Screen Gems Planning Operation Checkmate

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46929

Source: Variety
July 17, 2008


Variety says Screen Gems is looking to be the first out of the gate with a film based on the recent headline-making Colombian hostage rescue.

Operation Checkmate will be told from the point of view of the Colombian military rescuers, who infiltrated the intelligence network of FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others. The final 22 minutes of the film will unfold in real time, depicting the dramatic release as the rescuers tricked the kidnappers into thinking they were a humanitarian group.

L.A.-based Colombian director Simon Brand is in negotiations to direct the film for the Sony genre label.

Operation Checkmate will receive the cooperation of the Colombian government and have access to RCN footage that was never made public.

 

[tzarinna]

Damn, they didn't waste any time.

 

[bullets]

i dont think the timing isnt that bad, its typical hollywood . It wasn't that long after 9/11 that movie studios were making their moves.

 

[Space Moose]

Operation Checkmate!? I was thinking it was some story of an Ex-Green Beret who decides he wants to be a chessmaster after being paralysed or something. Possibly played by Sean Penn.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=48845

It's Checkmate for Jessica Postigo
Source: Variety
September 14, 2008


Screen Gems has set Jessica Postigo to write Operation Checkmate, a drama based on the recent rescue of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), reports Variety.

Simon Brand is directing the drama, which will be produced by Vertigo's Doug Davison and Roy Lee, Anadale Pictures' Sergio Aguero and Alejandro Arango Gomez of Colombia-based RCN-TV.

The film will tell the story of the rescue from the viewpoint of military rescuers who duped FARC and freed 15 hostages, which included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

The plan is to have the final 22 minutes of the rescue unfold in real time.

 

[tzarinna]

The final 22 minutes is a good idea.