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FIRST LOOK

First Look: Ridley Scott's Body of Lies

by Alex Billington
December 10, 2007

You probably won't hear about this again until a few months before it arrives in theaters sometime next year. Body of Lies is Ridley Scott's (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster) next movie, based off of a novel of the same name by David Ignatius and with a screenplay written by William Monahan, who won the Oscar last year for The Departed's script. Body of Lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Carice van Houten. The film is about a former journalist injured in the Iraq war that is hired by the CIA to track down an Al Qaeda leader in Jordan.

Warner Brothers has released this first look photo of Leonardo DiCaprio as CIA agent Roger Ferris.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies

From Amazon.com: Subtly framing a highly elaborate plot, Ignatius tells the story of idealistic CIA agent Roger Ferris, newly stationed in Jordan after being wounded in Iraq. After a failed initiative to flush out a terrorist mastermind known as Suleiman, Ferris, who's dedicated to forestalling further al-Qaeda attacks, develops an intricate scheme modeled after a British plan used successfully against the Nazis. Ferris's plot to turn the terrorists against each other by sowing seeds of suspicion that their leaders are collaborating with the Americans puts his personal life in turmoil and threatens his professional relationship with the head of Jordanian intelligence. Russell Crowe also stars as Ed Hoffman, Ferris' manipulative boss.

I've got a feeling this isn't going to be nearly as big of a hit as American Gangster from this year. Although Ridley Scott is a great director and despite a flew blips in his record, usually delivers, I think America is tired of movies having anything to do with the Middle East. Look at Rendition, that was a great film, but it performed horribly at the box office, and that's one of many recent movies related to the Middle East that are performing poorly. Either way, I'm keeping an eye on this and will be looking forward to the first trailer. Body of Lies doesn't have a release date set, but will arrive sometime in late 2008.

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Keith

alex, the line just above the photo. at...of.
Luke

Personally, I think Body of Lies will do fine, providing the reviews are good. The main reason all the Middle East related movies have not done well is two-fold: 1) none of them has received anything close to a rave (which films like these need to succeed) and 2) virtually everyone of them has placed message ahead of story and characters rather than introducing the message through an engaging story. Plus, it seems to me that this will be marketed more as a spy thriller/Blood Diamond-style actioner than anything else. Responses to this project on IMDb and other boards are WAY more positive than those for this year's efforts. The phrase I've seen over and over has been: an Iraq-related movie that actually looks worthwhile.
Anne

Hi agree that this movie will probably do very well -unless we have Alex types blabbing negative things or reasons not to see it BEFORE they have even seen it. Doesn't seem too professional.
Keith

i hope anne is joking. please tell me that was a joke anne.
Dallas

I think it's simple. If the previews make it out that the US is behind some kind of evil, it will tank. Doesn't matter if the reviews are raves. Doesn't matter if they place message before story.
dave

what is an "enjeneux"???