NEW YORK: A Mighty Heart, the movie based on the story of Daniel Pearl, starring Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman -- and for the desi connection - Irrfan Khan, opens in theaters across North America on June 22.
In the five years since Daniel Pearl's death, nearly 230 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. On January 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl's world changed forever. Her husband Daniel, the South Asia Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid.
The story drew them to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner.
He never returned. In the face of death, Danny's spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his eventual murderer in her memoir A Mighty Heart:
The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. She wrote the book to introduce Adam to the father he would never meet.
Transcending religion, race and nationality, Mariane's courageous desire to rise above the bitterness and hatred that continues to plague this post 9/11 world, serves as the purest expression of the joy of life she and Danny shared.
Starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, and Dan Futterman, Oscar-nominated for his Capote screenplay, as Daniel Pearl, A Mighty Heart is directed by Michael Winterbottom (The Road To Guantanamo, Tristram Shandy) and produced by Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner for Plan B Entertainment (Year Of The Dog, The Departed) and Andrew Eaton for Revolution Films (The Road To Guantanamo). The movie also stars Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out), Archie Panjabi (Bend it Like Beckham), Will Patton (Remember The Titans), Pakistani television star Adnan Siddiqui (Amer Bail), and Obie Award winner Gary Wilmes (Red Light Winter).