Hollywood snaps up WTC stories

Hollywood film studios are racing each other to buy up the real-life stories from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre .

Tales like the New York fireman who lost his memory in the collapse of the towers and does not know if he is a hero or a coward have grabbed the imagination of studio bosses.

Almost every part of the tragedy, from a former FBI agent who became security chief at the WTC and died in the attack after warning in vain that Osama bin Laden was preparing to attack the United States, is being examined for box office potential.

There are even plans to make a film on the life of former mayor Rudolf Giuliani, with the actor John Malkovich being touted for the title role.

Studios and agents were at first wary of being accused of exploiting the disaster, fearing audiences would turn against them. A number of major films were cancelled or delayed after 11 September, including Collateral Damage, a thriller starring Arnold Schwartzenegger as a fireman whose wife and child are killed in a terrorist blast.

But the surprise success of another film, about a military disaster still fresh in American minds, has changed their view. Black Hawk Down is a graphic account of a disastrous special forces mission in Somalia in 1993 when two helicopters were shot down and 18 marines died in a gun battle with rebel troops. The harrowing film, directed by Britain's Ridley Scott, was released last weekend and shot to the top of the box office ratings, displacing The Lord Of The Rings and taking £23 million.

The industry magazine Variety reports that agents are offering a number of ideas to studios "widely considered untouchable a few months back".

They include the story of firemen Kevin Shea. He awoke in hospital to discover he was the sole member of his watch to survive the disaster, but with no memory about what happened. Since then, he has obsessively searched for clues, fearing that he only escaped because he ran away.

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