'SO, YOU EVER KILL ANYBODY?'

摘要

Very few screenwriters get kidnapped. In Hollywood, where most of them live and work, they're considered low-value targets. But moments after arriving in Beirut in 2002, Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning writer of Traffic, found himself in what seemed to be a hostage situation. His cell phone rang, and the voice on the other end said, "I've got something really special you can do, but you have to do it right now and I can't tell you what it is." Gaghan walked out of the airport and got into a car with a stranger. As they drove, he was stripped of his backpack, pens and belt, and was blindfolded, hooded and thrown into the back of another car. "There was a bad 10 minutes in there where I'm thinking, 'You are really an idiot,'" he says. " 'You're like Mr. Magoo. You just wander over to the Middle East and, literally, within the first 20 minutes ;et kidnapped and beheaded. World record!'"