The Playlist

Declassified Documents Reveal How The CIA Influenced The Script & Story Of 'Zero Dark Thirty'

By Charlie Schmidlin
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May 7, 2013 9:39 AM
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4 Comments

News

Just when Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal might have thought it appropriate to move on from “Zero Dark Thirty” to whatever tense nail-biter comes next, the acclaimed actioner-drama's much-publicized production has resurfaced yet again - this time going back to the film's beginnings, as Boal was in conversation with the CIA over crucial details.

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Michael Moore Defends 'Zero Dark Thirty' As Kathryn Bigelow Makes The Cover Of Time Magazine

By Ken Guidry
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January 25, 2013 12:07 PM
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4 Comments

News

It has been just over a month since “Zero Dark Thirty” first appeared in theaters, and two weeks since its nationwide release, and the debate regarding the film’s depiction of torture continues to rage on. This, of course, means that everyone wants to put their two cents in regarding the controversy, ranging from the director herself to a variety of politicians. Now, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has decided to share his thoughts regarding the film.

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Watch: Kathryn Bigelow Defends 'Zero Dark Thirty' Torture Scenes On 'The Colbert Report' Plus Featurette On The Compound

By Charlie Schmidlin
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January 24, 2013 12:40 PM
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5 Comments

News

If the prolonged controversy surrounding Kathryn Bigelow's depiction of torture in “Zero Dark Thirty” has for most neared an apex of tolerance, it's still staggering to think about the stress levels likely coursing through the director as she debates it. It must have been a welcome interlude then when during her long press tour she recently sat down for an entertaining and insightful chat with Stephen Colbert to discuss the film's heated debate.

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Kathryn Bigelow Issues Statement On Torture In 'Zero Dark Thirty,' Talks Topic With David Letterman, Peter Travers & Much More

By Charlie Schmidlin
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January 17, 2013 11:03 AM
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2 Comments

News

Now that “Zero Dark Thirty” has gone into wide release, moviegoers finally have the opportunity to understand the film’s awards season buzz, the subsequent debates stemming from its measured depiction of U.S.-led torture, and lastly, just how egregiously wrong-headed those arguments actually are. Still, Kathryn Bigelow kept a straight face up until Oscar nominations were announced, but now she’s taken to the press circuit to make her opinions on the issue as overt as they’ve ever been.

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Review: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Is A Dense & Intense National Security Procedural

By Rodrigo Perez
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January 10, 2013 4:30 PM
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50 Comments

Reviews

Spanning two presidential administrations and approximately eight years, “Zero Dark Thirty” is as dispassionate, clinical and grindingly thorough as an obsessed tactical procedural can get. But at two and a half hours, the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is also as gripping and riveting as any film in this fact-finding methodology-based genre.

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Jason Clarke Talks 'Zero Dark Thirty,' Terrence Malick & Where He Was When He Heard Osama Bin Laden Was Dead

By Drew Taylor
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January 8, 2013 4:52 PM
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2 Comments

Interviews

This weekend, the 2012 movie that has generated as much critical praise as controversy, will finally be unleashed on the masses in wide release – Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty." A white-knuckle account of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, it's a surprisingly human tale, focusing on a cluster of dedicated operatives (led by Jessica Chastain's note-perfect portrayal of CIA agent Maya) who brought down the architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One of those operatives is played by Jason Clarke, as man as skilled at the art of "advanced interrogation techniques" (aka the torture scenes that have gotten people so riled up) as he is in greasing the wheels of an informant by buying him an expensive sports car in the middle of the night.

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Directors Guild Award Nominations Include Kathryn Bigelow, Steven Spielberg & Tom Hooper But Not Quentin Tarantino

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 8, 2013 1:26 PM
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11 Comments

News

Last year, Steven Spielberg may have missed out for "War Horse," but this year his colleagues are making sure he's honored for his much better-received "Lincoln." The Director's Guild Award nominations have arrived this afternoon, two days before the Academy unveils their Oscar nominations, and generally speaking, they tend to be a good indicator of who will be honored next month at the Dolby Theater.

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Kathryn Bigelow Talks "Torture" Controversy, Her First "Failed" 'Hunt For Osama Bin Laden' Film & More About 'Zero Dark Thirty'

By Rodrigo Perez
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December 27, 2012 4:31 PM
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7 Comments

Features

Here's the rundown. Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," her follow-up to the Oscar-winning Best Picture "The Hurt Locker" depicts an eight year hunt for Osama Bin Landen (our review calls it "one of the best of the year," and "an intense and dense" national security procedural). Bigelow and her screenwriter Mark Boal, also an investigative journalist, received flak earlier this year and were the target of controversy when accusations flew that the CIA gave them special access to classified documents regarding the Bin Laden hunt. Boal said earlier this year that the picture was not vetted by the CIA and that seems to be the case, as Acting CIA Director Michael Morell recently criticized the film in a letter to his employees stating the film takes too many liberties with the truth while still claiming to be historically accurate. Marketing is one thing, but as we've said ourselves: the movie is not a documentary.

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Where's 'Triple Frontier' At? Kathryn Bigelow Didn't Want Will Smith To Star; Paramount Balked At $80 Million Budget

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 20, 2012 10:36 AM
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5 Comments

News

Back when "Zero Dark Thirty" was known as simply a "black ops thriller," Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal had been brewing another movie, something called "Triple Frontier" (which in early stages was also known as "Sleeping Dogs"). It was an equally big project, described as a multilingual, "Traffic"-esque tale set in the notorious, crime-ridden border region between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay known as "la triple frontera." At one point, it was even being positioned to shoot in March 2011, but of course that didn't happen. So what is going on with the movie?

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Bret Easton Ellis Profusely Apologizes to Kathryn Bigelow Over Sexist “Zero Dark Thirty” Tweet

By Charlie Schmidlin
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December 18, 2012 9:00 AM
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14 Comments

News

After trying unsuccessfully to garner the “Fifty Shades Of Grey” screenwriting gig through sheer social media chutzpah alone, novelist Bret Easton Ellis has now solemnly returned to another controversy seeded at the start of the month, one that saw him place “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow square in his sights.

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