Action movie director Tony Scott has optioned a Vanity Fair article on the documentary maker Pat Dollard, according to a recent Hollywood Reporter article. When I first heard this, I almost snorted in disgust. Scott isn’t known for his subtleties. I’ve nothing against action directors, in fact I think Hollywood is in desperate need of a few good ones (Zack Snyder, are you the answer to my prayers?). But I’ve always found Scott over the top and downright irritating.

Then again, after looking into who Pat Dollard is, should I be surprised? Dollard started his career as an agent, helping Steven Soderbergh start his life as a director. Dollard was the typical agent, boozing, schmoozing, and talking the talk. But somewhere along the way he had a change of heart, and joined the Marines sent to Iraq, spending weeks in some of the most dangerous battle zones. Will the resulting film really be a gung-ho action pic about the man with the moving camera picking up a gun and taking action?

Dollard is a fierce conservative. And while I’m instantly wary of people who lean that way, I have to accept that such figures, and their beliefs, have a right to be portrayed in cinema, and often are not. At least not in any rounded, complex way. Instead we’re inundated with meagre pseudo-liberal crap that everyone baffingly adores. And then I went onto Dollard’s website. What I saw was a collection of xenophobic articles. Of course, the articles he quotes and collects are not inherent evidence of racism in themselves, but collecting them together on his site in that manner contributes to the pervasive sense of fear and suspicion that many have for the Muslim world. But this is neither the time nor place to spout my beliefs about religion, the war in Iraq, or racism. So, unless Tony Scott treads very carefully (i.e. that he stops being Tony Scott), the Pat Dollard Movie may be a dangerous act.