That is the first thing the filmmakers want you to know about “Body of Lies.” It is a point everyone—actors, director, producers, writers—all stressed empathically.
“It’s a great spy movie,” says director Ridley Scott. “It’s not a metaphor for anything.”
“This is a story that could have happened 10 years ago, it can happen now, it can happen 10 years from now,” added Donald De Line, the film’s producer.
The movie is based on the best-selling David Ignatius novel of the same title. Written by the Washington Post’s associate editor and columnist David Ignatius, who covered the CIA and Middle Eastern affairs for the Wall Street Journal, the book tells the story of Roger Ferris, a CIA field agent in the Middle East who is given the task to draw a terrorist mastermind out into the open. Even Ignatius is quick to put stress on the story’s lack of political agenda. “The book was not a political statement but a moral statement. It’s meant to make you think what torture is. It’s tough watching that scene in the movie, that’s a really painful scene that’s why it’s so powerful. It will make people think.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, who spent a lot of time reading the book to prepare for his role as Roger Ferris, said, “David Ignatius did a piece of entertainment but at the same time he did go to Jordan, he did go to the Middle East, he did talk to the ex-head of the Jordanian intelligence and he did take real stories and put them into this piece of entertainment.”
Award-winning screenwriter William Monahan, who won an Oscar for “The Departed,” adapted the espionage novel for the big screen.
Russell Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, a veteran CIA agent who gives Ferris orders from the comfort of his suburban home. The cast also includes Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar Isaac, Mark Strong and Simon McBurney.
“This is a fantastic cat-and-mouse espionage thriller that works on its own,” said DiCaprio.
