Sony Pictures acquires bin Laden film for winter 2012

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LOS ANGELES — “The Hurt Locker” team of director
Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have found a home for their
new film centered on the mission that ultimately captured and killed
Osama bin Laden. Sony Pictures has acquired the U.S. distribution rights
to the movie, which will begin filming late this summer. The studio
intends to release the movie in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Bigelow and Boal, who walked away from the 2010
Academy Awards with seven Oscars for their film on an elite Army bomb
squad in Iraq, have been working the bin Laden project since 2008 and
plan to include the recent events of the last month into the film.
Australian actor Joel Edgerton is negotiating to play one of the Navy
SEALS involved in the mission.

Says Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures
Entertainment, “With the death of Osama bin Laden, this film could not
be more relevant. Kathryn and Mark have an outstanding perspective on
the team that was hunting the most wanted man in the world.”

Bigelow and Boal will produce the project with
Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison and executive producer Greg Shapiro
(“The Hurt Locker”).

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