HBO/BBC’s ‘Escape From Kabul Airport’: Creators Dan Reed & Jamie Roberts On Obtaining Footage From The Taliban For Feature Doc

It’s been 21 years since Sept. 11, 2001 and the terrorist attacks that launched a generation of troops into combat. New numbers from the US military show the staggering cost — 30,177 active duty and military veterans have died by suicide since then.That’s four times as many deaths as those killed in action during the same period, according to the latest Pentagon statistics.  In a recent survey by the Brookings Institution, 73% of veterans who fought in Afghanistan say they feel betrayed by the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how the war ended, leading to an uptick in calls to veteran suicide hotlines, according to veteran advocates.   Ret.

HBO debuted the trailer for Year One: A Political Odyssey, which examines President Joe Biden’s first year in office, with what the premium network calls a “rare glimpse into the inner working of the White House.”

Michaela Zee editor President Joe Biden’s turbulent first year in office is the focus of HBO’s forthcoming documentary, “Year One: A Political Odyssey.” In the trailer, which Variety can exclusively reveal, the documentary chronicles Biden’s first year as president, from his inauguration in 2021 to the State of the Union speech in March. Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker John Maggio, “Year One” explores the dynamics of the President’s inner circle, featuring archival news footage and insider interviews with secretary of state Antony Blinken, national security advisor Jake Sullivan, secretary of defense Lloyd Austin, CIA director William Burns and White House chief of staff Ron Klain, among other members of Biden’s cabinet.

Kaitlyn Dever is opening up about what it was like sharing the screen with a pair of iconic Hollywood besties, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, in Dever, 25, walked the red carpet at the premiere of her Shakespeare-inspired period comedy in Los Angeles on Thursday, and she spoke with ET's Will Marfuggi about what it was like the first time she met Clooney and Roberts for their roles in «I don't know, because I probably blacked out,» Dever joked. «Just [meeting] one of them is a lot, and the two of them is an overwhelming feeling.»«I admire them so much, and I will say they are everything you want them to be and more!» she marveled.

EXCLUSIVE: Poppy Liu has joined the Stampede Ventures movie Space Cadet which is currently filming with Emma Roberts (Holidate, Madame Web), Gabrielle Union (The Inspection, Bad Boys II), Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy, Love in the Villa), Columbian Pop Star Sebastián Yatra, David Foley (The Kids in the Hall, A Bug’s Life), and Desi Lydic (The Daily Show, Awkward). Liz. W. Garcia (The Lifeguard) is helming off her screenplay.

War veteran and triple amputee Andy Reid is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity to mark the 13th anniversary of getting injured in Afghanistan. The father-of-two from St Helens landed in Tanzania on Friday ahead of his mission to climb the 19,000ft peak in Tanzania, east Africa, with the aim of raising £10,000 for his Standing Tall Foundation.

George Clooney joked that he’s had enough of his friend Julia Roberts after the pair filmed “Ticket to Paradise” in Australia together.

A former Afghanistan vet who got sucked into crime is now going back to prison to help stop the cycle of ex-servicemen getting put behind bars. Darren Wright - who spent 11 years in prison for kidnapping as part of a gang - is targeting prisons in the next stage of his mission to help ex-soldiers train as HGV drivers.

Emma Roberts has some new co-stars!

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Houston, we have an ensemble. The plucky new comedy “Space Cadet,” from Stampede Ventures, has added more star power to a fleet led by the previously announced Emma Roberts. While character details are under wraps, Gabrielle Union will join Roberts in the film about a Florida party girl who turns out to be the only hope for the NASA space program, after a fluke puts her in training with other candidates. They may have better resumes, but not her smarts, heart and moxie. Liz. W. Garcia is directing form her own script, which we pray will feel like “Legally Blonde” in space. Tom Hopper (“The Umbrella Academy,” “Love in the Vila”) also comes aboard with Colombian pop star Sebastián Yatra (Spain’s “The Voice Kids”), sketch veteran David Foley (“The Kids in the Hall”) and Desi Lydic (“The Daily Show”).

George Clooney has shared the awkward story of when he had to kiss Julia Roberts in Ticket to Paradise in front of his wife Amal Clooney.  The Ocean’s Eleven co-stars shared the anecdote when promoting their new romantic comedy, in which Clooney and Roberts play divorced parents who try to stop their daughter’s wedding to a man she’s just met in Hawaii.  Clooney, 61 and Roberts, 54 have been friends for decades and reflected on working together again, especially in a rom-com, on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show this morning.

announced in 2020, “Kandahar” follows Tom Harris (Butler), an undercover CIA operative stationed in hostile territory in Afghanistan. When his mission is exposed, he and his Afghan translator (Navid Negahban) must fight their way past foreign spies and enemy forces on their way to an extraction point in Kandahar.“Kandahar” sees Butler reteam with his “Angel Has Fallen” and “Greenland” director Ric Roman Waugh.

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road Films has acquired North American rights to Gerard Butler action thriller Kandahar in a splashy eight-figure deal (low teens, we understand).

“Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France)  Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings from Basque’s “Research project on torture and ill-treatment in the Basque Country between 1960-2014.” Produced by Gastibeltza, Filmak, and Iriarte’s own Mirokutana.

The highly decorated soldier and Afghan war veteran was spotted among the crowds at Westminster Abbey after arriving in London via commercial flight rather than on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s VIP jet. 

the departure of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, chaos, fear and rampant violence has ruled the country, said Roberts, the director of “Escape From Kabul,” a new documentary chronicling the harrowing exodus premiering Wednesday on HBO Max.Armed raids are only the beginning of everyday terrors under Taliban rule now faced by Afghanistan citizens — including American allies unable to flee.“You’ll see it on the street, [the Taliban] have complete control and they’re hardliners. So people follow their rules and if they don’t, then you get beaten, or you get put in prison, or you don’t really know, because the rules aren’t really set yet … there were people getting shot at checkpoints,” he added.

Jamie Roberts’ terse, painfully precise documentary “Escape from Kabul” zooms right in on one episode—the massive last-minute airlift of Afghans and remaining American personnel from Kabul in August 2021—and never looks away, even when you might wish that it did. It’s a close-quarters kind of war film that moves in tight and leaves little room to breathe.