Hollywood film to revolve around Bangladeshi Rais Bhuiyan

An upcoming big screen project centred on the aftermath of the infamous 9/11 attacks in the USA is set to follow Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a US immigrant and Bangladesh Air Force veteran who narrowly survived a killing spree that took the lives of two other immigrants.

Amy Adams is in talks to star in the upcoming Annapurna Pictures drama “The True American”, Variety reports. “Jackie” helmer Pablo Larrain is on board to direct, and Mark Ruffalo and Kumail Nanjiani are also in talks to co-star with Adams. Nanjiani, a Pakistani-born actor, is most likely to play Bhuiyan.

Based on the nonfiction book “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas” by Anand Giridharadas, the story is set in Texas in the days following the 9/11 attacks. It follows Rais Bhuiyan, who narrowly survived a killing spree that took the lives of two other immigrants. Employed at a Dallas-area convenience store as he established himself in America, Bhuiyan was shot point blank by self-proclaimed “Arab slayer” Mark Stroman. He survived the attack, and then Bhuiyan appealed to a Texas court to have his attacker spared from execution, despite losing all his money and going into debt affording his own treatment to restore his vision.

Stroman was executed on July 20, 2011, after earlier that day Bhuiyan's lawyers had lost a final appeal in federal court to stay Stroman's execution. However, Bhuiyan and Stroman reconciled hours before the execution, when the two spoke on the phone for the first time.

In 2016, Israeli filmmaker Ilan Ziv made a feature-length documentary on the incident and its aftermath, titled “An Eye For An Eye”.

Rais Bhuiyan went on to start a movement called World Without Hate against hate crimes, and worked with Amnesty International.

Insiders close to the film say a deal has not yet closed, and scheduling is still being worked out.

Annapurna Pictures has been developing the film for some time, and at one point in 2015, Kathryn Bigelow was on board to direct and Tom Hardy was attached to star. After Bigelow left to direct “Detroit”, the project was in flux until Larrain's attachment last April.