movie. A book length psychological analysis, perhaps. An exciting movie from the director of Mr. and Mrs. Pitt? Um.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 2:01:49 PM CST

    no subject

    by hive mind

    Valerie Plame can be MY undercover operative any time RAWR!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 3:07:41 PM CST

    Kidman needs to put on 30

    by the podosphere

    pounds of amazing curves to play Valerie Plame.

    I agree with Abin Sur about Naomi Watts if you're going Aussie, but really, I also like Virginia Madsen for the role if you're going MILFY and Scarlett Johannsen aged up a bit if you want to go younger. Those two Americans more closely resemble Plame.

    But what do you want to bet they go to Brit Tom Wilkinson for Joe Wilson?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 3:52:13 PM CST

    People talking furiously in offices

    by prossor

    featuring many riveting phone calls! And lots of fancy looking paperwork.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 3:56:13 PM CST

    She was no JamesBond. What a pathetical movie pitch

    by george newman

  • Feb 13, 2008 6:44:23 PM CST

    Nicole Kidman to destroy another movie!

    by skywalkerfamily

    She suuuckss.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 7:58:19 PM CST

    stupidest nonscandal ever

    by troutpencil

    I can't believe those rich Plame assholes got so much sympanthy when they were NOT outed as part of any conspiracy and the whole thing was just a selfserving douchefest. It was all maze of liberal media hyperbole and everyone who published a book on the subject or wrote a scathing article should apologize to the public. George Armitage... for the win.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 8:06:32 PM CST

    one thing that's reliable on AICN

    by badmrwonka

    even though the reliable conservative contingent on this site only makes up about 5% of the talkbacker population, they make well over 50% of the whiny comments about any film project that is in ANY WAY involved in politics.it's like magnetic poetry: liberal, typical, hillary, idiots, gay, stupid, don't, understand, reality, Iraq, pansy, Gore, Obama, libs, wackosnothing is as reliable as the AICN conservative talkbackers.at least USS Cygnus is concise in his rants. for the long-winded faction, we'll always have anchorite and AnimalStructure (although the latter is less of a conservative and more just batshit crazy)

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 8:15:01 PM CST

    troutpencil

    by badmrwonka

    I see you have the magnetic poetry set...congrats

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 13, 2008 9:14:26 PM CST

    Wonka

    by sir loin

    Making fun of the "5%" is fine, but are you able to refute any of it? Anyone can crack jokes about people, so please demonstrate your vast political knowledge on this subject and enlighten us.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 12:04:11 AM CST

    Sir Loin

    by badmrwonka

    if I told you I could fly, and you said, "that is ridiculous, you're an idiot." and I responded, "what? prove I can't fly!"what would you say then? because that's how I feel when "the 5%" say things like, "exposing an undercover CIA operative isn't a big deal, it's just the liberal media making it into a big deal." yeah, that and a congressional hearing...I'll happily argue ideological differences with people, that is ripe for debate and interesting. but you can't argue factually with someone when they have accepted a different version of the facts to begin with. you can't argue for evolution with someone who believes in creation science. they have a fundamentally different idea of what "science" is. (usually whatever they read on imnotamonkey.com) therefore it's a waste of time.much easier to point out the flaws in their tactics. which, in this case, consists of just insulting liberals enough that it seems like they are actually saying something.see how I brought it full circle there? they insult, I insult. and the world keeps spinning. I leave my real debate for people that actually want to discuss something, not just spout nonsense in a talkback so they get some attention. let's be honest, if I went to a mostly republican site and started calling them names, I would be doing it for attention, yeah? how is this different?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 4:53:51 AM CST

    Truth

    by bad lt

    Can't believe the number of posters on here parroting the Bush party line about the case. Here is some truth. Plame worked for a company called Brewster Jennings. This was a CIA front company. They were trying to get to Dr. Khan the Pakistani nuke genius who was selling nuke tech to the highest bidder, including Iran, and even had a meeting with Al Queda. There wasconcern that Turkey was working with Khan. The Brewster Jennings company was pretending to sell nuke to Turkey to penetrate this network and get to Khan. Pretty important goal - to prevent a nuke from going off in an American city. But the neocons had a different agenda. They wanted a war with Iraq - but Brewster Jennings was reporting that Iraq wasn't responding to nuke dangles and wasn't tied to Al Queda - instead it was our "allies" like Turkey and Pakistan that were involved with getting nuke secrets and Khan. So even before the Libby-Rove-Armitage press exposure of Plame, the State Dept number 3 man Marc Grossman, former Clinton era ambassador to Turkey, called a Turkish lobby group an told them that Brewster Jennings was a CIA plant and not to do business with them. This info comes from FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds also says she heard wiretaps showing members of the neocon group, who were involved in outing Plame and faking pre war Iraq intel, were also involved in arms/drug money laundering and selling nuke secrets.Google "Sibel Edmonds" and "Valerie Plame" and "Marc Grossman" and you will get the story. Or see part of it here:

    [url]http://www.amconmag.com/2008/2008_01_28/article1.html[/url]

    Oh and before you throw the "liberal commie traitor charge, this is Pat Buchanan's magazine, the American Conservative.

    I hope the movie deals with these larger issues that relate directly to the Plame case.

    And, who should play Libby? Rove? Cheney?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 5:28:38 AM CST

    More Facts

    by bad lt

    This is from a British newspaper.

    From The UK Sunday TimesJanuary 27, 2008

    Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probeInsight: Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria in Washington
    AN investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department, a former FBI employee has claimed.

    The official is said to have tipped off a foreign contact about a bogus CIA company used to investigate the sale of nuclear secrets.

    The firm, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was a front for Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent. Her public outing two years later in 2003 by White House officials became a cause célèbre.

    The claims that a State Department official blew the investigation into a nuclear smuggling ring have been made by Sibel Edmonds, 38, a former Turkish language translator in the FBI’s Washington field office.



    Edmonds had been employed to translate hundreds of hours of intercepted recordings made during a six-year FBI inquiry into the nuclear smuggling ring.

    She has previously told The Sunday Times she heard evidence that foreign intelligence agents had enlisted US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

    Her latest claims relate to a number of intercepted recordings believed to have been made between the summer and autumn of 2001. At that time, foreign agents were actively attempting to acquire the West’s nuclear secrets and technology.

    Among the buyers were Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Paki-stan’s intelligence agency, which was working with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father of the Islamic bomb”, who in turn was selling nuclear technology to rogue states such as Libya.



    Plame, then 38, was the glamorous wife of a former US ambassador, Joe Wilson. Despite recently giving birth to twins, she travelled widely for her work, often claiming to be an oil consultant. In fact she was a career CIA agent who was part of a small team investigating the same procurement network that the State Department official is alleged to have aided.

    Brewster Jennings was one of a number of covert enterprises set up to infiltrate the nuclear ring. It is is believed to have been based in Boston and consisted of little more than a name, a telephone number and a post office box address.

    Plame listed the company as her employer on her 1999 tax forms and used its name when she made a $1,000 contribution to Al Gore’s presidential primary campaign.

    The FBI was also running an inquiry into the nuclear network. When Edmonds joined the agency after the 9/11 attacks she was given the job of reviewing the evidence.

    The FBI was monitoring Turkish diplomatic and political figures based in Washington who were allegedly working with the Israelis and using “moles” in military and academic institutions to acquire nuclear secrets.



    The creation of this nuclear ring had been assisted, Edmonds says, by the senior official in the State Department who she heard in one conversation arranging to pick up a $15,000 bribe.

    One group of Turkish agents who had come to America on the pretext of researching alternative energy sources was introduced to Brewster Jennings through the Washington-based American Turkish Council (ATC), a lobby group that aids commercial ties between the countries. Edmonds says the Turks believed Brewster Jennings to be energy consultants and were planning to hire them.

    But she said: “He [the State Department official] found out about the arrangement . . . and he contacted one of the foreign targets and said . . . you need to stay away from Brewster Jennings because they are a cover for the government.

    “The target . . . immediately followed up by calling several people to warn them about Brewster Jennings.

    “At least one of them was at the ATC. This person also called an ISI person to warn them.” If the ISI was made aware of the CIA front company, then this would almost certainly have damaged the investigation into the activities of Khan. Plame’s cover would also have been compromised, although Edmonds never heard her name mentioned on the intercepts. Shortly afterwards, Plame was moved to a different operation.

    The State Department official said on Friday: “It is impossible to find a strong enough way to deny these allegations which are both false and malicious.”

    It would be more than two years before Khan was forced to admit he had been selling nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

    In the meantime, the role of Plame and Brewster Jennings became public knowledge in 2003. Plame’s husband, Wilson, wrote a report that undermined claims by President George W Bush that Saddam Hussein’s regime had attempted to buy uranium in Niger – a key justification for the invasion of Iraq.

    The following week Robert Novak, a journalist, revealed that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent. In the scandal that followed, Novak’s sources were revealed to be two senior members of the Bush administration. A third, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was convicted of obstructing the criminal investigation into the affair.

    Phillip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, said: “It’s pretty clear Plame was targeting the Turks. If indeed that [State Department] official was working with the Turks to violate US law on nuclear exports, it would have been in his interest to alert them to the fact that this woman’s company was affiliated to the CIA. I don’t know if that’s treason legally but many people would consider it to be.”

    The FBI denied the existence of a specific case file about any outing of Brewster Jennings by the State Department official, in a response to a freedom of information request. However, last week The Sunday Times obtained a document, signed by an FBI official, showing that the file did exist in 2002.

    Plame declined to comment, saying that she was unable to discuss her covert work at the CIA.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 9:40:22 AM CST

    Valerie Plame was a covert spy...

    by chrisd

    like Austin Powers was a covert spy. But Wilson was right about the yellowcake.
    It would make a great movie, although the facts are almost too incredible to be presented in a movie! The Bush presidency is a parody, but unfortunately all too real. Tom Hanks as Wilson.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 11:00:31 AM CST

    Joe Wilson

    by call7000

    Is the biggest dick in D.C.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Feb 14, 2008 6:30:54 PM CST

    Neocon Shills

    by bad lt

    Mr. MO: Buchanan, who worked in the Nixon and Reagan White Houses, is the publisher of the magazine. Which, by the way, endorsed Republican Ron Paul for President. The article was written by Phillip Giraldi, a career CIA officer. And the Bush Justice Dept. went to court to have Edmonds suit thrown out, NOT because they claimed her allegations were false, but because they said they were TRUE, but still secret and could damage relations with other nations. Did you even bother to read the article, or the one in the (Murdoch owned and conservative) UK Sunday Times? I hope they do make the movie, and I hope it goes beyond just the Plame case and into these areas that are directly related.


    A group of people in the government, involved in laundering arms and drug money, and selling nuclear secrets to foreign governments, should outrage anyone, conservative or liberal. Did you know that in 2001 the Taliban had reduced the opium crop to 70 tons? And last year - with the US, Britain and the puppet Karzai government running things - opium production was at 9,000 tons? The billions of dollars this trade creates has corrupted people - police, military, intelligence agencies, politicians, bankers - in many foreign countries and even our own government. And this drugs/arms network also has ties to Al Queda. Doesn't it bother you that FBI wiretaps reveal both Republican and Democratic government officials and elected leaders as taking payoffs from this network? Why don't you take 10 minutes to read the articles and then tell me what you think.

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