art and life and GR

[Doug Millison]

Good to know our leaders are seeking strategic and tactical advice from the
experts:


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011008/en/people-terrorists_1.html

Monday October 8 2:34 AM ET

Feds enlist Hollywood for spook theories

By Claude Brodesser

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - In a reversal of roles, government intelligence
specialists have been secretly soliciting terrorist scenarios from top
Hollywood filmmakers and writers.

An ad hoc working group convened at the University of Southern California
just last week at the behest of the U.S. Army. The goal was to brainstorm
about possible terrorist targets and schemes in America and to offer
solutions to those threats, in light of the aerial assaults on the Pentagon
and the World Trade Center.

Among those in the working group based at USC's Institute for Creative
Technology (ICT) are those with obvious connections to the terrorist pic
milieu, like ``Die Hard'' screenwriter Steven E. De Souza, TV writer David
Engelbach (``MacGyver'') and helmer Joseph Zito, who directed the features
``Delta Force One,'' ``Missing in Action'' and ``The Abduction.''

But the list also includes more mainstream suspense helmers like David
Fincher (``Fight Club''), Spike Jonze (``Being John Malkovich''), Randal
Kleiser (``Grease'') and Mary Lambert (``The In Crowd'') as well as feature
screenwriters Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson (``The Rocketeer'').

In August 1999, the Army awarded USC a five-year contract to create the
Institute for Creative Technologies with a mandate to enlist the resources
and talents of the entertainment industry, videogame-makers and computer
scientists to advance the state of ``immersive,'' or virtual reality,
training simulation for soldiers.

The entertainment industry brings a certain expertise in story and
character, as well as visual effects and production know-how to the table.

But one USC insider describes the ad hoc group as focused ``on the
short-term threats against the country'' and said that Army Brig. Gen.
Kenneth Bergquist had been heading the effort, which has met twice already
via teleconference with the Pentagon.

ICT creative director James Korris confirmed that the filmmaker meetings
were ongoing with the Army but declined to elaborate as to what specific
recommendations had been made to the Pentagon.

A call to the Army's office of public affairs seeking comment from Gen.
Bergquist was not returned as of late Sunday.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

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