Hollywood planning movie based on Malaysian Airlines plane mystery?

Posted by Chandan Das on Mar 27, 2014 02:15 PM EDT

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Even as the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane continues in the southern Indian Ocean, producers in Hollywood are said to be planning a movie on the tragedy that remains a mystery to date.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that while there has been no official announcement, "there is plenty of activity going on behind the scene." It notes that Hollywood usually takes time to produce and release such movies, including Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" and Paul Greengrass' "United 93," which were released more than five years after the event.

The report quotes the executive producer of the airline suspense story "Red Eye" J. C. Spink as saying, "It's a shocking tragedy, but even so, I guarantee there are 50 different people working on 50 different projects that are neither inspired by it or based directly on it right now."

Spink is of the view that the mystery surrounding Flight MH370, which disappeared on the way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, is enough to prompt Hollywood studios to make a thriller based on it.

"Clearly something more happened on that flight than we'll ever know," he said. "And that's a great jumping-off point."

Mystery attracts Hollywood, says Alex Heineman, producer of the airline thriller "Non-Stop."

"I think people will wait to see how [the investigation] turns out." he said. "They say truth is stranger than fiction, and this story is so bizarre. No one knows what happened -- or maybe people do, and they're not saying what happened."

However, he also agrees that the facts involving the disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft are "off-limits" for many Hollywood producers.

"I wouldn't chase a story like this - a true-life disaster story - because it's sad, and I don't want to be exploiting that kind of situation."