“At about 10 o’clock at night on May 1, 2011 we realized we no longer had a project about the hunt for Osama bin Laden,” Bigelow said at a packed post-screening Q&A at the Pacific Design Center, “because he was no longer living.”

Bin Laden’s death sent Bigelow and her Hurt Locker collaborator, screenwriter and journalist Mark Boal, scrambling to incorporate the update into Zero Dark Thirty, a tense semi-fictionalization of the intelligence efforts, and subsequent nighttime raid, that led to the death of bin Laden. Folding actual events and real-life figures into a decade-spanning account, Boal’s script relives the dogged, desperate, and often brutal search for bin Laden through the eyes of a female agent named Maya (Jessica Chastain), a fictional composite based on real women who played key roles in the circuitous, years-long operations that sniffed out bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout.

Chastain, who was a lock for an Oscar nomination before Zero Dark Thirty even debuted, owns the screen as the driven workaholic agent whose tireless fixation on a needle-in-a-haystack lead ultimately proves vital to finding bin Laden.  She looks a little too great doing it, too — a pillow-lipped, flame-haired beauty who manages to look luminous even when other characters are helpfully commenting that she’s rundown and haggard. (Offscreen, as in her new GQ UK cover spread, Chastain still has to play the glamour game, as most actresses do in order to vie for awards gold.)

The men around Maya describe her as a “killer,” and though she struggles at first to stomach the sight of a detainee being waterboarded for intel, within a few years she’s adopted the torture tactics that made headlines out of Guantanamo. Boal's script goes heavy on the gender politics and too light on character development, portraying Maya as a woman so devoted to her mission that she has no time for silly things like friends, love, life balance.  She's a lone strong woman in a man’s world, an awards-season narrative that pundits will predictably tether to Bigelow as they did when The Hurt Locker made its Oscar run.

Still, the girl power moments are utterly satisfying; when the overlooked Maya makes her presence and contribution known in a roomful of male colleagues by barking an expletive at Tony Soprano himself (James Gandolfini as CIA head Leon Panetta), who can care that she has virtually no back story of her own?

The email, which links back to the website for OPSEC, a Republican-leaning group of former special operations and C.I.A. officers that has been likened to the Swift Boat veterans that swamped John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, is looking for donations of $25 or more to air its commercial during the debut of Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden on Nov. 4, just two days before the presidential election. OPSEC is not happy that major Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company is behind the film, which, according to the New York Times, has been recut to bolster the President's role in the historic military operation.

Seal Team Six director John Stockwell and other sources told the Times that the changes were not politically motivated but, rather, were meant to give the movie a more realistic feel.  Those sources added, however, that Weinstein suggested some of the changes that were made to the film and that Meghan O'Hara, a producer who has worked with liberal firebrand Michael Moore on his left-leaning films Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko was also involved in gathering research.

Weinstein, who's identified as a "Hollywood liberal,"  is targeted in the fund-raising email, which is reproduced below. (Except where indicated, the use of boldface is replicated from the email and the name of the recipient has been withheld.) The motto on the home page of OPSEC's website reads: "I Serve Quietly. Not Seeking Recognition or Accolades...."

The fund-raising email links back to the OPSEC website which indicates that the Bump in the Road ads "are live right now in Ohio and have impacted Virginia ....but our budget likely won't last to November 6th," adding:  "We have to count on you to keep these ads running."

The Weinstein Company and OPSEC had not responded to requests for comment at the time of this posting, but I'll update accordingly.

This is the email:

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Chastain is joined by Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton, and more in the tale of how a global network of operatives joined forces to bring bin Laden down. Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal's research for the film had come under scrutiny by right wing watchdogs, though that flap has died down in recent months. Expect buzz to start back up again, only of the gold statue kind.

Zero Dark Thirty hits theaters December 19.

Watch it on YouTube

Synopsis:

For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar(R) winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man.

[via iTunes]

Christian Bale Returns to David O. Russell FBI and Con Artists Film
David O. Russell took over the project that was at first titled American Bullshit from Ben Affleck. Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were attached to star, but then Jeremy Renner signed on to replace Bale and Amy Adams joined the cast. But now Bale is back and the project is untitled. It is based on a true story about an infamous con artist (Bale) and his partner/love interest (Adams) who are working with a federal agent (Cooper) to take on dirty politicians and mobsters, Vulture reports.

Bradley Cooper to Receive Hollywood Film Awards Honors
Cooper will be feted by the awards for his role in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. He will receive the "Hollywood Actor Award" at the 16th annual Hollywood Film Awards at its gala taking place October 22nd, THR reports.

CNN Launches Unit to Acquire Documentary Films for Theaters and Television
CNN Films will secure feature-length documentaries to air on CNN and CNN International as well as for theatrical distribution. The move is part of a wider strategy to acquire original non-fiction content to complement CNN's news programs. Girl Rising, a film which inspired a global action campaign to promote girls' education, will air in spring 2013, Deadline reports.

Specialty Box Office: Paperboy Strong in Debut; House I Live In, Wuthering Heights, The Oranges Fair
Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy lead the pack of specialty newcomers with a solid $110,033 at 11 locations and an average of $10,003. That gives the Oscar-nominated director a respectable first showing for his follow-up to his lauded 2009 film Precious, although it falls short of spectacular. Even so, it bested the weekend’s other new titles in limited release. Only Abramorama’s House I Live In came close with a $9,827 average in 2 theaters, Deadline reports.

The film, which stars Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong Scott Adkins, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Ehle and Chris Pratt will certainly be an anticipated Oscar-contender this fall.

Synopsis from ENTV: The official teaser trailer for Katherine Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty. This is Bigelow's follow up to The Hurt Locker with writer Mark Boal. The film chronicles the US search and killing of Al Queda leader Osama Bin Laden. The Navy SEAL Team 6 tracks down wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Watch the trailer on YouTube.

The story follows Dusty, a yoga instructor from Colorado, who is on a desperate rescue mission to save her crazy brother Derek, a conspiracy theorist who is convinced Osama Bin Laden is still alive, despite having been buried at sea. In Afghanistan, Dusty falls in with a team of NATO Special Forces on a secret assignment. Turns out Derek is not so crazy after all, and that Osama has returned from his watery grave and is making an army of zombie terrorists. When the group crashes headlong into the growing zombie apocalypse, Dusty and the troops must find and destroy the root of the zombie insurgency before it infests the rest of the world.

More info on Osombie and its Kickstarter campaign here.

All in all, the Osama hook should give Osombie a bit more exposure than your average B-movie independent genre flick, but still expect it to fare best on DVD. Even so, it raises an interesting question: With other dramatic retellings of bin Laden's death in the works, are we ready to see the al-Quada leader come back to life in the movies -- at least, with comedy paving the way first?

[via MSNBC]

As of January 12, the DoD and the CIA "have failed to produce any records responsive to plaintiff's requests or demonstrate that responsive records are exempt from production," the suit says. "Nor have they indicated whether or when they will produce any responsive records."

In addition to information regarding the alleged meetings and communications, Judicial Watch is also seeking compensation for attorneys' fees and other legal costs related to the lawsuit.

The filing of the suit comes less than two weeks after Congressman Peter King, senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said the Office of the Inspector General at Defense was launching an investigation over the alleged meetings.

Washington! Getting Things Done Since Never.™ Anyway, Bigelow and Boal have specifically responded to King's pseudo-pissed hotdogging before, and this is all just another compulsion of the "small-government" elite to control everything, up to and including the Stop Online Privacy Act, in the name of national security and jobs jobs jobs that 10 percent of you don't even have and won't even have as long as the Dept. of Defense is shuffling FOIA requests about Kathryn Bigelow movies in with all that private contracting it still has yet to do abroad (think of the hundreds of personnel who'll be hired to install much-needed porta-potties in hot spots in and around Afghanistan) and the House of Representatives has some jowly wraith from Long Island stomping all over D.C. inveighing against God only knows what irrelevant bullshit while the culture at large seethes with resentment and while today's sprawling Web blackouts remind you how helpless you are to see, create and share anything without some mega-institution first authorizing it, whether it's Wikipedia or the CIA or Congress or some bozo-cabal calling itself "Judicial Watch" pinning its legitimacy to whether or not a Defense Dept. intern bothers to make a few photocopies before his shift ends and he runs off to get high and play video games or whatever it is kids do these days when they're not shamelessly conscripted into war or debt or The Devil Inside or the next new hopelessness of 21st-century American life. Seriously -- just feel safer already! Someone's looking out for you! And by "someone," I mean "not a fucking soul."

[TheWrap]

Also in this Thursday edition of The Broadsheet: Mark Wahlberg could pick up Two Guns… there’s actually a congressman who thinks Kathryn Bigelow got classified information for her Osama bin Laden film… Morgan Freeman, outcast magician… and more ahead.

· Since before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was even released, it was rumored that David Yates might direct the Warner Bros. big screen adaptation of The Stand. And he still might — but with the help of an old friend. HitFix’s Drew McWeeny reports that Yates and Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves are “finalizing deals” to adapt Stephen King’s biggest novel over the course of three films. Obviously, nothing is official — and it might not even happen; Variety reporter Jeff Sneider tweeted that people should not “go doing cartwheels” about the news just yet — but don’t act shocked when some big press release about Yates, Kloves and The Stand goes out in the coming weeks. [HitFix]

· Because Mark Wahlberg doesn’t have enough things on his plate, he’s in negotiations with Universal to star in the graphic novel adaptation Two Guns. The Departed-like film — it’s about a DEA agent and undercover naval intelligence officer who “investigate each other while each steals the mobs money” — was originally eyed for director David O. Russell and star Vince Vaughn, but they both appear out now; Blake Masters wrote the script. [Deadline]

· Republican New York congressman and House Committee on Homeland Security chairman Peter King has it in his head that the Obama administration released classified information to Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal and Sony Pictures to help with their upcoming and untitled Osama bin Laden film. Bigelow and Boal released a statement about their film that didn’t actually address King’s complaints, but White House press secretary Jay Carney did offer one retort: “I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie.” [Deadline]

· Morgan Freeman is in talks to join Jesse Eisenberg, Melanie Laurent and the also in-talks Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Seyfried in Now You See Me. The Louis Leterrier-directed film is about magicans who rob banks, and the FBI agent tasked to stopping them. Freeman would play “Thaddeus, an ex-magician who has made a career out of exposing other magicians’ illusions, making him a despised figure within the magic community.” GOB would be very displeased. [Variety]

· From the world of science, it turns out that spoilers are actually good for you. Bruce Willis was dead the entire time in The Sixth Sense. Feel better? [Science Daily]

· Dermot Mulroney has been added to the cast of Stoker. The Shadow of a Doubt-y film from Wentworth Miller and director Chan-wook Park follows a young girl (Mia Wasikowska) who must contend with her evil uncle (Matthew Goode) after the death of her father (Mulroney). (Spoilers make you feel good, remember?) Nicole Kidman and Jacki Weaver (Team Jacki!) also star. [THR]

· When Dwayne Johnson isn’t tweeting about how he knew Osama bin Laden was dead before anyone else, he’s showing off pictures of himself, his ridiculously jacked torso and a giant machine gun on the set of G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation. Go, Joe! Or something. Click through for the muscle, then stick around for more Buzz Break.

[via @TheRock]

· Didn’t get enough of that Anne Hathaway-as-Selina Kyle picture from The Dark Knight Rises? Check out these pictures of Hathaway — or her stunt double — on the Pittsburgh set of the Christopher Nolan-directed film. Maybe Nolan and Christian Bale shouldn’t have made such a big deal about shooting in Pittsburgh? Just sayin’. [Slashfilm]

· Out of the box casting time! Kevin James will co-star opposite Ben Chaplin and Emily Watson in Little Boy, an indie family drama. No talking gorillas here. [Variety]

· That not happening Sex and the City prequel actually may be a happening HBO-produced prequel series. Though it might not air on HBO. [LAT/Show Tracker]

· There are two new episodes of Bestie X Bestie, featuring former SNL and world-class tweeter Jenny Slate, that you should really watch. [Vimeo]