The upcoming film “Iraqi Sniper,” will place the “American Sniper” in its crosshairs, looking to tell the “other side of the story” of the notorious Clint Eastwood 2014 film that depicted a U.S. military marksmen taking out Iraqi insurgents, Hollywood Reporter reported this week.
The protagonist of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” will be none other than “Mustafa” the mysterious Iraqi sniper who was the antagonist of Eastwood’s pro-war box-office hit.
“He’s the hero in my film,” the director said of Mustafa.
“Iraqi Sniper,” which is still a working title, is being directed by award-winning Egyptian filmmaker Amr Salama, and produced by Oscar nominated Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad.
Amr Salama was inspired with the idea for the film after seeing American Sniper. “I hated it. That was my inspiration – I hated it so much that I wanted to work on a different version of that story,” he said.
To further draw the connection between the films for viewers, the same actor, Sammy Sheik, who played the Iraqi sniper in Eastwood’s film, has said he will be returning to play “Mustafa,” this time as the central, protagonistic role in Salama’s film.
“I’m trying to make an anti-war film… American Sniper was pro-war,” Salama said.
Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” was a box-office hit in the United States when it was released, grossing US$350 million.
However it also recieved widespread condemnation for being what many saw as a high-budget propaganda flick, simply meant to cast a positive, “patriotic” light for U.S. citizens on the deeply destructive, deadly, and unpopular military invasion of Iraq on the part of the U.S. military.