Al Qaeda attack Arsenal in C4 film
By Luke Leitch Arts Reporter, Evening Standard
24 June 2005
An Al Qaeda attack in which more than 1,000 Arsenal and Chelsea
fans are killed is to feature in a new film backed by Channel
4.
Incendiary - described as a satire - tells the story of a woman
whose son and husband die when 11 suicide bombers target Arsenal's
new £357 million Emirates Stadium.
It is based on a novel by first-time author Chris Cleave, in which
rival fans fight and lynch each other after the attack. It later
emerges that the Government and police allowed the attack to go
ahead, despite a two-hour warning, to protect the identity of a
mole within the terrorist cell.
The book, which goes on sale next month, is described by publisher
Chatto & Windus as "a devastating satire of a Britain giving
itself up to fear and self-interest".
Film Four bought the film rights with Archer Street Films, which
made Girl With A Pearl Earring. It has hired Sharon Maguire (Hilary
and Jackie, Bridget Jones' Diary) as director.
Arsenal, it is understood, were not consulted about the novel or
the film, which includes as characters Thierry Henry, Robert Pires,
Gael Clichy, and Robin Van Persie.
Cleave writes of his protagonist - a self-confessed "chav" -
watching the match on TV while having sex with a reporter when al
Qaeda strikes.
Her policeman husband and son are at the match. When Van Persie
hits a goal-bound shot, the novel says, "you could see the ball
curling towards the goal tighter and tighter and then the whole
East Stand burst in flames". Cleave adds: "All those fans that had
been standing up to scream for the goal. Well. They were just
gone."
After the blasts in the east stand of the stadium, 200 are killed
instantly, 500 lose their lives in the crush to get out and 300 die
from their injuries.
Neither Film Four nor Arsenal would comment on the Incendiary
project. Chatto & Windus says it is "an impassioned response to
the atrocities of the war in Iraq and the Madrid
bombing".