EXCLUSIVE: First Look Media, one of the financiers behind last year’s Best Picture winner Spotlight, is becoming the catalyst for another fascinating fact-based film. I’m told the company is going to finance We Do Not Forget, a drama to star Daniel Radcliffe and Zachary Quinto. Scripted by Stranger Than Fiction scribe Zach Helm to direct, the film is a fictionalized account of a real battle between the “hacktivist” organization Anonymous and the Mexican drug cartel known as Los Zetas. Antoine Fuqua is producing the picture through his Fuqua Films banner.
Helm has turned a real confrontation into a fictionalized drama that is on track to shoot before year’s end. In reports about the real skirmish, Anonymous reportedly uncovered 25,000 Mexican government emails that had the names of Zeta members and their business information. The organization threatened to make the documents public after one of its members was kidnapped by the cartel. The decision to take on the powerful cartel riled the members of Anonymous, internally, which is understandable given the level of violence attributed to the group. The cartel hired security experts to track down the hackers, promising death to any whose identity was uncovered. The hacking effort, which was called #OpCartel, was abandoned and some reports wondered how serious it all got. But it seems a strong jumping-off point for a film. CAA packaged it, arranged financing and will sell the picture. It should be a package that comes up in Toronto.
“We’re so excited to work with Zach on this,” said Michael Bloom, President of First Look Media. “It’s a subject that we’re close to, handled in a way that’s powerful and complex. And to be in the hands of producers Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick and this talented cast, we’re sure we’re going to get a thrilling film.”
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