Last week’s news that No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio) will be published on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 came as a surprise to many, including the Pentagon.

Soon after it was revealed that the pseudonymous author “Mark Owen” is actually the 36-year-old, recently retired Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, he was threatened with prosecution by Adm. Bill McRaven if he reveals classified secrets and al Qaeda posted his photo on their site, with the caption, “the dog who murdered the martyr Sheikh Osama bin Laden.”

Meanwhile, Bissonnette has been in meetings with Steven Spielberg, among others, about  a film adaptation, according to the New York Post. The author is scheduled for a media blitz the week the book is published that includes 60 Minutes and the Today Show (it hasn’t been announced whether he will still appear in disguise as originally planned) and publisher Penguin/Dutton has increased the print run from 300,000 to 400,000. Due to the heavy embargo, many libraries have not yet ordered the book.

Other Navy SEAL movies are in the works. Bradley Cooper is set to produce and possibly star in a film based on the best selling  American Sniper a memoir by former SEAL Chris Kyle (HarperCollins/Morrow). Two films about the hunt for bin Laden will hit theaters this fall. Ironically, Code Name Geronimo is likely to arrive in theaters before Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, which was moved from an earlier date to Dec. 19, after criticism that it would bring renewed attention to Obama’s authorization of the risky raid and possibly affect the election. The producers have not revealed the sources for the movie.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2012 at 8:34 am and is filed under 2012 -- Fall, Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.