The award-winning director Amr Salama, confirmed the script for Iraqi Sniper which aims to tell an alternative portrayal of Eastwood’s Arab villain, Mustafa.
"He's the hero in my film," Salama said of Mustafa. "I hated (the film). That was my inspiration – I hated it so much that I wanted to work on a different version of the story."
“Whereas American Sniper was pro-war,” says the director, “I’m trying to make an anti-war film.”
“This story merits to be told even if American Sniper hadn’t come out,” Hefzy says.
“He’s a very interesting character, a complex character. Amr did a lot of research and we’re trying to get his evolution right.”
The director is currently working on the script with famed Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy and Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad and his wife Amira Diab, he revealed.
Sammy Sheik, who played Mustafa in the original American Sniper, will play the same character, Salama confirmed, only this time, he will be the hero.
Mustafa’s character was partially based on a real-life sniper known only as Juba, whose skills were featured in several videos that emerged online between 2005 and 2007.
In one video, he claimed to have killed 143 US soldiers.