Adil Najam
I am not making this up. If I were, I might have chosen different actors!
One of my all-time favorite books on Pakistan — Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile (see ATP review of book)– is being turned into a Hollywood movie and has a star-studded crew at its helm.
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.
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 Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and the then Honorary Consul General of Pakistan in Houston.
Aaron Sorkin, the Emmy-winning writer for the hit NBC series “The West Wing” has put together the script, and Hanks himself and Gary Goetzman are the producers.
The book is an absolutely brilliant and riveting account, described on its cover as “the extraordinary story of the largest covert operation in history” and Dan Rather was exactly right in saying that “Tom Clancy’s fiction pales in comparison with the amazing, mesmerizing story told by George Crile.”
According to an earlier story in Variety:
Tom Hanks will star for Universal in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” an Aaron Sorkin-scripted drama about a rogue Texas congressman…. 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. Wilson is now a D.C. lobbyist… Hanks and Goetzman optioned the book by “60 Minutes” producer George Crile in 2003 and set Sorkin to write right after he completed his run on NBC drama “The West Wing.”
Universal Studios has tentatively set September 15, 2006, as the production start date, and expects to release it in 2007.
I, for one, will wait anxiously for the release of the movie and hope that it does justice to the book. But what I am really dying to find out is who will play the roles of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and Gen. Akhtar Abdul Rahman; both of whom are, of course, key characters in the story.
What I’d like to know is: who’s going to play General Zia in this movie!?!? Will they recruit Sayed Jaffery from India, with slicked back hair & exaggerated dark circles under his eyes?
And, yes, one has to ask: will their be any light shed on the rumors of an affair between General Zia & Joanne Herring?
I look foward to the movie. It was a great book. I knew Charlie Wilson and he was a genuine character who did indeed LOVE Pakistan! Joanne Herring was also a rather interesting figure.
Absolutely beautiful and another person who did indeed LOVE Pakistan, above and beyond the call of duty as Honorary Consul General.
Barry Hoffman, Hon. Consul General, Boston
Bilal, the book was also not billed as being about Pakistan — which is why less Pakistanis have read it than should (since it is such an insightful and informative commentary of such an important part of our history). The movie will obviously be also more about teh Congressman and his very colorful ways… but there is no way it can miss Pakistan becasue that is the setting… At least in the book, Pakistan does not come out looking great, but it is a fair and honest description of events… that is all I wish for the movie too.
Lets hope Tom Hanks does better than his work the DaVinci Code. Interesting ot note how Variety dosn’t mention Pakistan. Will the PR campaign for the movie include rferences to Pakistan. Lets hope its not another Black Hawk Down.
Nice site but I find it somewhat skewed. Or is it my outlook?