August 11, 2011 
Kathryn Bigelow‘s Kill Bin Laden project is generating a fair amount of controversy. Although this was expected for a picture about such a hot-button issue, it looks like it may have ramifications for the Obama administration.
It was reported by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times that Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) had received cooperation from the U.S. government and its defence and intelligence agencies in the writing of the script.
The project had been in the works prior to the announcement of Bin Laden’s assassination by Navy SEAL Team 6. However, Boal rewrote the final act of the picture to feature the dramatic showdown.
New York congressman Peter King is now calling for an investigation into the Obama administration for supposedly leaking classified reports to the filmmakers (Deadline has King’s full letter).
That Kill Bin Laden should arrive in cinemas October 12, 2012 – right amidst President Obama’s run for re-election – is likely only fuelling King’s suspicion of the project’s origins.
Bigelow and Boal released a statement decrying King’s claims:
“Our upcoming film project about the decade long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the dangerous work of finding the world’s most wanted man was carried out by individuals in the military and intelligence communities who put their lives at risk for the greater good without regard for political affiliation. This was an American triumph, both heroic, and non-partisan and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise.”
The White House were more succinct in their dismissal of King, calling his suspicions “ridiculous”.
Quickflix 
In typical Boal and Bigelow fashion, they stole the idea from an unnamed screenwriter in L.A., ran with idea and used Boal’s cunning journalistic talents and Bigelow’s seductive fame to extract what they themselves described as “classified information obtained during their research”. The film was NOT years in the making. Another lie. They pilfered the “Black Ops hunt for bin Laden” idea, then went to work “quickly penning the script” as Boal said himself this past winter, in January of 2011. That’s not a script “decades in the making.” The real issue is not political. It’s a Copyright infringement heist. Bigelow and Boal deserve no glory for that.