Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins to make September 11 film

By DAVID LISTER

Hollywood's most overtly political couple, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, are to make a film about the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Robbins is to write and direct 'All The Heroes Are Dead', while Sarandon is expected to take a lead role. The film is based on the real-life love story of a New York couple, which was recounted in an article for the New Yorker magazine in the weeks following the atttacks.

The movie industry bible, Variety, reported yesterday that negotiations with a number of Hollywood studios were ongoing, but that Sarandon's arthouse appeal coupled with Robbins' directorial track record and a moving human-interest story mean a production deal should be signed shortly.

Sarandon will play Susan Greer, a woman whose partner, Rick Rescoria, dies trying to save colleagues in the World Trade Center attack.

Robbins and Sarandon are regarded as Hollywood's premier 'arthouse' couple, whose films together are generally out of the mainstream, even if they appear in more populist movies separately.

A movie about the World Trade Center attacks might not immediately seem their sort of project; but the couple are understood to have been struck by the individual tale of heroism set against the background not just of the terrorist attack but of the love story between Greer and Rescoria.

Rick Rescoria was the head of security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and died while evacuating employees in a stairwell as the building collapsed.

Two other films based around September 11 are also being planned, although no casting details have yet emerged. One of these will also be based on a New Yorker article about the disaster, though not the article that Robbins and Sarandon will be using as the basis for their project.

- INDEPENDENT