Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOS ANGELES, Oct 17 (AFP) - "Spider-Man" star Kirsten Dunst is to play real-life US aid worker Marla Ruzicka, who was killed in a suicide-bomb attack in Baghdad in April, in a new Hollywood movie about the war in Iraq.
The movie, to be made for Paramount Pictures, will tell the remarkable story of Ruzicka, 28, who ran a non-governmental organisation that lobbied for financial compensation for civilian casualties of war, Daily Variety said.
The studio last year sealed a deal to acquire the rights to the life story of Ruzicka as well as to a book being written by Jennifer Abrahamson, who had planned to work with the on the book with the late aid worker.
Ruzicka, through her organisation Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, worked extensively in Iraq and in Afghanistan to document the exact number of civilians killed or injured by US forces.
She helped victims receive 10 million dollars in compensation from the US government. But she was killed when a suicide bomber targeted her car as she drove to Baghdad airport six months ago.
Marc Platt will produce the movie along with MTV Films.
Dunst, 23, had just finished filming her title role in Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola's new movie "Marie Antoinette" and is set to reprise her role as arachnoidally challenged Peter Parker's love interest in "Spider-Man 3."
Dinst played the girlfriend of "Spider-Man," played by Tobey Maguire, in the first two blockbuster movies in the series, which began in 2002.
ml/kd
AFPEntertainment-US-Iraq-film-people-Dunst
COPYRIGHT 2005 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
