A representative for Steven Spielberg has distanced the filmmaker from reports linking him to a movie adaptation of a new book about the hunt for terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden.
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden has been written by a former Navy Seal officer, using the pen name Mark Owen. The author was involved in the ambush and details the events leading up to the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader on 2 May, 2011 in Pakistan.
Spielberg was said to be keen to option the book for a Hollywood adaptation, but spokesman Marvin Levy has shot down the claims - and insists the director's DreamWorks production companies will have nothing to do with the tome either.
Levy tells The Hollywood Reporter, "Neither Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Studios or DreamWorks Television will be optioning Mark Owen's book, No Easy Day."
The book is due for release next month (Sep12), but it has already caused controversy among U.S. officials amid fears the author will expose highly sensitive security information.
If the project is picked up for the big screen, it won't be the only movie about the search for Bin Laden - Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty is scheduled to hit theatres in December (12), while a film about John Stockwell's Code Name: Geronimo book is also in the works.