TERRORISM looks set to provide the inspiration for several of 2006’s big early releases.

Steven Spielberg’s Munich is already creating controversy for the way in which it depicts the aftermath of the assassination of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

While several films will tackle the events surrounding September 11, 2001, and its aftermath.

The first of these looks set to be Flight 93, the story of 9/11 as relayed via a meticulous re-enactment of events surrounding United Airlines 93, the last of the four aircraft hijacked on the morning of September 11th 2001.

The film was made in the belief that by examining this single event something much larger can be found – the shape of our world today.

Made with the full support of the families of those on board, the film tracks in real time the dramatic story of what happened inside the aircraft as well as on the ground, as passengers, crew, civilian air traffic controllers and military command centres struggle to make sense of an unimagined and unimaginable crisis.

British director Paul Greengrass has explored the subject of terrorism many times in his filmmaking career, most recently in Bloody Sunday (2002), a documentary recreation of a momentous 1972 Civil Rights march in Northern Ireland.

Bloody Sunday was hailed by critics as a devastating portrayal of the moral vacuum caused by terrorism and won prizes around the world including the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and The Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

In 2004, he also directed the box office smash The Bourne Supremacy for Universal Pictures.

Commenting on Flight 93, he said: “9/11 was unique – the most important event of our lifetime, casting a shadow over all our futures.

“It’s vital for cinema to begin the task of exploring what it meant, and what it continues to mean today.

“Hopefully Flight 93 will be a worthy contribution to that process.”

Flight 93 has been filming with an ensemble cast including JJ Johnson and Polly Adams at Pinewood Studios and on location in the UK and US since November 14.

The film is written and directed by Paul Greengrass and produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Lloyd Levin.

It will be released by Universal Pictures in the US on April 28, 2006 and worldwide thereafter.

United 93 receives Tribeca world premiere

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