Colombian Hostage Drama Becomes Big-Screen Drama

Posted on Jul 8, 2008

AP photo / William Fernando Martinez

The commander of Colombia’s Army, Gen. Mario Montoya, right, embraces former hostage Ingrid Betancourt as Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos stands behind after Betancourt’s arrival to a military base in Bogota after being rescued from six years of captivity, Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

Well, that didn’t take long: Just a week after former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages were rescued from their FARC captors by Colombian forces, plans are in the works to make a movie version of the story, with Simon Brand on board to direct the drama.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Colombian filmmaker Simon Brand, whose credits include “Unknown” and Colombia’s highest-grossing movie “Paradise Travel,” is working with the producers to develop and direct the project, which has no writer on board yet. The producers are also looking to meet with financiers and studios in the coming weeks.

Betancourt, a former presidential candidate of Colombian and French descent, along with three Americans as well as Colombian police and soldiers, were held captive—some since 2002—by rebels form the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC. Colombian forces took acting lessons and spent months planting themselves among the rebels before culminating in a mission that saw the rebels tricked into thinking the captives were being transferred to another camp.

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