George Clooney Buys Film Rights to Hamdan Story
Hollywood superstar George Clooney secured movie rights to tell the story of Osama bin Laden’s personal driver Salim Hamdan, who was convicted last week of aiding terrorism and sentenced to 5½ years.
If the movie gets made by Clooney’s production company, Smokehouse, it could be a controversial effort, the Los Angeles Times blog Top of the Ticket reports.
Smokehouse bought the Hamdan story via book rights from journalist Jonathan Mahler, author of The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power, a purportedly sympathetic portrayal of Hamdan and his years-long detention at Guantanamo Bay.
Reports are that Clooney is interested in playing the role of Hamdan’s Navy lawyer, Charles Swift.
More on lawyers in the movies in this month’s ABA Journal cover, “The 25 Greatest Legal Movies.”
